November 27, 2011

As we rapidly approach the month of December, the Condor Crew thought it might be time for a quick update.

As you all know, we started releasing our cohort of captive-reared condors back in late September with the Condor Comeback event. By the end of October, we released the last of the four birds. They have all been doing quite well getting used to their newfound freedom to fly! We will continue to keep a special eye on these four through the winter, but should expect them all to make the trek across the Salinas Valley to the Big Sur coast by next spring.

Another exciting bit of news is that the nestling that has been growing up in a nest on a private ranch outside of the park has fledged! She seems to be taking short flights each day and we all look forward to the day that she shows up at the park. For those of you that like to keep track of these things, she is condor # 598.

Our last bit of news is rather sad. A week ago, a 2-year old condor that was managed by the Ventana Wildlife Society was found dead on a private ranch outside of the park. We do not know the cause of death at this time, but hope that more information can be determined from analyses at the San Diego Zoo.

August 20, 2011

After a busy nesting and trapping season in the spring, we have come away with one active condor nest in San Benito County. We are again having a public release event this fall on September 24, for more information please see the Events page. There are four juveniles to be released into the wild in 2011. Three are males from the Peregrine Fund's breeding facility in Boise, Idaho. The fourth is a female that already spent its first month of life at Pinnacles. Condor # 550 was the nestling from the 2010 condor nest inside the park. Unfortunately, she had to be evacuated due to high levels of lead in her blood. Her lead levels were returned to normal while at the L.A. Zoo and she will finally be able to take her first flight in the wild this autumn.

January 14, 2011

Greetings All,

Here's a quick update on what's been going on in the condor world at Pinnacles.

In the past three months, the 2010 cohort was released, the remaining two central California nests fledged, and we're starting to see breeding displays between condors. Finally, we are happy to report that there were no condor mortalities in central California in 2010!

Last October and November, we released four captive-bred juvenile condors. All four have integrated into the flock nicely and begun to take longer flights. They are regularly seen feeding alongside older condors at the bait station.

In central California, this year turned out to be a slow breeding year for condors. Only two nests proved successful, one in the Big Sur area and the other in Los Padres National Forest. The Los Padres pair included a Pinnacles-released female. Their nest was so remote that we did not actively monitor the nest. Instead we relied upon the information provided by the satellite tracking units on each adult to determine if their nestling was faring well. When the nestling was approximately 120 days old, we hiked out to the nest to affix a radio transmitter. In the following months, Ventana Wildlife Society flew a plane over the area to determine if the nestling was still alive. With every flight the information proved positive. Two weeks ago we started picking up signals for the young bird from Pinnacles. It looks like he has finally started flying high enough that we can detect him from the park. We all hope that this fledgling makes it through the winter and we look forward to the day that he shows up at Pinnacles!

As the adults who bred last year continue to care for their young, this year's breeding adults are starting to display to each other. Breeding displays typically begin in January and last into March or April. Soon we should see pairs returning to their territories or setting up new nest territories. From February to April, we will likely see eggs laid. This year we hope to see at least two nests involving Pinnacles-released condors. We'll keep everyone updated as the season progresses.

December 16, 2010

Our flight pen sits empty once again! Condor 525 was the last of the 2010 cohort to be released, just prior to Thanksgiving. All of the newly released condors have been seen regularly perching and flying within the park. We expect that as they become stronger and more capable of sustained flights, we will see them begin to explore further stretches of San Benito and Monterey Counties.

October 16, 2010

It has been many moons since we've sent out an update on the condors, so it's about time. In the past few months, we have welcomed four new condors to Pinnacles, performed health checks on nearly all of the free-flying birds, hosted an Argentine deputy superintendent from our sister-park, held a public event in celebration of releasing new condors, confirmed another nest outside of the park, and maintained daily tracking operations. All of that might explain why it has been five months since the last update!           

This year we have a cohort of four condors to be released for the first time into the wild. They all hatched in 2009 with two of them coming from the Oregon Zoo and two from World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. The oldest, 525, is a male, while the other three. 534, 543 and 547, are females. They came to the park in early June and have since lived in our captive flight pen. Just a few days ago we released the first two condors of this cohort: 534 and 543. Since being released they have mainly spent their time at the flight pen, but have started taking flights up to ten minutes in length. We won't release the last two condors until these first two make it to the feeding site and roost away from the pen. Hopefully that will be in a week or two.           

