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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

First Wild Condor Chick Takes Off (1 Viewer)

dacol

Well-known member
From

http://refuges.fws.gov/generalInterest/wildCondor_Calif.html

"The first wild-born condor chick to fly in California in 22 years officially fledged Nov. 4 when it took a 150-foot flight. It first left its nest in early September, perching 20-50 feet below the nest cave where it hatched April 9 near the Hopper Mountain NWR, CA.

The last wild condor chick fledged in 1982.

Both parents are captive-released birds. The 10-year-old father is the dominant male of the southern California flock. He was released by Hopper Mountain Refuge in 1995. The seven-year-old female was released at Big Sur by the Ventana Wilderness Society in 1998. The parents will care for the chick until it is approximately 18 months old.

The 2,417-acre Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura County, CA, was established in 1974 to protect the California condor. Two other wildlife refuges – Blue Ridge in 1982 and Bitter Creek in 1985 – joined Hopper Mountain to create a refuge complex for the same purpose. Today, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex is the base of operations for condor reintroduction to southern California.

Hopper Mountain Refuge provides foraging and roosting habitat. Its condor rearing facility has six simulated nest caves and a flight pen. Condor chicks are transferred to the flight pen when they are 8-10 months old to undergo power-pole aversion conditioning. They stay until they are old enough to be released into the wild.

One hundred eleven condors live in the wild in California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico; 135 live in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Oregon Zoo and the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, ID. ..."

Dalcio
 
Condor news are about every month on websites of Ventana society (California) and peregrinefund (Arizona). Fun reading!

Also I enjoy Whooping Crane migration news (operation migration) and waldrapp migration (waldrappteam). The waldrapp is over, but whoopers are migrating now.
 
oceans said:
What is power pole aversion? It sounds something to do with `magnetic' poles?

I believe it means teaching the young condors to stay away from power poles snce one of the ways condors are killed in the "wild" is that they are electrocuted when they perch on poles and connect with electrical wires.

Here's some info about the training from a US National Parks Service web page (from Google search: Condor release):

"In the flight pen, there is a mock power pole that delivers a slight electric shock when a bird lands on it. The pole was put into place to teach the condors to avoid perching on power and telephone poles. The mock pole in the flight pen is being modified to look more like the poles that the condors have been perching on. Also, two posts just outside the pen will be converted into mock poles and electrified."

Barbara
 
Thanx

BarbaraM said:
I believe it means teaching the young condors to stay away from power poles snce one of the ways condors are killed in the "wild" is that they are electrocuted when they perch on poles and connect with electrical wires.

Here's some info about the training from a US National Parks Service web page (from Google search: Condor release):

"In the flight pen, there is a mock power pole that delivers a slight electric shock when a bird lands on it. The pole was put into place to teach the condors to avoid perching on power and telephone poles. The mock pole in the flight pen is being modified to look more like the poles that the condors have been perching on. Also, two posts just outside the pen will be converted into mock poles and electrified."

Barbara
Who`d have thought that?!!! I expect everyone else bar me!!! lol lol!!!
Interesting and thankyou for filling me in.
 
I just wonder if power pole aversion training works... They are after all, birds - with bird brains and much of their behavior hardwired. They obviously need to perch on high - do they actually learn to distinquish between dead tree snag and metal power pole? Barbara
 
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