Condor Chick Makes First Flight

By KEVIN HOWE Herald Staff Writer

Centennia has set another record.
The first California condor chick successfully hatched in the wild in Monterey County in more than 100 years, Centennia took her first flight from her cave nest in Big Sur on Wednesday, said Joe Burnett, senior wildlife biologist with the Ventana Wildlife Society.
It was another landmark this year in the Wildlife Society's condor recovery program, he said, accomplished by the same bird.
"She's out on the wing. She is now an official wild-fledged bird. It's a pretty historic day."
Burnett, who led the team that placed Centennia's egg in the nest so it could hatch and be raised by foster parents, said the flight was reported Wednesday night by fellow Ventana wildlife biologist Brett Stauffer.
Stauffer watched the fledgling's flight with some trepidation, Burnett said.
"We worry when they take their first flight. That's the time of highest risk of injury to a chick, but she did OK. She made kind of a controlled crash-landing in some brush. She's sitting at the base of the nest cliff. It's about as natural and normal as you could expect."
Up to now, condors have been hatched and raised in captivity and released from a pen in the mountains of Big Sur , Burnett said. The fledglings had been prepared for release by human trainers.
This time, he said, wildlife biologists will be able to watch and see how the young condor learns from her parents how to forage and survive in the wild.
"Mom and dad are attending it at a new location outside the nest," Burnett said. "With each flight, it gets more and more experience. In a week it should be getting around pretty well. There's a pretty fast learning curve once they get out there."
Scientists will observe the nurturing pair and their foster chick's interactions and training, he said, to learn more about the condors' natural behavior.
Centennia was hatched from an egg brought from the Los Angeles Zoo.
The nesting pair had laid their own egg that was discovered Feb. 23, but it was taken from the nest because another nesting pair failed to hatch an egg last year, said Kelly Sorenson, Ventana Wildlife Society executive director.
When their egg was taken to the zoo for incubation, it was replaced by a wooden surrogate egg, which in turn was switched for a different real egg a few days before it was due to hatch.
Burnett said the egg taken from the nest to the zoo has hatched and that chick is being raised by its grandparents in captivity, and will be released from the Wildlife Society pen next spring.
Another chick is being raised in a condor nest in a redwood tree in Big Sur , Burnett said. That bird is about a month younger than Centennia.
The California condor hovered on the brink of extinction when its numbers dwindled to 22 birds in 1982. In 1987, the remaining seven wild condors were captured for captive breeding programs at the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos.
The birds raised in captivity have gradually been released back into the wild in Arizona , Southern California, the Big Sur coast and Pinnacles National Monument . There are nearly 300 condors, including 28 at Big Sur and 13 at Pinnacles.
Scientists have been able to follow the flight paths of condors through the radio transponders attached to them before they are released.
Condors are a fully protected species under state law and the state and federal governments list it as an endangered species.

Photo by Al Bolivar