WEBVTT

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The California condor was pushed 
to the brink of extinction

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when there were only 22 birds 
left in the world.

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Imagine that!

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22.

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This was because of pressures 
put on by human activities.

NOTE Paragraph

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The condor dates back to the Pleistocene.

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So some of the animals that have been
talked about today that lived in the day:

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Harlan's giant sloth, the American 
mastodon, the saber-toothed cat.

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The condor lived among those.

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Can you imagine?

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But it was the only one of them 
to survive to today.

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After 10,000 years, fossil records show

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that it was in upstate New York 
and northern Florida.

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And then as European settlers 
pushed across the country,

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its last stronghold
was from Vancouver to Baja Mexico.

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The condor is unique.

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It's the largest flying bird 
in North America

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with a nine-and-a-half foot wingspan -
that's two feet more than this.

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It lives more than 60 years.

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As a K-select species,
it has a slow reproductive rate.

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And it's sexually mature 
about five to six years.

NOTE Paragraph

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After those 10,000 years,

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in 1987, there was a great debate.

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The condor was declining 
at such a rapid rate,

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there was fear of losing it 
to extinction.

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It was from contaminants in the wild,
such as lead and DDT,

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and electrocutions and collisions 
with power lines and power polls.

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On one hand, a group
of people were saying,

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"Let the species die in dignity."

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On the other hand,

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a group of people saying this
was not a naturally occurring extinction,

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and that we had
a responsibility to intervene.

NOTE Paragraph

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So after lawsuits and debates, 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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took the bold step 
of safeguarding the condor

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while some of these issues were being 
resolved by placing the remaining birds

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in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park 
in Los Angeles Zoo.

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After 10,000 years,
the condor was extinct in the wild.

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Now, you can imagine the weight
on those two zoos

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with given these birds to care for

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and making sure they didn't go
extinct on our watch.

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We had to draw on a variety of resources.

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We had to use what I call
"Conservation innovation,"

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literally writing the book
as we were trying to save the species.

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We had to draw on our own experience 
working with closely related species

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like the Andean condor 
and other avian species.

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But we had to quickly assemble 
a variety of resources and science.

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We had to design and construct breeding
centers like this one at the safari park.

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This is a series of aviaries 
with nest chambers associated with it.

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There were folks who said we would never
be able to breed this species in a zoo.

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The entire goal was always
to release the bird back into the wild.

NOTE Paragraph

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So we had to take certain steps 
as we progressed towards that.

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We had to even design in the facility, 
you can see in this slide,

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[concertina] wire on the top 
of the perimeter fence.

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The reason for that is the debate 
was so contentious about condors

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that people were threatening to break in

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and release the condors
back into harm's way.

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I can remember spending a few nights
myself out at the park,

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making sure that didn't happen.

NOTE Paragraph

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We had to employ techniques 
like double-clutching.

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In the wild, a condor raises 
one chick every two years.

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But by using this technique 
of double-clutching,

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we removed the first egg

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and placed it safely in an incubator

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and then hatched it.

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That allowed the parents to raise 
what's called a replacement egg.

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So in that same two-year period,

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we were able to produce four chicks
instead of just one.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, we were concerned
about the birds imprinting.

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Again, the goal of releasing them
back into the wild.

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And so we developed hand puppets.

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And just to the side on that hand puppet
is one of our dedicated keeper staff,

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working round the clock
to feed and care for that chick.

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That puppet became its lifeline:

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It fed the chick,

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it socialized with the chick,

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and it played with the chick.

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At some point in that chick's life, 
it is placed in an area

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where it had the chance to look out 
through a portal and see other condors,

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so that it starts to understand 
what it's going to be.

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During this process - that's about 
six months from the time it's hatched

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until the time it's fledged.

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And sometimes when we fledge them

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if they're not fledging
with their parents,

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they're fledging them with mentors.

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Again the goal of reestablishing 
the species in the wild.

NOTE Paragraph

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In our labs at the San Diego Zoo, 
Center for Conservation Research,

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we had to make sure that we addressed
the issues of genetics.

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When the population was just at 22 birds, 
every individual was mapped genetically,

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so we knew the relatedness to each other.

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This was paramount when you're dealing 
with such a small population

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because we know the effects
of inbreeding with other species.

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Once those identifiers were made, 
then we took computer models,

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and we put all that data in there.

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And then from there, 
the parents were determined.

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Now fortunately, condors 
are very user-friendly this way.

