BOISE, Idaho — A milestone in the effort to save a species: In May of 2020 biologists with the Peregrine Fund trapped and tagged the 1,000th California Condor hatched since the recovery program started in 1995.
The population of the magnificent scavengers now numbers more than 500 in the world, with more than half of those flying free in the wild. That's up from only 22 condors in 1982.
Scientists at the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise are playing a major role in bringing the birds back from the brink of extinction. The first egg of 2021 was laid there on February 8. The largest bird in North America is making a major comeback, but whether condors ever thrive in the wild again is still a cliffhanger.
Back in the summer of 2014, the team with the Condor Recovery Program gave KTVB a rare, up close, inside the nest box look at the work they do.
2014
The fate of an entire species hinges partly on the work being done in a secluded building on the back lot of the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise.
"So in this upper screen we have one of our oldest chicks. It's 75 days old today," said Condor Recovery Program Manager Marti Jenkins pointing to the screen of a nest box camera monitor.
The little white fuzzball in the corner of another screen is the youngest.
"It's actually 13 days old today," Jenkins told us.
They are two of the 17 California Condor chicks to hatch here this year.
From this room, Jenkins and her team keep an eye on all the new chicks through the nest box cameras. That included the 756th condor in the program, affectionately called number 756. Ok, they don't name them.
"These chicks at 45 days of age have never seen a human being ever," said Jenkins.
But day 45 is a big day for number 756. It's the day it will meet humans for the first time. Not a meeting it will enjoy. It's shot day. The West Nile Virus vaccine.
"We have a very effective vaccine that can protect these birds from that virus so that they don't become ill and die," said Jenkins.
Giving the vaccine requires a stealth operation. In an extremely rare opportunity for a news crew to get up-close video of a chick, they took our GoPro camera with them. Like a SWAT team, Jenkins and her assistants, Gabe and Tai, sneak silently down a darkened hallway, creep up the stairs and get ready to go in door number 6. When they speak, it's only in whispers. Then they go in. The door blocks the adult from coming into the nest box. Tai immediately places a towel over the chick's head. If it can't see, it will be more relaxed.
"And it will keep them from looking at us and getting used to the idea of us being around," Jenkins explained.
But the chick fights anyway, looking for someone to strike.
"Well, he's a very strong chick, and he was ready to defend himself, if necessary," Jenkins said.
A few seconds later, it calms down.
"And then he started doing this grunting sound, which is just a chick that's scared."
Jenkins gives the injection in the chick's muscley thigh, and the team leaves. Total time in the nest box, a minute 20 seconds. It won't have human contact again until its next shot in 30 days.
"You just want to get in and out as quickly as possible for their health and their well-being," Jenkins said.
That's what the Peregrine Fund's Condor Recovery Program is all about. The World Center for Birds of Prey has the largest captive population of condors in the world, 73, including the two adults on display. There are only 437 in the whole world.
"They are a very important part of the landscape being a very large scavenger," Jenkins said. "They're the largest bird in North America."
The California Condor can grow to have a wingspan of about 9 and a half feet, but their size can't protect them from a tiny enemy, fragments from lead bullets. Jenkins says the condor program begins and ends with lead.
In 1982 only 22 California Condors remained. Jenkins says the scavengers would eat lead bullet fragments in animals killed by hunters. It's still the biggest threat.
"The condors come along and do their job and clean it up and they become poisoned from lead, and they can die if they're not captured and treated," Jenkins explained.
The work being done here, and at other sites, has helped the population rebound, but the condor is still endangered. Jenkins says the chicks raised at the center will eventually be released into the wild in the Grand Canyon area, in California and in Baja Mexico, helping to bolster the population. She believes passionately that this species needs to survive.
"It's such a heroic tale of their struggle from near extinction to this point and beyond, and this is a bird that lives for 50 years or more," Jenkins said. "So it's a story that not one of us will finish on our own. It takes a community."
To make sure this icon of the west remains a vital part of the American landscape.
2021
Here's a 2021 update for you.
The World Center for Birds of Prey currently has 45 condors. Last year 10 new condors hatched. Since the Condor Recovery Program started in 1995, 306 condors have hatched at the center. the total world population is now more than 500 with more than half living in the wild. The birds have been on the endangered species list since 1967.
The center is open Thursday through Sunday with limited, timed-entry because of coronavirus safety protocols. You also have to buy tickets in advance on the Peregrine Fund's website. You can't go behind the scenes to where the nest boxes are, but California Condors are on exhibit that you can see.
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