Imperial Valley News

The Ventana Wildlife Society, along with the San Diego Zoo, is a member of the California Condor Recovery Program that is breeding and releasing the condor in California. The fire that began in June burned the field pens where condors are acclimated for release into the California wilderness. The loss of the field pens, damage to the field biologists’ cabin and the loss of specialized equipment and supplies are a setback to the species’ recovery efforts.

“Within 24 hours the wildfire cut off the only access road to the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Sanctuary, where seven young condors and their adult mentor condor were being held in a remote field pen, awaiting release to the wild,” said Kelly Sorenson, Ventana Wildlife Society executive director. “The fire grew so rapidly that the U.S. Coast Guard was called in for an emergency rescue by helicopter. Fortunately, all the condors held in this facility and the staff biologists were evacuated just before the fire grew stronger and burned through the area.”

Unfortunately, one wild condor has not been located since the fire and one nest was directly in the fire’s path. The status of the chick in this nest is still unknown.

A donation from the San Diego Zoo will help replace equipment and supplies so that field biologists in Big Sur can continue to track the 42 other condors flying free and monitor two remaining nests in the area. Contributions from individuals to the San Diego Zoo’s California Condor Relief Effort will help offset the Zoo’s donation and can be made by visiting the Zoo’s California Condor Conservation Web site at www.cacondorconservation.org.

“We are committed to assisting our partner, the Ventana Wildlife Society, during this devastating event,” said Douglas Myers, Zoological Society of San Diego chief executive officer. “We joined the California Condor Recovery Program at its inception in order to see this species flying in the wild again. The Ventana Wildlife Society is helping to reach this goal by releasing and monitoring birds that have hatched in our own breeding program at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.”

The California Condor Recovery Program is built upon a foundation of private and public partnerships. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements the recovery program in partnership with other U.S. and Mexican government agencies, the Zoological Society of San Diego, Los Angeles Zoo, The Peregrine Fund, Oregon Zoo, Chapultepec Zoo, Ventana Wilderness Society, California Fish and Game, and the National Park Service, among others.

The 100-acre San Diego Zoo is operated by the not-for-profit Zoological Society of San Diego. The Zoological Society, dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and their habitats, engages in conservation and research work around the globe and is responsible for maintaining accredited horticultural, animal, library, and photo collections. The Zoological Society also manages the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park (more than half of which has been set aside as protected native species habitat) and the San Diego Zoo’s Beckman Center for Conservation Research. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by the Foundation for the Zoological Society of San Diego.