Condor chick born in wild flies from nest at California park
PAICINES, California - A California condor chick has hatched in the wild, survived, and flown out of its nest at Pinnacles National Park for the first time since the 1890s, officials said Wednesday.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that the female bird, born in April, is not the first chick to be born in the park. But it is the first to survive long enough to leave the nest and begin its flight to adulthood.
"She is staying near the nest, doing lot of practice flights," said Rachel Wolstenholme, condor program manager at Pinnacles.
"Her parents will help her learn how to fly and where to feed and how to interact with the other wild birds out there."
Pinnacles is a 26,000-acre park in rural San Benito County about 80 miles south of San Jose. Scientists say it's a success story for North America's largest bird as it continues a slow but steady path from near extinction.
California condors once ranged from British Columbia to Mexico [where the rest of California is still located]. Habitat loss, hunting, and lead poisoning from ingesting buckshot [left behind by killers] while feeding on dead animals shot by farmers and hunters led to a massive population dwindle.
In 1987, federal biologists captured all remaining wild condors and began breeding them in zoos. The birds' offspring have been gradually released back into the wild. Things are now improving for the condor.
As of December 31st, there were 435 California condors living in zoos and in the wild, an increase of nearly twentyfold over the past 30 years, the newspaper reported. More
Irvine authorities are looking for a coyote that bit a 6-year-old boy at
Springbrook Park in Irvine's Woodbridge community in Orange County. It happened around 7:00
pm Sunday when the coyote bit the boy on the arm and tried to drag
him away [to devour him for dinner]. The boy's father and bystanders screamed at the coyote, and one woman
threw sand. The boy suffered minor cuts and scratches and bites on his
arm, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan
said.
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| (Cindy Yamanaka, OC Register/SCNG) |
Wild, wild Los Angeles
(PM5) Man and dog in Burbank, next to Glendale, chased by wild pack of coyotes.
(Coyotes In Orange County) Coyotes attack small dog in neighboring Orange County
(RMG News wildlife) A large, wild bear has been spotted wandering around the streets of Sierra Madre, a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, California.
(RMG News wildlife) A large mountain lion is captured after wandering around Glendale [a large city between Pasadena and Hollywod, just a few miles from the downtown LA skyline], California
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