EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)
Breeding Facility, Oregon

Explanation:   This week we find ourselves in a secret breeding facility somewhere in Oregon, USA.  The mission: to bring back the California Condor to the wild in places where it has been extirpated for decades.  

The location of this facility is kept confidential for security reasons, and is not open to the public.  

Here are some rare photos of captive Condors.  Some 6 pairs are found here, and, amazingly, all are breeding.  

The young are eventually transported to equally secure and secret release sites in northern California.  But the dream is to someday release condors back into the wilds of Oregon, where they once soared free over a century ago. 

Immature condors have dark heads, but are as large as the adults.  

The remains of carrion fed to the condors.

Condors, like other vultures, have featherless
heads to avoid trapping remains of their food.

The birds are fed carrion -- dead mammals (rabbits, goats, and other small livestock), and are kept in large open-air pens that allow them some limited flight and movement.  

Acknowledgments.-- My gratitude to the Oregon Zoo and its condor breeding program staff -- especially Dr. David Shepherdson and David Moen -- for inviting me to participate in preliminary planning for an Oregon release program, and for hosting me at the condor breeding facility.