The California condor, an endangered species, took to the skies again Tuesday over the redwood forests of the state’s north coast for the first time in more than a century.
Two captive-bred birds were released from a pen in Redwood National Park, an hour’s drive south of the Oregon border, as part of a project to return these huge scavengers to their historic habitat in the northwestern United States. Peaceful.
The two male condors were moved to the staging area in the late morning and a remote-controlled gate was opened. After a few minutes of peering warily at the opening, the birds one by one passed through the opening, spread their gigantic wings, and took off.
“They just jumped up and took flight into the distance,” Tiana Williams-Claussen, wildlife director for the region’s Yurok tribe, said in a webcast.
According to authorities, condors were last seen in the park in 1892. The California condor is the largest native bird in North America, with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet (3 meters). This scavenger bird was once widespread, but was virtually extinct by 1970 due to poaching, lead poisoning from eating animals killed by hunters, and habitat destruction.
The birds can live 60 years and fly great distances in search of carrion, so their range could extend to several states.
Federal and local fish and wildlife agencies are involved in the restoration project spearheaded by the Yurok tribe, which has traditionally considered the California condor a sacred animal and has worked for years to return the species to the tribe’s ancestral territory.
“For countless generations, the Yurok people have held a sacred responsibility to maintain balance in the natural world. The reintroduction of the condor is a real manifestation of our cultural commitment to restore and protect the planet for future generations,” Tribe Chairman Joseph L. James said in a statement.
Two other condors will be released later, after biologists determine that the two birds that took to the skies on Tuesday have shown adequate behavior, according to authorities.
The condors, which include one female and three males, are between 2 and 4 years old. Two were born at the Oregon Zoo and another two at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Idaho.
In the early 1980s, the 22 condors remaining in the wild were trapped and brought into a captive breeding program that began releasing them into the Los Padres National Forest in southern California in 1992.
That flock has been expanding its range, while other condors now occupy parts of the central coast of California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California, Mexico. The total population now numbers more than 500 birds in captivity and in the wild.
Two years ago, California condors were spotted in Sequoia National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada for the first time in nearly 50 years.
However, that same year, a dozen adults and two chicks were killed when a fire set by an arsonist swept through their territory off the coast of Big Sur.