Condor kids these days want it all — their choice of sun, cliffs, forests, and water. A juvenile California condor took time to scope out her first wild home then headed north for new vistas. Hatched in the Portland Oregon zoo, California condor T-2 was two years old when released at the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument near the Arizona-Utah border in March 2018. Three months after being released, she had travelled 440 air miles and was spotted in Wyoming’s Snowy Mountains on July 8th.
California Condors can soar on warm thermal updrafts for hours, soaring with the wind at ground speeds of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes of 15,000 feet. Flights up to 225 miles in a day have been recorded. Condors hold their wings in a horizontal position and fly very steadily, unlike turkey vultures which fly with their wings held in a V-shape and appear to be unsteady or “wobbly.” Most often the condors can be seen flying in lazy circles riding the thermals and updrafts along mountain ridges while they progress forward at about 10-15 miles per hour.
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From Condor Cliffs Facebook post
Greetings! We have been receiving some exciting reports and photos of a condor on the move. With a wingspan of 9.5 feet, it is no surprise that condors can cover great distances and condor T2, know to us biologists as 832, made it all the way to the Snowy Mountains outside of Laramie, Wyoming! That's approximately 440 miles to the northeast (as the condor flies) from the Vermilion Cliffs release site. This youngster is on the move! Condor 832 was hatched and reared in 2016 at the Portland Zoo, and in March of 2018 she took her first flight into the wilds of the Vermilion Cliffs.
She is not the first condor to wander into Wyoming. In the early days of the program a condor made it all the way to Flaming Gorge, Wyoming before heading back to the release site in northern Arizona.
By all accounts 832 appears to be healthy and alert. We are currently monitoring her whereabouts and will keep you all posted on the details of her trip as they unfold. In the meantime, if you should encounter her or any other condor in the wild, please enjoy by keeping a safe distance between yourself and the bird. Please respect wildlife and keep them wild by never approaching or feeding wild animals.
Photos courtesy of Gregory Krumm, Libby Megna and Brian Waitkus
Here’s a video of a different condor being re-released at the Vermilion Cliffs in 2016 after a health check. California has lead ammo regulations (full ban must be implemented by July 1, 2019) that reduces the risk of lead toxicity in condors. But Arizona and Utah (the normal range of Vermilion Cliffs condors) have no ban. Nor does Wyoming.
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