California Condors

The California condor, rescued from extinction in an elaborate and expensive recovery effort, has become tantamount to a zoo animal in the wild and can't survive on its own without a ban on lead ammunition across its vast Western ranges, a scientific study has concluded. The majestic scavengers, bred in captivity and released to nature in recent decades, require "constant and costly human assistance," a blue-ribbon panel of the American Ornithologists' Union reported this week.

The president of California's largest private game preserve announced Friday that he would ban the use of lead bullets on the 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch because he's convinced that the ammunition is poisoning the endangered California condor. Some leading environmentalists hailed the voluntary ban, saying that they hoped it would provide momentum for a statewide prohibition on the bullets. Robert A. Stine, president and chief executive of Tejon Ranch Co.

It's been a heady few days for scientists involved in the complex effort to restore the California condor to its once native habitat. To begin with, researchers spotted the first California condor egg laid in Baja California since condors were reintroduced into the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park in 2002. And now, a condor known as No. 321 was tracked flying across the Mexican border near Jacumba and then continuing to the Anza-Borrego area.

The effort to restore the California condor to its native habitat has suffered a setback, San Diego Zoo officials announced Friday. The first condor chick hatched in Baja California since condors were reintroduced to the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park in 2002 has disappeared from the nest. The chick may have been killed by insects or snatched by a predator bird, officials said. It was the offspring of two condors released into the wild.

Eons ago, when my brother and I were teens hunting in the mountains behind Ojai, we'd marvel at the giant birds soaring far overhead. They were California condors. Or maybe they were turkey vultures. We really didn't know. But we'd always say they were condors because that made us feel good, like it was a special event. This was prime condor country, after all, in the Los Padres National Forest.

The state Fish and Game Commission has expanded its ban on the use of lead ammunition in hunting grounds that also are home to California condors. Earlier this year, the state Legislature outlawed most lead ammunition in hunting rifles, saying that rare California condors suffer lead poisoning when they eat animal carcasses left behind by hunters. Friday's 3-1 vote by game commissioners goes further, however, and prohibits the use of lead in firearms that are .22 caliber or smaller.

Efforts to save the critically endangered California condor suffered a setback last week when four 3-month-old chicks died of the West Nile virus, biologists said. Their demise leaves just eight condor hatchlings at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. These are the first condors to die from the mosquito-borne virus at the center. Bill Heinrich, the center's species restoration manager, said the deaths weren't a devastating blow to the breeding program.

Wildlife biologists Monday were hopeful that a California condor hatchling last seen nesting in a cave in Los Padres National Forest above Fillmore has survived a wildfire that so far has consumed about 74,000 acres. The chick hatched in the forest's Sespe Condor Sanctuary on May 1 and was close to taking its first flight when the two-week-old wildfire roared back to life over the weekend, said Ivett Plascensia, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Like any good bird-lover, Gabriel Gottfried knew what to do when he spied the huge creature perched on a tree branch outside his Topanga Canyon home. He grabbed his camera to document what experts say may be the first California condor to fly the canyon's skies in more than 100 years. His action photo of the elusive bird taking wing was remarkable enough. But perhaps not as remarkable as the fact that Gabriel is 5 years old. "I'm five-and-a-\o7hal\f7\o7f\f7!"

Several environmental groups filed suit Thursday against the California Fish and Game Commission and the state Department of Fish and Game for continuing to let hunters use lead ammunition, which they allege poisons rare California condors.