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Show California Condors Tour Bryce Canyon Natfl Park BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL NATION-AL PARK Five California Condors were seen by hundreds of visitors recently at Bryce Canyon National Park where the big birds apparently had come to join tourists from all over the world in sightseeing at the popular southern south-ern Utah park. The giant birds, the rarest and largest in North America with wingspans that can reach 9.5 feet, are being monitored moni-tored by radio transmitter and white tags with numbers attached to their wings. While tourists and birdwatchers birdwatch-ers were excited to see the condors, Garfield County commissioners com-missioners were taking a much more cautious approach to the project. Concerned that the condors which were not expected to fly this far north, would instead exceed those expectations, the commissioners were not in favor of the original release. They fear that the birds, an endangered specie, could bring the type of problems to the county that have stemmed from the protection of prairie dogs, for example, and further hinder the county's efforts to maintain multiple use of public lands. In Bryce Canyon National Park, for example, when Peregrine Pere-grine falcons were discovered in the park, the area around them was closed to the public. Verlin Smith, Bureau of Land Management Kanab Area Manager, Mana-ger, told the commissioners in a recent meeting that the California Condors had made their way to Garfield County. "Why doesn't that surprise us?" said Commissioner Louise Liston. BCNP Superintendent Fred Fagergren said that the five condors sighted were close enough for their tags to be read by park visitors. Commmisioner Maloy Dodds said, We don't have a problem with the condors themselves, it's just the fact that they are on the Endangered Species list and all the ramifications that go with that." Fagergren added that the park's concern was about how the condors might interact with the park's peregrine falcon population popula-tion Smith said that they were originally told that the condors had a flight radius of only 100 miles. He said they were informed that the condors hadn't gotten as far down the Grand Canyon as originally hoped for. "The Fish and Wildlife Service Ser-vice had better re-design its maps," said Copmmissioner Clare Ramsay on Tuesday, "so that its condors can read and understand where their boundaries are." Garfield County's commission- 6 ers have never signed a Condor Agreement, but the item is listed on the agenda for Monday's regular commission meeting. Shawn Fairy, a biologist working with the condors arrived at Bryce Canyon late in the afternoon on June 18 after the iant birds were reported soaring at Rainbow Point earlier that day. He was able to identify the five by their tag numbers, 33, 36, 28, 19, and 16. In December 1996, six condors were released in the Vermilion Cliffs area of northern Arizona. One died in January after an altercation with a golden eagle and another several weeks ago after flying into power lines. The four remaining condors from that initial release, now about a year old, include numbers 33 and 36 that were spotted at Bryce Canyon. Can-yon. Four more condors were released in the second week of May and an additional five were released about 10 days later. Condors with tag numbers 28, 19 and 16 from this more recent release were among those seen at Bryce on June 18. These three are about two years old. Of the 13 remaining condors from the two releases, five were seen at Bryce, some 120 miles from their release point and the farthest north reported to date. Biologist Mark Vekasy, in his July 6-13 internet report, says that on July 6, Condor 49 which had been missing, was sighted by Vicki Maretsky, an ex-condor biologist from California, at Mo-ab, Mo-ab, nearly 200 miles from its original release site. In California, there are 15 more condors in the area north of Los Angeles from releases in that state. Information1 provided by the Peregrine Fund about the condors seen at Bryce states that Condors 36, 33, 28 and 19 are females and 16 is a male. Condor 36 was hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo on May 12, 1996. Her father was captured from the wild as an adult in 1986 after permission was given to capture the last six remaining condors in the wild in order to save the species. Her mother was brought in from the wild in 1984 as a young chick. She was one of the original group of chicks and eggs brought in from the wild to begin the captive breeding program in the early eighties. ; Condor 33 was hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo on May 22, 1996. Her father, hatched in captivity at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, was the second condor to hatch in captivity from (See California Condors Spotted At Bryce Canyon on Page 3A) California Condors Seen At BCNP From Front Page parents that bred in captivity. Her mother was captured from the wild as- an adult in 1985 after permission was given to trap three of the remaining nine condors still in the wild. Condor 28 was hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo on April 19, 1995, Condor 19 at the San Diego Wild Animal Park on March 15, 1995, and Condor 16, the male, also in San Diego on April 13, 1995. The Peregrine Fund internet report states that the staff at Bryce Canyon National Park has been helpful in responding to condor sightings. Condor 24 was reported in the Bryce Canyon area sometime between June 30 and July 6. The release of California Condors Con-dors is a joint project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Depart-ment, and the Peregrine Fund. Biologists from the Peregrine Fund are conducting the release with financial support from Del Webb, Inc., the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Environment Now, Turner Foundation, Phelps Dodge Corporation, Arco Foundation, Founda-tion, Mill Pond Press, Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service, Tejon Ranch, and many others. The California Condors are being produced at the Los Angeles An-geles Zoo, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Ida. |