Every fall we collaborate with Ventana Wildlife Society in Big Sur to try to trap every condor in central California in order to perform health checks and swap out old transmitters. As of right now, we have processed 44 out of 52 condors. We are working closely with a variety of researchers to gain an understanding of condor health through a variety of blood tests. The one test we perform on every condor is to check their blood for lead. So far this season, nearly a third have required treatment for lead toxicosis.           

This fall we hosted Germán Jaacks, the deputy superintendent of our sister-park in Argentina, Parques Nacionales Quebrada del Condorito. During his two-week stay, he spoke with Rotary Club chapters, students at the dual-language academy in Hollister, took a whirlwind tour of Yosemite National Park and San Francisco, and spent fair bit of time checking out the inner workings of the various divisions within Pinnacles. Overall it sounds like he had a wonderful experience here and it was great to continue the face-to-face connection with our sister-park.           

During Germán's second day in the United States, he participated in the Pinnacles Condor Comeback 2010. We had hoped to release one of the juveniles from this year's cohort, but none cooperated in the end. This year we tried something new by gathering everyone outside the Visitor Center to watch two large televisions with a live video feed from the flight pen. Additionally, we invited several people to speak about our partnerships and the condor program in general. Overall, it seemed that that the visitors who made the journey to the park, despite the predicted 104ºF temperature, enjoyed themselves and appreciated the chance to ask in-depth questions.           

Now for an update on nesting condors this year. Everyone remembers the saga of the Resurrection Wall nest, but perhaps not everyone has heard how the young condor fared. The nestling that we evacuated was taken to the LA Zoo for treatment. That bird went through treatment without any trouble and continues to be held at the zoo. Perhaps this next spring or summer he will come back here to be released in the fall. Both of the parents were also treated last spring for lead poisoning and were re-released after their treatments. Hopefully they will choose to nest again this coming year.

Early this summer, we discovered another nesting pair of condors outside of Pinnacles. The female, 310, is a Pinnacles released condor and her mate, 219, was released at Big Sur. They chose to nest in an extremely remote location in the Ventana mountain range. Due to the difficulty in accessing the nest, we have done very little direct monitoring of this nest. We performed two nest entries, once when the condor was about 30 days old and once when he was closer to 120 days old. Both entries went well and on the latter entry we attached a radio transmitter. We hope to start picking up that transmitter from high points in the park when he begins to take flights.

May 26, 2010

Condor keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo report that the nestling evacuated from the Pinnacles nest earlier this month appears to be in better health - it has been eating well and gaining weight. It is difficult to predict the outcome of high lead exposures however, and staff will contine to closely monitor the bird's health, behavior, and development.

May 12, 2010

The condor nestling was evacuated from the park today after routine health checks revealed that the bird had very high levels of lead in its bloodstream. The young bird was transfered to Los Angeles Zoo where it will be cared for similarly to other condors reared in captivity.

March 19, 2010

Condor 514, the fledgling from last year's nest at the RS Bar Guest Ranch, made it to the park for the first time today. Departure from its natal area is an excellent sign that the bird in maturing and becoming an integral part of the region's condor flock.

March 8, 2010

Condors 317 and 318 have paired up this year and chose a nest site within the Monument. This is only the second nest in the program's six year history and is the first verified nest in the Monument in over 100 years. Condors persisted in the area in sufficient numbers to suggest nesting into the 1930's, but there are no good records indicating exactly where the nests of the early 20th century were.

Field biologists have been tracking the new pair for many weeks, and verified that an egg had been laid in mid-February, but we waited until now to announce the finding to ensure the new pair were exhibiting normal incubating patterns. So far both adult birds have taken to the new life stage as one would expect from an adult condor.

Condor eggs take around 57 days to hatch, so if all goes well, the park may have a nestling condor in early April.

More information can be found under the News section to the left, where the park's press release on the nest has been posted.

October 23, 2009

Condor 303 died at the Los Angeles Zoo today. Although this bird nested in San Benito County during 2009, she was originally released to the wild by Ventana Wildlife Society on the Big Sur Coast. Please see their website for more information.

October 8, 2009

Condor 303 was captured today after field biologists noted the bird was lethargic and was not using its legs properly. These symptoms indicate neurological problems typical of lead poisoning and the condor also had elevated levels of lead in its blood.

