Condor chick makes 1st flight try from Utah cliff

In one other signal that California condors are making a comeback within the wild three a long time after nearing the brink of extinction, a condor chick left its nest and made its first try at flight in Utah’s Zion Nationwide Park.

Guests final week noticed the park’s first profitable hatchling stretch its wings and stumble out of its nesting cave on a sweeping red-rock cliff in a sighting that was confirmed later by park biologists.

Tim Hauck, who manages the condor reintroduction program for The Peregrine Fund group, described the 4½-month- condor’s flight try as a “managed fall.”

“The chick soared downward from the nest and landed on a decrease cliff ledge,” Hauck stated. “We anticipate it to remain there for some time with its mother and father.”

The surviving California condor inhabitants now stands at greater than 500, with greater than half of the birds with wingspans of as much as 10 toes (three meters) residing within the wild in an space together with Arizona, California, Utah and northern Mexico. Different condors have been captured for breeding functions or are held in zoos.

A minimum of two extra chicks have been born on the Utah park, however died earlier than they have been sufficiently old to fly.

Park rangers have nicknamed the surviving chick “1K” as a result of it was the one thousandth condor hatched as a part of the prolonged effort to spice up the inhabitants.

“We have been trying ahead to this all summer season, and we’re excited to see the chick proceed to learn to fly,” stated Eugene Moissa, a park spokesman.

The brand new chick’s mother and father are the one recognized condor breeding pair within the park and are estimated to have been collectively two years. The feminine was born in 2006 on the San Diego Zoo and the male hatched in 2009 in Boise, Idaho, earlier than being launched into the wild.

They have been bred as a part of a program began within the 1980s after the variety of California condors on the earth dwindled to 22. The wild condors have been captured and held in captivity to maintain them secure and launch the breeding program involving authorities businesses, personal organizations, residents and biologists.

California condors raised in captivity have been first launched in 1996 at Vermilion Cliffs Nationwide Monument in northern Arizona close to Utah. There are actually greater than 88 flying within the two states.

The condors sometimes lay eggs on cave flooring or in giant crevices. Dad and mom often mate for all times, reproduce each two years at most and share incubation duties. Younger condors sometimes make their first flights after six months however might keep within the nesting space for as much as a 12 months as their mother and father feed them and train them methods to seek for the useless animal carcasses that they eat.

Hauck stated the hatchling’s flight try is a testomony to the condor’s resilience and self-sustaining nature.

“It is a actually particular milestone for the re-population program” Hauck stated. “It is a reminder for us to take time to rejoice the little victories, however we nonetheless have quite a lot of work to do.”