BOISE, Idaho — The California Condor can be traced back thousands of years, the species survived the last Ice Age, survived narrow extinction in the 80’s, and can even be found on official American currency. But now, the California Condors face a new problem, an emergency situation.
“Well, we're currently dealing with an outbreak of HPI, which is avian influenza,” said Tim Hauck, the Condor Program Director for the Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, Idaho
The mission at the Peregrine Fund is to conserve birds of prey around the globe. The California Condor is a species the team has worked for decades to save, avian flu is the latest battle.
“So, it's been found within our population and we've since recovered birds that have died from HPI and we're currently on the ground trying our best to monitor individuals, collect birds that have passed and get them sent off for necropsies so we can find out what the cause of death was. And, you know, most of these have actually come back as avian influenza,” Hauck said.
The team in Boise hosts a California Condor breeding program to help restore the population of a species that has been decimated in recent decades. The goal is to get Condors back into natural habitats while being observed. A flu outbreak in the Arizona/Utah habitat threatens that work, possibly compromising years of conservation. For now, the population in California appears untouched.
“This disease, there's not a whole lot that you can do once it's spreading within your species. But we can do some things and we're taking action to the best of our ability on the ground, in the field,” Hauck said.
There are some options for treatment and recovery.
“One of the things we're doing is we've stopped feeding young birds or managing the population to our management site, where we often provide food. So, we're going to try to eliminate any possibility of congregation because, you know, just like the flu in humans, we wouldn't want to all sit around a dinner table with our family if we knew somebody had the flu. We wouldn't want the same for condors,” Hauck said.
Keeping infected population away from healthy condors is a big goal.
“So as much as they can disperse, that's the best thing for them right now. They're an incredibly social species, so they like to congregate, they feed together, they roost together. So, one of the difficult parts of the biology of the species as it relates to avian influenza,” Hauck said.
They need support to navigate the emergency effort, a donation page is now setup to help save the condors.
“We're using funds to try to keep the field teams safe. This is a virus that can be potentially harmful to humans and very rare cases. So, we want to make sure that we have the appropriate PPE in the field for our field crews," Hauck said. "We're also using funds for volunteers on the front lines, travel costs, lodging, things like that, other equipment that we need to get the work done in the field. And, of course, medical treatment for the birds that we're actually able to capture.”
With that said, work in Boise is as important as ever.
“The staff up in Boise, there at the Peregrine Fund. We have the largest captive breeding flock, which I believe is just over 50 birds. Pretty incredible stuff and those birds are going to be so crucial. And moving forward through something like this, genetic stock is extremely important and they're going to help us be able to put more birds out through captive breeding into the wild,” Hauck said.
Hauck explained, the California Condor is a major part of the eco systems it is found in, they can be saved but it will take hard work and support.
"They are scavengers, and they clean up the environment, they actually help prevent the spread of diseases on the landscape. So, they're nature's cleanup crew and they're really special and a key piece of our ecosystem,” Hauck said. “It really is a massive collaboration and it's going to take all of our all of our efforts to get through this, along with the great minds of a veterinary staff that are that are working at this epidemic as well, trying to get us through this in the best way possible."
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