This California condor received fancy 1111 wing tags, after receiving a health check, by our partners over at The Peregrine Fund. Condor 1111 is Zion National Park’s second wild-fledged California condor and one of 110+ members of the Arizona-Utah condor population.
“This condor represents the 1,111th condor identified since the recovery program [The Southwest Condor Working Group] began, and with the tagging, Condor 1111 joins the monitored population, which currently has almost 350 condors flying free in the wild.” – The Peregrine Fund
Video featuring a condor being released and then soaring through a canyon containing patches of snow, then out towards a snowy mountain range courtesy of Tim Hauck/The Peregrine Fund U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Always good to see a condor take off. If we can get rid of firearm lead they will do better.
Update March 13, 2023
The recovery of California condors will only succeed if their diets are leadfree. Meanwhile, two studies that harnessed statistical models concluded lead exposure is slowing the growth rates of eagles.
As bald eagle populations reach record highs, such a setback might seem trivial. But how will the public view hunters if we shrug off the problem as golden eagles face a more unclear future? Besides habitat loss, which strips eagles of nesting territory and prey, their home ranges are peppered with a gauntlet of obstacles: wind turbines, powerlines, vehicles traveling 70 miles per hour, and poisons lurking in flesh. Biologists worry that dialing back the species’ growth rate by a mere one percent might initiate declines.
Speaking of lead, I saw an article in the new Fair chase Magazine from Boone and Crockett on lead just before seeing the video. There were a couple of points in it I wanted to note. I couldn’t find a digital copy until after a lot of looking.
The author, Mike McTee, mentioned his Wilted Wings: A Hunter’s Fight for Eagles book on lead.
“In McTee’s brilliant, heart-breaking first book, he illustrates through personal accounts of his experience with birds of prey, that lead poisoning is an ongoing problem and taking a terrible toll. I highly recommend Wilted Wings to all naturalists and hunters.”
—Stephen Bodio, author of An Eternity of Eagles
I figured I better look at it before posting and found Steve was way ahead of me.
Update March 13, 2023
There’s some momentum slowly building to release condors up here in the Hells Canyon region. I hope I see the day!
Avian flu kills 3 California condors in northern Arizona
Bird Flu is still a huge issue.