July 4, 2009

The last couple of weeks proved to be rather exciting as we finally trapped a condor we’d been trying to get for a few months, entered the condor nest near Pinnacles, participated in the Pinnacles Partnership picnic, and brought our newest cohort of juveniles to the flight pen.

For some time now, we have been trying to capture condor 313, since he is the male of the pair nesting near Pinnacles. We had observed him feeding on carcasses outside of the Monument on at least a couple of occasions and suspected he had fed on many more based on his GPS transmitter information. We finally caught him on June 22 and handled him the next day. We found that he had an elevated blood lead level, so he was given a chelation shot and taken to a vet for an x-ray. The radiograph fortunately came out clear. We gave him a series of 4 chelation injections over 3 days and released him on June 25. He immediately went back to tending his nestling.

Speaking of the nestling, we performed a 60-day nest check on June 24. The nestling was actually 68 days old by then and looked in good health. He weighed in over 11 pounds, a very healthy weight! His blood lead level came back relatively low at 18 ug/dL, but did indicate some exposure. However, we decided not to chelate the nestling. Overall, he is pretty feisty and seems to be maturing at a normal rate.

We witnessed more of the nestling’s behavior during the Pinnacles Partnership barbecue. It sounds like over 65 people were able to get out to see the condor nest and we heard many great reviews of the whole event. Four members of the condor crew staffed the nest viewing area for the event and really enjoyed speaking with so many enthusiastic people!

The most recent big news for the Condor Crew is the 2009 cohort of juveniles has arrived! Biologists picked them up in Boise and brought them to the Pinnacles flight pen on July 1. We have four juveniles to release this year, three are from Boise and the fourth is from the Oregon Zoo. We have an even split of males and females and all were raised by condors, as opposed to puppet-reared. Only one of the juveniles was raised by its parents, the other three were foster-reared. For those who wish to know, the studbook numbers (sex and rearing location) for the new arrivals are: 460 (female from Boise), 463 (male from Boise), 478 (male from Boise), and 481 (female from Oregon Zoo).

Thank you all for your support,

The Condor Crew

June 10, 2009

This just in! 303 and 313's nestling is a male! During the first nest entry when the nestling was 30 days old, we took a blood sample to determine its sex and we just got the result today.

Speaking of the nest, based on GPS data, both parents are regularly leaving the nest area to forage and returning presumably to feed the young bird. We're hoping to go out in the next few days to check it out with our own eyes before we perform the 60-day nest entry in the coming couple of weeks.

Other activities for the condor crew recently include trying to trap up all of the free-fliers for health checks. We initiated this in late April, then halted for a few weeks, but then restarted again in late May. So far, only 303 turned up with high lead levels. We have observed or suspected quite a few condors to be feeding outside of the park over the last 3-4 weeks, so we're delighted with the low lead levels we've been seeing so far.

Thanks to everyone who has assisted our crew in any way recently! Happy Summer!

-- The Condor Crew

February 26th, 2009

In the last couple of months, we released the final condors of the 2008 cohort, continued our intensive daily tracking efforts of the new juveniles, and started documenting breeding behavior in the oldest birds of the Pinnacles flock.

On January 13, Condor #421, the last juvenile of the 2008 cohort, found himself outside of the flight pen. He started with a couple of shaky flights followed by crash-landings, but he did discover the rest of the flock on his first day. Unfortunately, since then he’s proven to be a slow learner. It took over 2 weeks before he landed at the feeding site. We try to make sure newly released condors feed within 5 days of being released, so his extended time not feeding caused us to be very concerned. So concerned, in fact, we tried to catch him using both a hand net and net gun. We were unsuccessful, but on the third day of trying to catch him, he finally made it to the feeding site and fed! The other peculiar behavior with this particular condor is he refuses to roost off the ground. All of the other condors roost on branches in trees, but for some reason 421 chooses not to follow suit. Unfortunately, that puts him in significantly more danger. Roosting on the ground through the night means he’s much more easily approached by predators. At this point, we continue to keep an especially keen eye on Condor 421 and we hope that he starts roosting off the ground soon. If not we may bring him back into captivity for a few months and try to re-release him.

The same day Condor 421 was released, we also let go an adult female condor #112 who was transferred to Pinnacles from the US Fish and Wildlife Service release site in southern California. She had been interfering with breeding pairs in her home region, so she was transported to Pinnacles to see if she might breed with an adult male in this area or if she might change her ways. So far, she has stuck pretty close to Pinnacles with only a couple of flights outside of the park. She also tends to be by herself and occasionally is chased by some of the older females. It seems that she has not tried to establish herself in the flock yet. It should be interesting to see how her relationship with the other condors evolves and whether she ends up staying in central California.

