April has been a very busy and exciting month for the San Diego Zoo’s California condor project. Condor field managers and researchers have been using VHF and GPS telemetry to closely monitor the movement behaviors of the birds that have been reintroduced to Baja California, Mexico. Early spring is the condor breeding season, and we hope to observe breeding and nesting behaviors that will lead to successfully fledged chicks this year.
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It’s the end of the year and time for a new cohort of California condors to begin the mentoring process at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Four youngsters, fresh out of their nest boxes, have been selected to prepare for eventual release to the wilds of Baja California, Mexico. They are currently sharing a small enclosure with a mentor bird while the group adjusts to communal living, and shortly the group will be given access to a large flight pen where they will live for the next eight months. During this time, researchers from the Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division will be documenting their behavior as a continuation of a study we began a few years back. The goal of our research is to determine any social or temperamental factors that might help us to predict which individual birds are going to be successful when released to their native habitat.
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The Santa Barbara Zoo will become only the second United States zoo where the public can view the critically endangered California condor on exhibit. Santa Barbara will join the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park which has been exhibiting the California condor since the year 2000.

The animal carcasses that condors rely on for food are widely distributed across the landscape and are relatively unpredictable in their occurrence. Condors must regularly make long-distance foraging flights over large areas to maximize their chances to detect a suitable meal. Because of their large size condors can conserve energy by soaring for long periods without flapping their wings, similar to albatrosses. Condors require strong and consistent thermal winds to achieve the altitudes needed to make these long-distance soaring flights in search of food.
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For Immediate Release
May 28, 2008

Public invited to vote for the 2008 Zoo Father of the Year

PORTLAND, Ore. — It’s time for dads to take center stage, and the Oregon Zoo wants your help in choosing its Zoo Father of the Year for 2008. Atishwin the California condor, Kiku the colobus monkey, and Packy the Asian elephant are this year’s honored contenders. An online ballot featuring photos and short biographies of the zoo dads is posted on the Oregon Zoo’s Web site: www.oregonzoo.org/Voter/vote_form.cfm.

“We just finished a campaign for Zoo Mother of the Year and found it was a fun way to initiate a relationship between the public and the highlighted animals,” said Tony Vecchio, zoo director. “As the public reads about the nominees, all of which belong to species that are either threatened or endangered, we hope they’ll come to understand and care about the challenges facing these animals in the wild.”
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For Immediate Release
May 22, 2008

PORTLAND, Ore. — After a week of antibiotics and a blood transfusion from adult condor Nootka, Oregon Zoo staff is pleased to report that the newest zoo addition, an endangered California condor chick, has seemingly turned he corner and is getting stronger.
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In 1983, the California Condor Recovery Program was authorized to collect California condor eggs from wild nests in order to incubate and hatch them in a captive environment. Four eggs were collected from three different pairs in the mountains north of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. All four eggs were taken to the San Diego Zoo where they were set in incubators and eventually hatched. It was the first time ever that a California condor hatched in captivity! This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of that historic occasion.
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Despite the wildfires of October 2007, the condors at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park had a productive breeding season. We weren’t exactly sure how the fire, and the loss of one of our breeding facilities would affect the 2008 season. Several birds had to be moved to new pens at a time when they are normally settling in to begin courtship. Although they started much later than they normally do, all of the birds performed admirably!
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No matter what species you are, ingesting lead can be fatal. The Peregrine Fund began studying the dangers of lead-based ammunition after the endangered California condors became sick or died from lead poisoning. Their research showed that the large scavengers were poisoned after feeding on carcasses and gut piles from game killed by hunters.
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Continuation from More Nests in Southern California.

More nests translate to a greater challenge for the field crew to monitor the nests and the movements of each pair as they take turns foraging for food over the backcountry of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern and Los Angeles counties. Monitoring the nests closely can provide cues in behavior that might indicate there is a problem with the egg or chick.
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