The California condors, the biggest birds in North America, ride warm-air currents like surfers, soaring across mountain ranges from Southern California to Big Sur as fast as 55 mph and traveling as far as 300 miles a day. All six were born in zoos, and moved in February to a pen at the Hopper Mountain National Refuge north of Fillmore, where they had an opportunity to flap their wings and see the environs that would soon become their home. Last week, the birds were taken by helicopter to the release site, a remote perch in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. They had spent the last few days in a so-called hack, made to look like a cave, with room to run and jump. It was the second release of birds in Ventura County since 1992, when the program was temporarily suspended after five birds were electrocuted by power lines.
Condors are by nature curious, and prone to perching on power poles.
Some have also suffered lead poisoning after ingesting bullets left in animal carcasses by hunters. A program to scare them away from power poles is working, said Mike Wallace, wildlife scientist at the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species in San Diego. Only two condors have been lost to power poles since 1992, he said. Biologists also hope they have taught the condors to fear humans. They never see the people who raised them in zoos, and when they do come into contact with humans it is during times when they need to be handled roughly, such as during blood tests and tagging.