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 Editorials | Environmental | June 2007 
California Condors From San Diego Make Debut at Mexico City Zoo
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
| | One of two California condors newly moved to a zoo in Mexico City lifted a wing. (Luis J. Jimenez/Copley News Service) |
Mexico City – In the city's sunlight-dappled Chapultepec Zoo, a question hovered over a hushed crowd.
Would two California condors, just arrived from the San Diego Wild Animal Park, adapt to their new home in Mexico's capital?
As scientists and dignitaries watched yesterday morning, a male condor named Away who had lived at the Wild Animal Park since he was hatched in 1993 hopped onto a tall rock high above their heads.
He opened his magnificent wings, spreading them 9˝ feet, and held his regal pose for the awe-struck audience below him on the ground.
It was a historic moment for Mexico, marking the first time California condors have been sent to a zoo outside the United States since a program to rescue the endangered birds began.
After disappearing from Mexico for decades, the California condors are making a comeback.
Two males – Away and 11-year-old Aqimowon – were flown here Thursday in the cargo hold of an Aeromexico jet.
Snared in their Wild Animal Park aviary hours before dawn, they were put in large dog crates, inspected by airport security and then placed with bulging suitcases in the belly of the plane.
When they arrived in Mexico City, they were greeted by photographers' flashing cameras and inspected by Mexican customs before they finally reached the zoo hospital for a night's sleep.
After they were put inside their new enclosure the next morning, the inquisitive birds popped out of their crates to investigate.
“Within 15 minutes, they were flying around,” said Michael Mace, bird curator for San Diego Wild Animal Park, who delivered the condors to Chapultepec Zoo. “It was a perfect introduction.”
That smooth landing was an auspicious start for a binational program that zoo officials in Mexico City and San Diego hope will lead to more condor populations in the wild.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard and U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza attended a ceremony yesterday at Chapultepec Zoo to officially give the condors to the zoo. Afterward, Mace met with zoo officials to lay plans for the next phase of the program.
“We plan to work with the staff here, helping them learn how to raise condors and then providing females so this species flies free in the skies of Mexico again,” Mace said.
Baja California was the first Mexican state chosen as a release site for condors hatched in San Diego. Since 2002, the San Diego Zoo has worked with the Center for Scientific Investigation and Higher Education in Ensenada, which biologists believe is the southernmost point inhabited by California condors.
“The birds that are raised here at the Chapultepec Zoo will be released in the wild in Mexico, and that will be as exciting for them as it has been for us,” Mace said.
After bringing the California condor back from the brink of extinction, “the emphasis has shifted to developing a sustainable population in the wild,” Mace said. “With Chapultepec as our new partner, it diversifies the populations of birds.”
Ebrard called the condor effort a sign of “the United States' interest in sharing with Mexico programs that are important for both countries, especially in the area of environment.”
The arrival of Away and Aqimowon was a coup for Chapultepec Zoo, which is the third place in the world to have California condors on exhibit. The San Diego Wild Animal Park and the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, are the others.
Zoo officials were so nervous when the condors showed up that they peppered Wild Animal Park officials with the questions often asked by anxious new parents. What foods do they eat? Do they need heaters in their enclosure?
“I assured them that the condors are very hardy,” said Dan Sterner, who manages the wild bird department in the park near Escondido.
Sterner and Mace said their goodbyes to Away and Aqimowon yesterday before heading back to San Diego. As they got ready to leave, Mace glanced back one last time and said, “They're in great hands.” |
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