California Condor Release and TRC's Efforts

The Raptor Center is thrilled to share some successful news in the ongoing reintroduction efforts for the California Condor.  Three condors will be released tomorrow morning, Saturday, Sept 29, at the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona. 

This will be the 17th annual public release of condors in Arizona since the condor recovery program began in 1996. Condors are hatched and reared in captivity at The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, and transported to Arizona for release to the wild.  Currently, 76 condors are in the wild rugged canyonlands of northern Arizona and southern Utah. The world’s total population of endangered California Condors is 416, with a total of 231 in the wild in Arizona, Utah, California, and Mexico. Condors were reduced to just 22 individuals in the 1980s when the program was begun to save the species from extinction.

The Raptor Center is proud to say that we have a role in these important efforts.  In 1993, Dr. Patrick Redig, our co-founder and Director Emeritus, was appointed to the California Condor Recovery Team.  In November 2005, Condor #350, an 18-month-old bird, was injured near his home range on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and brought to The Raptor Center for treatment. He is one of only four condors that hatched and survived in the wild that year. Read more from a press release about this very special patient. 

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