FIRST SUCH DISCOVERY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA IN MORE THAN A CENTURY
By Ken McLaughlin Mercury News, Photos by Ventana Wildlife Society
The herculean effort to save North America's largest bird from extinction has reached a milestone: California condors have been discovered nesting in Northern California for the first time in more than a century.
On Monday, a biologist spotted a male and female condor displaying nesting behavior inside a hollowed-out cavity of a large coastal redwood tree in Big Sur, the Salinas-based Ventana Wildlife Society announced Tuesday.
``For the past 10 years when this sort of thing came up, it turned out to be just in my dreams,'' said Kelly Sorenson, the group's executive director. ``Now it is a reality.''
The non-profit group began releasing condors into the wild in 1997. It now monitors a population of 38 condors in Central California, but this is the first time a condor nest has been found in the northern part of the state.
``This is that next step that we've been waiting for,'' Sorenson said. ``The goal is that they feed on their own and breed on their own -- and now and they're beginning to do both.''
About 10 chicks have been born in the wild in Ventura County and Arizona, but only one has survived. The bird, living in Ventura County, is now almost two years old.
Although the condor recovery effort has increased the number of birds tenfold in the past two decades, there have been other significant setbacks as well. About 40 percent of released condors have died from lead poisoning, hitting power lines and attacks by golden eagles.
The mortality rate in Big Sur, however, has been much lower -- raising hopes that birds born there will live to ripe old ages. Only nine of 41 condors released there have died. Sorenson theorizes it's because there are fewer power lines, fewer hunters (whose lead bullets kill condors when they munch on carcasses) and more dead marine mammals for the vultures to feast on.
The last known condor egg in Northern California was collected in 1905 in Monterey County, Sorenson said.
Joe Burnett, a senior wildlife biologist at the society, said the couple was spotted Monday morning engaging in typical condor nesting behavior, with the male and female taking turns guarding the nest every two or three days, never leaving the nest unattended for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
``Although the view into the cavity is very limited and we can't actually see the egg, we strongly suspect they have an egg based on their behavior at the nest site,'' he said.
Sorenson said the condors ``wouldn't be exhibiting this kind of behavior if there weren't an egg in there.''
The society is keeping the exact location of the nest secret to make sure no one disturbs the couple, he said. Biologists will carefully check out the egg in the coming days to make sure it is fertile.
The male bird, 9-year-old Condor No. 167, was hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo and released in Big Sur by the society in late 1997. Its mate, 8-year-old Condor No. 190, born in the same zoo, was released in early 1999 in Big Sur.
Cousins of the turkey vulture, thousands of California condors once flew from British Columbia to Mexico before declining precipitously in population during the Gold Rush. They reached a low in the 1980s, when the population fell to just 27 birds. Desperate biologists captured all remaining wild condors in 1987 and began breeding them in zoos.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began releasing them to the wild in 1992. The Ventana Wildlife Society and Peregrine Fund began releasing them several years later.
Today the population of California condors has grown to more than 275. Of those, about 125 live in the wild at Big Sur, Pinnacles, Ventura County and the Grand Canyon, with a few in Baja California, Mexico. The rest live in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park and other facilities.
``This nest puts us one step closer to our goal of having 150 condors in the wild with 15 breeding pairs,'' Sorenson said.
Contact Ken McLaughlin at kmclaughlin@mercurynews.com or (831) 423-3115.
