Rfalconcam Forum

It's a big year for the big birds and their big eggs.

Ten pairs of endangered California condors breeding at the Oregon Zoo's Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation have produced six fertile eggs.

Last year, the captive breeding operation turned out eight eggs and six chicks survived.

"We're looking forward to our best year ever," said Shawn St. Michael, curator of birds. Condors can lay eggs, gray-green and about the size of a fist, as late as June.

In the wild, North America's largest land birds lay no more than one egg per season. But keepers speed the process with captive birds using a method known as double-clutching, which has helped the species grow from a scant 22 condors in 1982 to 347 when last counted in February.

The eggs incubate 54 to 58 days; the first chick could hatch the first week of April.

The zoo joined the effort to restore condors six years ago, after constructing barns, nest boxes and flight pens in a remote Clackamas County meadow, which is off-limits to the public in order to keep the birds as wild as possible; 19 chicks conceived there survive and 10 fly free in California and Arizona.

Chris Parish, director of The Peregrine Fund's condor reintroduction program, which has freed a handful of Oregon-bred condors near the Grand Canyon, will speak about the effort at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, in the zoo's banquet center as part of the Wildlife Conservation Series. Cost: $10

Portland, OR - The Oregon Zoo’s first California condor chick of the year hatched last Thursday, April 14, to foster parents Atishwin and Ojai. With fewer than 400 living condors in the world, successful hatchings such as these represent an important event for the species.

“Our first hatching went beautifully,” said keeper Kelli Walker. “The chick looks healthy. It’s growing well and starting to shuffle about the nest room. With any luck, another bird will hatch this week ­­–– and we have hopes for two more after that.”

After 30-45 days, keepers will give the new condor its first medical checkup, including inoculations against West Nile virus.

“We try to handle the condors as little as possible,” Walker said. “Not only is human contact upsetting to the parents, we’re preparing these animals for a life in the wild. Even if bred in captivity, we ensure that chicks are raised by condors, learning condor instincts and behavior.”

Last year, the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation sent three condors to the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, for release into the wild. Not counting this year’s total, 22 eggs have been laid at the Jonsson Center since the program began in 2003, and 10 Oregon Zoo-reared birds are now flying free in the wild. Located on rural Metro-owned land, the remote Jonsson facility allows condors to be raised in a natural setting, minimizing exposure to people.

California condors were brought to the brink of extinction in 1987, when only 27 remained in the world. Accidental lead poisoning was (and is) a primary cause of condor deaths, while DDT and other chemical poisonings prevented successful reproduction. In an attempt to save the species, biologists began capturing wild condors in 1982, and entering them into captive breeding programs. By 1987, all 27 remaining animals were captured. Due in part to the breeding efforts of centers like JCWC, there are now nearly 350 California condors in captivity and the wild.

Condors are the largest land birds in North America, with wingspans of up to 10 feet and an average weight of 18 to 25 pounds. They are highly intelligent and inquisitive, and they require a tremendous amount of parental investment in the wild. As well as being an ecologically important scavenger species, California condors are also important to Oregon’s history and culture. Lewis and Clark saw the large birds as they traveled along the Columbia River. Archaeologists have unearthed 9,000-year-old condor bones from Native American middens, and condors were a common motif for the designs of Oregon’s Wasco people, who lived along the Columbia between The Dalles and Cascade Locks. The “Thunderbird” was considered a spiritual guide to the native peoples and is a key character in many myths.

For more information about the Oregon Zoo’s California condors, visit www.oregonzoo.org/Condors/index.htm.

The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Washington’s pygmy rabbits, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles, Oregon spotted frogs and Kincaid’s lupine. Other projects include studies on black rhinos, Asian elephants, polar bears and bats.

The zoo opens at 9 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.

General admission is $10.50 (ages 12-64), $9 for seniors (65 and up), $7.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $2 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.

Caption: Condor 73 (Atishwin) at the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation. Atishwin means “Spirit Helper.” Atishwin helped his fellow condor population by becoming a father with his mate Ojai to the zoo’s first chick of 2010. Photo by Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.


  Daddy

Oregon Zoo ¨ 4001 SW Canyon Rd. ¨ Portland, Oregon 97221 ¨ 503-226-1561 ¨ www.oregonzoo.org

To view Oregon Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to:  http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-382-Oregon_Zoo