Right now we are in the midst of condor breeding season. This is the first year that any of the Pinnacles condors have been old enough to breed and it looks like at least two of them are thinking about it. Interestingly, both have paired up with condors released by Ventana Wildlife Society in Big Sur. The first pair we noticed was Condor 313 (Pinnacles-released male) with Condor 303 (Big Sur-released female). They have been seen perching together on many occasions and are often seen at the feeding site together. They are also the only pair we have seen copulate successfully. The other potential pair we have seen is Condor 310 (Pinnacles-released female) and Condor 219 (Big Sur-released male). This pair we aren’t as certain about and only time will prove if they end up nesting. Fortunately, both 313 and 310 have GPS transceivers, so we can monitor where they go every hour of each day and hopefully get a good sense of what nest cliffs they choose.

That about sums up the recent activities of the Pinnacles condors and the tracking crew for the last couple of months. If you have any condor sightings or questions, please contact the Condor Recovery Crew at (831) 389-4486 ext. 276

January 7, 2009

We have successfully released 6 of the 7 new juveniles over the past 2 months. The 1^st two, #448 and 451, gave us a bit of trouble by flying over to a slide canyon west of the facility that lacked good perching trees and staying there for 3-4 days. We still don’t know why they went there, but eventually they caught a decent wind and made it over to the feeding site and into roosting trees near there. After those first two got their wings about them, we released another one. That condor, #431, appears to be a straight-A student, since on that first day made it from the facility to the feeding site and up into a roost tree! Soon after that, we released condors 418 and 438. Those two also did a wonderful job of following the other condors to the feeding site and into roost trees within the first couple of days of release. Most recently, Condor #422 was released last Sunday! She’s giving us a bit of a run, since on her first day out, she flew up and down Facility Ridge and is now spending time just outside the park. Hopefully she’ll return to the park soon and we also hope to get the last juvenile out this week or next.

In the midst of releasing these juveniles, we’ve kept an eye on the rest of the free-flying condors, too. This is the time of year when the thermals are more challenging and with fewer hours of daylight, the condors tend to roam less. We still see them easily hop the Salinas Valley and go back and forth between the Big Sur coast and Pinnacles, but we don’t observe them ranging as far south or north as they do during the summer months. In early December, one of the new releases, #451, flew with a group of older condors east of the park. He was the first of this new cohort to cross the park boundary, but then didn’t seem to want to come back. He ended up staying east of the park for over a week until finally returning to visit a feeding site. Since then, he hasn’t made many treks outside the park.

One fairly interesting side note that has been developing over the last couple of months is we recently received an adult female condor from the southern California population. Condor 112 was transferred to our flight pen at the end of December and should be released within a couple of weeks. The hope is she might either pair up with an adult male in this population or she might head back to southern California and return with some of the condors from down there. A long-term goal is to get the central and southern California flocks more integrated and this could be a step toward that goal.

December and January mark the time of year when adult condors begin thinking about nesting. This is the first year that any of the birds in the Pinnacles flock are now 6 years of age, making them old enough to consider breeding. So far this year, we’ve observed some possible nest searching activities both within and near the park. Interestingly, it appears 2 males, #286 and 313 (a Pinnacles condor), are trying to court one female, #303 (a Big Sur condor). Condor 286 was originally released at Pinnacles in the very first cohort back in 2003. That bird was trapped up within the first few months of being released though, because most of the cohort had been observed perching on power poles in the surrounding area. He was re-released at Big Sur before that flock had met the Pinnacles flock. Since the 2 flocks came together a few years ago, 286 now spends quite a lot of his time in the Pinnacles area.

On the topic of nesting, last year, 3 pairs of condors on the Big Sur coast were successful in producing fledglings! Amazingly, all 3 nests survived the fires that swept through the region last summer. Additionally, all 3 fledglings were outfitted with radio transmitters before they left their nests so that biologists there could track them as they began exploring their natal areas. Unfortunately, in mid-December, the biologists began hearing a mortality signal coming from one of the fledglings and soon discovered it dead on the ground near its nest. They retrieved the body and hopefully a cause of death will be determined. Despite that sad note though, there are at least 3 if not 5 pairs of condors looking into nesting in the Big Sur region this year.

