That's Wild!

Days of the Condor

Up in the sky! It's a bird! Down on the ground! It's an egg! Yes, folks, put the two together and you have a bird egg! Big news? Well, it is if the bird is a California condor and the egg is a condor egg.

For the first time since the endangered birds have been bred in captivity and released, a condor has laid an egg in the wild. Since 27 of the endangered birds were released at the Vermillion Cliffs in 1997, they are occasionally seen in the Kanab area, not far from Best Friends. But what has never been seen before is a condor egg in the wild, until now.

The egg in question was actually found recently in a cave on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and scientists say this is a major success in the condor release program.

Although we take care of owls, hawks, and other large birds in our licensed wildlife rehabilitation program at Best Friends, caring for condors is a highly specialized activity, supervised in this region by the Peregrine Fund.

Condors don't necessarily look very glamorous to human eyes when they're on the ground. They have no feathers on their head because they are large scavengers, related to vultures. (When you're tucking in to a large animal for dinner, without a napkin, feathers on your head can be a problem!)

But when you see them soaring in the air, they are the most beautiful and graceful of birds - and huge! The average California condor has a wingspan of more than nine feet.

Condors like to nest in high cliffs, which makes the Vermillion Cliffs site an ideal place for new releases.

The condor captured the fancy of many people and the federal government when its numbers dropped to a mere 22 in 1982, because of loss of habitat and other environmental factors.

The remaining birds were taken out of the wild for the breeding program, which has brought the total number of condors to 160. Most of those are still in captivity, except for the 27 released in this area and another 24 in California. The female that laid the egg at the North Rim was hatched at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in 1995.

Unfortunately, this egg was cracked and will not produce a baby bird, but scientists hope that there will be many future successful eggs, expanding the population in the area to around 150.

Although native to the mountains of the North American west coast, it appears the condor has established a foothold here in the desert. Just look up in the sky.

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