COLLEEN VALLES Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, February 21, 2003 12:00 am
SAN FRANCISCO - A female California condor, one of the original birds brought from the wild into a captive breeding program in the 1980s, was found shot to death in Kern County.
The bird, Adult Condor 8, was captured in 1986, one of the last females brought into captivity and one of the first of the original wild birds to be released in 2000.
AC-8 was found Feb. 13 in a remote area of Kern County, which is north of Los Angeles. No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing. California condors are an endangered species, and anyone found guilty of killing one could face a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
"This is a senseless death that strikes a blow at our efforts to bring these great birds back from the edge of extinction," Gov. Gray Davis said Thursday.
The dead condor recently was treated for lead poisoning. AC-8 spent more than six weeks in a zoo hospital and was re-released Dec. 23. The bird had ingested lead fragments, possibly from ammunition in a carcass she ate, and had to be force-fed while medication removed the poison from her body.
AC-8 spend 14 years in captivity and had about 12 offspring while in the breeding program. The bird was believed to be at least 30 years old and possibly as old as 40.
"She was released because she stopped laying eggs, and they thought, as a wild bird, she should live out the remainder of her life in the wild," said Denise Stockton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman.
Scientists had been keeping an eye on AC-8 to see if she and her mate, AC-9, who had also been released, would have any more chicks. There was no indication they did, Stockton said.
Wild condors are once again starting their courtship, and there are at least three pairs, possibly four, that are expected to produce chicks this year.
Condors once numbered in the thousands, but many died due to loss of habitat and from poisoning after eating dead animals filled with lead bullets or cyanide. Many also have been killed by collisions with power lines.
By the 1980s, there were only 15 left, and scientists decided to bring all the condors into captivity. Biologists captured the remaining wild condors in 1987 and began releasing them in 1992, after their numbers had grown to more than 60.
Now, there are 79 birds in the wild in California and Arizona and 118 in captivity at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Anyone with information on the shooting of AC-8 is asked to call the state Department of Fish and Game's CalTIP hotline at (888) DFG-CALTIP.