January 13, 2009

DENVER ZOO ANDEAN CONDOR TO GO BACK TO THE WILD - Condor Receives Final Vet Exam Before First of Two Moves

A young female Andean condor, hatched on August 3, 2008 at the Denver zoo will be transferred to the White Oak Conservation Center in Yulee, Florida. The young bird will join its older brother hatched on May 13, 2007, and other juvenile Andean condors produced by other condor pairs from other zoos. The White Oak Conservation Center is an accredited facility not open to the general public and maintains large enclosed aviaries used to socialize several condors in preparation for future releases to their native habitat in Columbia. The Andean condor release program is coordinated by the Zoological Society of San Diego in conjunction with the Association of Zoo’s & Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP) which incorporates several North American zoos.

Denver Zoo’s female condor and its older male sibling will be released into the Colombian Andes late 2009 or early 2010. These birds were chosen for reintroduction by managers of the SSP for this vulnerable species. These two birds will join more than 60 others that were reared in U.S. zoos and reintroduced to remote regions of the Andes through the recovery program. Numerous SSPs manage the breeding and conservation of a threatened animals in accredited zoos, in order to maintain a healthy and self-sustaining population that is both genetically diverse and demographically stable.

The largest raptor in the world and the largest flying bird in South America, the Andean condor is vulnerable, but with recent successful reintroductions has bolstered the numbers in the wild. Since 1989, when the first young Andean condors were released, over 60 of these raptors have been hatched, reared in U.S. zoos and released in the remote regions of the Colombian Andes. Monitoring by Colombian biologists has confirmed that the released birds have survived, matured, and are now beginning to breed, a significant milestone of success for any reintroduction program.

Andean reintroduction success depends on the collaboration of participating zoos, members of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and the Andean condor SSP, the Colombian Zoo Association, a wide array of U.S. conservation organizations, and governmental agencies. These include two Colombian national governmental agencies, ten Colombian departmental agencies, the Chiles Indian Reservation, the Purace Indian Reservation, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Indian Reservation, two international airlines, and the programmatic coordination by the Zoological Society of San Diego.

A total of six sites in Colombia have served as launching pads for releases. In addition to the original release site in Chingaza, the other sites now include the Purace National Park and Purace Indian Reservation in Cauca, the Chiles Indian Reservation in Narino the Nevados National Park in Caldas, the remote mountains of central Antioquia, north of the Nevados National Park, and the newest site in the Paramo Siscunsi in Boyaca. These six sites, pinpointed on a map of the country, clearly draw a line from north to south along the axis of the three chains of the Colombian Andes. Including the 10 birds that were released in Venezuela by the Zoological Society of San Diego in the early 1990s, such a release strategy will someday create a continuous and contiguous population that will establish a meta-population instead of isolated pockets of released birds.

Andean condors once came dangerously close to extinction due in part to aggressive hunting. They were placed on the Endangered Species list in 1973, but have since been making a dramatic comeback, thanks in part to the efforts of zoos’ breeding programs and conservation work. There are estimated to be only a few thousand of these birds remaining in the wild.

Andean condors are one of the largest flying birds; adults can weigh over 30 pounds, stand over four feet tall and have a wingspan of up to 11 feet! The Andean condor is a national symbol of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It plays an important role in the folklore and mythology of the South American Andean regions, similar to the role the bald eagle plays in North America. These impressive birds may live for 50 years or more, and mate for life.