Condor Chick Hatches in California
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04/08/2010
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Photograph courtesy of AP Photo/National Park Service, Gavin Emmonds |
At first the egg rocked back and forth and made noises that surprised its first-time parents. After a few more days passed, the egg began to crack until an endangered condor chick broke through its shell, becoming the first one to hatch within Pinnacles National Monument in Central California in more than a century, biologists announced this week.
“It’s a great milestone for the park and our program,” says Daniel George, the condor program manager at the monument. There and at four other release sites on the West Coast, conservationists are working to bring the birds back from the brink of extinction.
A pair of condors released as part of a captive breeding program, which is credited with saving the birds from certain doom, laid an egg in the wild in March. (See our post about that here.) As part of an ongoing study conducted by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Condor Recovery Program, biologists are researching the effects of contaminants on eggs laid in the wild, so they took the egg from the nest and replaced it with an egg laid in captivity. “It’s a foster egg,” says George.
The grapefruit-sized chick that emerged is the 27th wild California condor around Pinnacles National Monument. That flock accounts for about 15 percent of the entire free-flying population, which was decimated by habitat destruction and ingestion of lead ammunition fragments in carcasses.
(See “Dodging the Bullet,” January-February 2008).
Despite obstacles, the numbers are slowly increasing with the help of new condor pairs that typically mate for life. So far, the new parents are behaving as expected, taking turns keeping their little one warm and searching for carrion. “Their development and behavior look good right now,” says George. The chick will stay with its parents for a year, waiting five and a half to six months to fledge, when its wingspan will reach no less than nine and a half feet.
All the while, recovery program officials will monitor the chick and its parents, observing where they go, what they eat, and how they fare. “Now that we’ve got a wild flock, we’re getting to a stage where we can see the bird again in its natural environment.”
Comments
viewing condor nest
For those able to take a strenous hike (90 minutes 2 miles 1,200 foot gain in evelation), this nest is viewable at a distance of about 1/2 mile. Take very good binoculars and/or scope. It gets hot and the lighting is better in the morning so an early start is good. The condors change nesting duty every couple of days. This typically happens early afternoon 1-2:30 PM. Both condors tend to fly together giving you a view of the chick and condors in flight.
The easiest hike (but still strenous) is to park at the far end of Bear Gluch area. Then hike up towards Scout Peak. When you get to the interesction of the High Peaks Trail there is a restroom and a bench.
Sitting on the bench look West to Resurrection Wall. There is a grass area on the cliff face. Moving to your right side there is a rock section. Up from this area there are three half spherical shaped rocks coming out of the cliff face. These thre half spheres resemble two eyes and nose. Go from the nose to the eye on your right and go up at that angle and you will see the white condor droppings. Just above and to the right you should be able to see the back of the black condor up against the right end of the ledge. It is black on brown and as the day progresses gets harder to see because of the sun.
This nest cave is at the far right of a long almost horizontal crack/ledge. Above and to the left of the nest is a second patch of bird droppings.
Here is a link to the trail map
http://home.nps.gov/carto/PDF/PINNmap1.pdf
You should be able to find it on your own, but if you have difficulty there is a ranger scheduled to be there from 1 to 2 PM Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The chick still looks like a blub of grey fuzz.
The parents have tags 317 and 318. The 3 is represented by three dots under the number. So what you will see is a 17 & 18.
During the hike up and down keep your eyes upward as it is common to see other condors in flight, especially along the long striaght section on the map before the switch backs near the intersection.
I would encourage a return trip via the High Peaks and then back down to Bear Gulch. But this is about 3 miles and involves a little more climbing and many stairs up and down. Retracing your hike in is the easy way out and takes about half the time as it is all downhill.
Good luck and enjoy.