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Show 'm ... rrz. - .1719 - ejr? SHUminj k ii, VOLUME 65 WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 11, 1996 COLOR COUNTRYS HOME TOWN NEWSPAPER NUMBER 43 50e By Dixie Brunner From high atop their northern Arizona perch southwest of Marble Canyon, the world looks like its theirs alone. The six, young condors are oblivious to the controversy surrounding them and their December 12 release. Accordingto the experts, thats for the best. We dont want them to imn print on any humans, corn-me- ted Mark Vekasy, Peregrine Fund site manager. Vekasy, along with three other Peregrine Fund employees, have lived alternately out near the birds on the remote House Rock Valley inmornm. Rha&i by Dade Bmmer. California Condors to fly tomorrow mesa. The California Condors that are being introduced under the new 10J rule ofthe Endangered Species Act, provide a new ray of hope for their species. With only 103 alive today, (only 13 in the wild), biologists are hoping the condors will get cozy with their mates, breed and make House Rock Valley home. Condors are amazingly-larg- e animals, with some mature environment. birds possessing over a nine-fowing span. Condors once habitated the entire continental United States, with daily flight ranges approaching 100 miles. They feed exclusively on carrion (dead carcasses) and pose no threat to livestock or humans. Handlers have taken extreme care in tending the condors which were hatched at captive breeding facilities. In the early months, they placed condor-lik- e puppets over their hands when feeding, so the condors would not identify with their human caretakers. The fledglings were brought to House Rock Valley on October 29 where they were put into large pens to begin their adaptation process. Once again, the humans kept a loving but faraway eye on the birds from a distant camouflaged blind. They wanted to make sure that the birds stayed healthy and were adapting properly to their new ot On December 12, the handlers will release the condors from the pens. Vekasy says that the birds might take a couple of brief flights, but considers it unlikely that they'll take any long trips until they get acclimated to their new freedom. Vekasy wont become unemployed upon the condors release however-hi- s job will continue for months and perhaps even years to come. The birds will be tracked and fed innoculously by caretakers for quite some time. We are trying to draw them away from inhabited areas, said Vekasy, addingthat they would be placing donated, stillborn calves along the cliffs to the south as food for the condors. The Peregrine Fund hopes their efforts will not result in a long-ter- m outdoor care situation, but rather that the condors will find a natural environment that they can once again live and thrive on their own. California Condors arrived in trader oversight by Arizona Game northern Arizona on October 29, and Fish, the BLM, and the U.S. fast on the heels of the states Fish and Wildlife Service. Bob ferret reintro-dnctio- Miles serves Arizona as its confirst hladt-foote- d A Salt River Project dor project coordinator. He, in helicopter brought the big birds turn, reports to Smsi MacVean, to acdimation pens atop the Region H Nongame Biologist. Vermilion Clifis, near Marble Their address is: Flagstaff Regional Office, 3500 South Lake Canyon. Amid the human hoopla, the Mary Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 ax yoorng condors began sorting ((520)) 774-504The condors will be released to out their own social relationships. Bidopstts front The Per- the wild can December 12. The egrine Fhmd are caring for them. event is open to the public, and the list of invited guests already totals nearly 300. The list of inKANAB WEATHER vited VTFs begins with local-are- a residents whose cooperation has n. 5. been instrumental; Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Arizona Governor Fyfe Symington, and many other dignitaries. The release-da- y speeches will 9 at a public about begin observation point a mile or so from the condors. The birds will The be set free about 10 observation point isjust north of These three memberscf the Peregrine Fund have been looking after the Caforna Condors ever since theve been caged on the vermgiondtfte near Marble Canyon. Scte manager Mark Vekasy (r) says they wHI have to stay and feed See COXDORS, Page 5 the condors hdefinetefy. Photo by Dboe Earner. an an Courtesy: frack Sxapp Fznfl |