[TN-Bird] Death of A Condor

Two interesting articles from this week's New York Times:

Condor Rescuers Lose a Most Valued Teammate

April 26, 2003
By JONATHAN D. GLATER

FILLMORE, Calif., April 22 - When the satellite transmitter
showed that AC-8 had not moved for one day, then two, Mark
Hall knew something was wrong. Condors, after all, tend to
fly.

On the third day, Mr. Hall, who manages the Hopper Mountain
National Wildlife Refuge near this Southern California
town, went to investigate and found the body of AC-8, a
female condor with a 10-foot wingspan, in the branches of
an oak tree on a ranch about a 45-minute drive north of
here. She had been shot to death.

The killing of AC-8, or Adult Condor No. 8, was a blow to
the federal effort to preserve and enlarge the population
of California condors, a long-endangered species. AC-8,
whose body was found on Feb. 13, was one of the last born
and raised in the wild before all known condors were taken
into captivity so that the species could be saved from
extinction. More than 30 years old, she had since outlived
her ability to reproduce, but the Fish and Wildlife Service
had hoped that she could continue to be an asset to the
preservation program, by helping teach condors born in
captivity, many of them her descendants, how to survive
outside a zoo.

So about three years ago, she was released. Having been in
captivity for well over a decade, she almost immediately
returned to her old flight paths and foraging grounds and,
sure enough, showed signs of mentoring other freed condors.

"She was showing these other birds positive things: her
foraging grounds, her roosting areas," said Greg Austin,
deputy project leader for the Hopper Mountain wildlife
complex, which includes the refuge.

Her killer remains unidentified, the motive unclear.
Shooting a condor is a misdemeanor, punishable by a year's
imprisonment and a fine of as much as $100,000. Federal
investigators are looking into the case.

The project to rescue the California condor (as distinct
from the similarly endangered Andean condor of South
America) dates from 1984, when, Mr. Austin said, its number
had shrunk to fewer than 30. At that point, the Fish and
Wildlife Service decided to capture them all and keep them
protected in zoos.

Several were kept at the Los Angeles Zoo, where they were
genetically screened to determine which could breed with
which others. "So we had founding birds" for a reproduction
effort, Mr. Austin said.

The population has now grown to nearly 200. Though most of
those remain in captivity, the program did begin releasing
condors back into the wild in 1992, from sites in
California and Arizona; Baja California was recently added
as a release location.

The condor's decline, many years long, owed mostly to the
encroachment of people. Though the birds are shot less
often than they once were, bullets used to kill other
animals usually contain lead, and condors eat carrion. So
lead poisoning killed many of them, while others were
electrocuted when landing on power cables or flying between
them closely enough that a long wing touched a wire.

"This is all man-caused," Mr. Austin said.

The effort to
restore the species to the wild is complex. Young condors
in zoos are sometimes raised by human-operated condor
puppets, for instance, to keep them from becoming
accustomed to care from people.

"It's actually pretty hard to keep silent when we're around
the birds," so that they do not hear people, said Susie
Kasielke, curator of birds at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Ms. Kasielke said the zoo also tried to expose condor
chicks to mentor birds in captivity so they could be taught
to be fearful of new stimuli, though most of the mentor
birds were themselves born in captivity.

Young condors being prepared for release are brought from
the zoo to a training pen here, where Fish and Wildlife
workers try to teach them to survive in a world dominated
by humans. For example, a mock electric pole inside the pen
has a weak electric current running through it, to
condition the birds to avoid roosting or flying near the
real thing.

After a month in the training pen, young condors, little
more than a year old, are released. Each is fitted with
satellite and radio transmitters for tracking. Each also
has an identification number painted on its wing.

The birds usually remain in the vicinity of the pen for
several months after their release, flying and perching
among the hills of the refuge, a windy, dry, occasionally
cold place northwest of Los Angeles that is closed to the
public.

While the captive breeding sites at the Los Angeles Zoo,
the San Diego Zoo and the World Birds of Prey Center in
Boise, Idaho, continue to produce young condors, the next
step for the preservation program will be to raise condors
in the wild. So far, that effort has not succeeded.

"Last year we had three chicks hatch in the wild, and they
got to 5 months of age and all died," Mr. Austin said. In
one case, the bird ate garbage around the nest, but for the
two others, the cause of death was never determined.

Now there is one healthy egg in a nest in the wild, and its
hatch date is May 3, Mr. Hall said.

AC-8 was not the first condor to be shot since the release
program began. Two were killed in Arizona last year. One of
those was shot in a national park, and the killer in that
case was identified and charged. "It's just amazing that it
still happens," Mr. Austin said. "It's not a game bird."

*************************************************
April 30, 2003
Charge in Condor Killing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES, April 30 (AP) ? Federal prosecutors charged a Tehachapi,
Calif., man today with killing an endangered California condor.
The man, Britton Cole Lewis, 29, faces up to six months in prison and a
$15,000 fine if convicted of shooting the bird, E. Robert Wright, an
assistant United States attorney, said.
Officials said Mr. Lewis shot the bird on Feb. 8. It was found dead on Feb.
13 on a Kern County ranch. Mr. Lewis and his lawyer declined to comment
today.
The condor, known as Adult Condor 8, was one of the few hatched in the wild.
She was captured in 1986, the last female of the species caught for a
program to save the giant birds from extinction. She hatched a dozen eggs in
captivity before she was freed in April 2000, one of the first of the
original wild birds to be released.
Mr. Lewis was charged with violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Chuck Nicholson
Norris, TN

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