Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: April 5, 2001

Contact Mark Pfeifle at (202) 208-6416 or
Megan Durham or
Hugh Vickery at (202) 208-5634

Hailing Support from Private Partners, Interior Secretary Norton
Helps Release Five California Condors into Coastal Wilderness

"Some said condor must 'die with dignity,' but today they're
soaring high with pride," says Norton

(BIG SUR, CA.) - Highlighting the importance of public-private partnerships to conserve threatened and endangered species, Interior Secretary Gale Norton today helped release five endangered California condors into the mountains of the Ventana Wilderness Area along California's Big Sur coast.

"As an associate solicitor at the Interior Department a decade and a half ago, I played a part in the battle to take the last California condors out of the wild and save them from extinction," Norton said. "Back then, some of those critical of the approach said the condor must 'die with dignity,' but today I have the great pleasure of helping release condors born and raised in captivity into the wild. Hand in hand with many partners, we're pulling this majestic bird back from the brink of extinction."

In 1986, opponents took Norton and the Fish and Wildlife Service into Federal District court to stop the removal of the last condors from the wild. Norton's arguments in favor of captive breeding were controversial at the time. Private breeding facilitates, such as the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Los Angeles Zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, successfully bred the condors in captivity, and Norton and her colleagues were proven correct.

"For too long, people on different sides have been fighting each other - and the unintended casualties of this culture of conflict are the very creatures and places that both sides are seeking to defend," said Norton. "Imagine what other success stories we could celebrate together if we put down our verbal swords and joined hands to save more of our precious endangered species."

Norton was joined by U.S. Congressman Sam Farr (D-17), California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols and Jim Davis, executive director of the Ventana Wilderness Society, a nonprofit conservation organization that has led local efforts to reintroduce condors to the central coast of California.

With today's release, 30 condors now fly freely in California, 19 of which are in the Ventana Wilderness. Another 24 are in the wild in Arizona.

"The effort to save the California condor is a model of what we as a country can do - in fact must do - to improve our endangered wildlife," Norton said. "In 1982, there were only 22 condors in existence. Today, thanks to the efforts of local and state government and the help of private organizations, like the Peregrine Fund and the Ventana Wilderness Society, we now have 160 condors in America."

Most of the financing for condor recovery efforts comes from private sources, with an estimated three to four times as much private funding as Federal funding, Norton said. Organizations like the Ventana Wilderness Society also are at the forefront of developing new techniques for improving the birds' chances of survival in the wild.

"The comeback of the California condor proves there is no substitute for the passion and commitment of Americans working together to conserve wildlife and its habitat," Norton said.

Norton helped release the birds from pens located in the upper reaches of Anderson Canyon in the Big Sur area of the central California coast, about 25 miles south of Carmel. Biologists moved the captive-reared birds to the pen a few months ago so they could grow acclimated to the environment.

California condors are the largest birds in North America. They weigh up to 25 pounds and have nine � foot wingspans. Condors have bare heads and necks, dull gray-black feathers, and blunt claws. They have a triangle-shaped patch of white, visible only when airborne, that adorns the underside of their wings. The birds can soar on warm thermal updrafts for hours, reaching speeds of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes of 15,000 feet.

Normally, California condors do not become sexually mature until the age of six and may not start breeding until age seven or eight. They nest in caves or clefts on cliffs that usually have trees for roosting and a clear approach for easy take-offs and landings. Typically, an adult pair lays one egg every other year, with the fledgling being dependent on its parents through the next breeding season.

Like all vultures, condors are carrion-eaters. They prefer large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep, but will also eat rodents and fish. If a meal has been particularly big, they may have to spend hours on the ground or a low branch before they can take off again. Condors are fastidious birds. After eating, they clean their heads and necks by rubbing them on grass, rocks, or tree branches. Condors also bathe frequently and spend hours preening and drying their feathers.

Biologists do not believe California condors were ever very numerous but suspect they began to decline in the 1890s. In the 1940s, biologists estimated there were 100 birds left in the wild. By 1982, this number had dropped to 22, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the difficult decision to take eggs and chicks from the wild to improve their chances for survival. By 1987, the agency had decided it had to remove all condors from the wild.

Condors still face threats that caused their decline. The birds' slow rate of reproduction and years spent reaching breeding maturity make the condor population more vulnerable.

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