On the topic of condor deaths, I’m sure many of you recall the death of Pinnacles condor #336 in September 2008. She was caught on private property on the Big Sur coast in an extremely poor state of health and was immediately transported to the vet hospital at the LA Zoo. Unfortunately, the vets were unable to bring her back from the brink and she died 2 days later. Her symptoms indicated she was suffering from lead poisoning and preliminary results supported that diagnosis, but were not entirely conclusive. We still do not have the final necropsy report for 336, but further lab results analyzing lead content in feather and other tissues support the initial diagnosis. When we receive the final report, I’ll make sure that it is available to all interested parties.

So that, in a nutshell, is all things condor for the last few months. This encapsulates pretty much everything in the life of a condor: nesting, new hatches and releases, exploring new territory, feeding, and death.

August 14, 2008

It’s time for a condor update! There certainly is a lot to report, such as the ramifications of the Big Sur fire, complete lead testing on all of the Pinnacles flock, ongoing outreach to hunters regarding the new ammunition regulations, and so on.

The Big Sur fire (officially known as the Basin Complex fire) has finally been contained and burned out. That fire began with a lightning strike on June 20^th only a mile or so away from the main facilities used by the Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS) condor program. By the next day, VWS staff realized that all of the captive juveniles and their mentor were in grave danger of being burned over. Through a series of emergency calls, the US Coast Guard was employed to help airlift all 8 of the captive condors to the Monterey airport where they were met by Pinnacles staff and transported back here. The transfer went as smoothly as one could hope and all of the condors were safely removed from Big Sur and placed in the flight pen at Pinnacles. Only 4 days later the fire burned over all of the VWS condor facilities.

During the fire, many condors originally released at both Big Sur and Pinnacles remained near the burning. We are unsure why they didn’t flee immediately, but it seems that perhaps the smoke caused many of the birds to get disoriented. We know based on GPS transceiver information that a couple of condors fled from the fire, while others seemed to wait it out in single locations. Unfortunately, it appears that two of the condors did not survive. Those two are Condors 278 and 377. Some of you may remember that 278 was initially released at Pinnacles in the very first cohort. That bird was then transferred to Big Sur for re-release. In the last year, 278 had rediscovered Pinnacles and had started spending more time here. Condor 377 was a Big Sur released condor and was one of their youngest. She also spent much of her time at Pinnacles and we will truly miss both her and 278.

The good news through all of the fire trials is that at least 2 of the nestlings in wild nests have survived! There is a 3^rd unconfirmed nestling that may also have survived. Because that site has virtually no access at this point, we can only wait and see if that one pops out of its tree cavity nest this fall. So, if it turns out this year that we lost two free-flying condors but gain up to three wild-fledged ones, then perhaps the flock will continue to grow.

From May through July, we trapped the entire Pinnacles flock and a few Big Sur condors for blood lead testing and health checks. Most of the birds tested came back with relatively low lead levels, 5 had elevated levels and 2 were suffering from acute lead toxicity and were transported to the LA Zoo for treatment. Those two were Condors 317 and 411. Both underwent multiple rounds of chelation treatments, but survived and were later re-released at Pinnacles. Interestingly, 411 had been tested for lead in May and then was recaptured and retested in June only to find that his blood lead level had jumped from 8 ug/dL to 180ug/dL. This just shows how quickly these birds may acquire lead in the environment.

July 1^st marked the start of a new law relating to the use of non-lead ammunition in counties within the condor range. Jake Theyerl of the Institute for Wildlife Studies (IWS) has been working tirelessly to put out the word on the new law through hosting shooting events where hunters can try free non-lead ammunition and by distributing brochures about the new regulations. If you, or anybody you know, are interested in trying non-lead ammunition, please contact Jake at (831) 524-6006.

I mentioned earlier that we are now holding juveniles in our flight pen for release this fall. It looks like we have a cohort of 7 individuals to be released. Three of those are parent-reared condors from the Peregrine Fund facility in Idaho, another 3 are very carefully puppet-reared juveniles from the LA Zoo, and the last one is actually the chick from an egg removed from a wild nest here in central California. It should be pretty interesting to see how this blend of juveniles fares in the wilds of Pinnacles this fall. Don’t forget to mark your calendars that the public release is Saturday, November 1^st!

2006/2007 Condor Updates

2004/2005 Condor Updates