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When we put just two birds together, 
just based on data and not behavior,

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most times they reproduced.

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This was imperative.

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Also in those same labs,

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for the first time,

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a process was developed to determine 
the gender of birds using DNA.

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This was from membranes 
left in the hatched eggs.

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This was really important for us also

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as we started to establish 
those new pairings

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that we were able to put them together
at the appropriate ages

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because otherwise we'd have
to wait five or six years

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to be sexually mature 
to know what genders they were.

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Also, in genetically managing
the population, we had to make sure

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that as we established 
new breeding centers,

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and we started to put birds back out

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into various release sites
in California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico,

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that we wanted to replicate the genes,

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so in the event there
was a catastrophic event

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like a wild fire or a disease outbreak, 
we had safeguarded all the genetic lines.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, some of the known factors
that I mentioned with causing

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the demise and decline of condors
was the collision with power lines

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and roosting on power structures.

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Now you ask, "Roosting on a power 
structure, a lot of birds do that?"

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But with a nine-and-a-half foot wingspan, 
they would touch wires and transformers,

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and electrocute themselves.

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So we used a technique,

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working with a local utility company 
to receive power poles.

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These mock power poles, we would then 
wire to deliver a mild electric charge.

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Condors are a very bright species,
very inquisitive.

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Bright enough to know that if it landed
on one of those power poles

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and received a shock once or twice, 
they would stop that behavior.

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That behavior modification directly 
translated to what happened in the field.

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When we released condors 
back into the wild,

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they stopped roosting on some of those
areas that had been hazardous to them.

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Now, they still flew
into some power lines,

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and the reason for that
is when you evolve like a condor,

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and you make your living
by riding thermals,

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you don't need to look ahead 
when you're a thousand feet in the air.

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And when you came up 
to a ridgeline riding a thermal

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and there was a power line, 
it would create these collisions.

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But the utility companies,
once they realized that,

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started to bury their power lines
in those key areas.

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Now, in a program like this
that's been going on for thirty years,

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some of these factors you can anticipate,

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some you can't.

NOTE Paragraph

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No one could've predicted

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that West Nile virus would arrive
in the United States in 1999,

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and quickly sweep across the country,

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taking with it human life,
as well as a lot of avian species.

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And the condors were not immune.
We lost condors to West Nile virus.

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But the Center for Disease Control
developed a vaccine that we used

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that required us to vaccinate
every condor in the population.

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Easy to say, but more difficult to do

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when you've got birds in the wild
as well as in the breeding centers.

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And once they're vaccinated, then
they have to receive a booster every year.

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Rather monumental thing that we have 
to do but to safeguard the population.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, one of the things 
that we also learned

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is the environment that we're putting
condors back into was fairly dirty.

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And we underestimated that.

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This is what we call microtrash.

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It's items that people leave behind
when they're out enjoying nature.

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It's bottle caps and pieces of glass
and plastic and electrical devices.

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And you can see by this radiograph
that microtrash in the body of a condor.

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It requires surgery to remove it.

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For the parents, 
they ingest this microtrash.

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We're not completely certain why,
but the theory is that condors,

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during certain times, take in small
pieces of bone for calcium,

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particularly when females
are getting ready to lay an egg.

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That behavior seems to have drifted 
to picking up these small pieces

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of what they believe are bone,
and it's actually microtrash.

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Now, condors serve an
important ecological niche.

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They're a scavenging species.

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Why that's important is because
they clean up the environment

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when an animal dies.

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They go down and feed on those carcasses.

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Growing in those carcasses
are toxins like botulism and anthrax.

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Those are harmful to us; they're certainly
harmful to other species of wildlife.

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And condors are immune to these
types of toxins, and so they clean it up.

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But in that behavior, 
they're indiscriminate feeders

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when they're feeding on a carcass.

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They're ingesting tissue and organ,
and small pieces of bone.

NOTE Paragraph

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And sometimes they ingest lead -
lead from sport hunting.

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Now, I have to tell you that hunters
have been on this planet

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since the dawn of man.

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And the hunting community generates
8 billion dollars a year for conservation.

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And it's important that programs
like that are sustainable.

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But as condors ingest this lead, 
it's toxic to them,

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as it is to other life forms.

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This is a radiograph of a piece of lead
that was taken out of a condor.

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Now, some of our greatest
conservationists, I have to say,

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people like John James Audubon, President
Theodore Roosevelt, were avid hunters,

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but they were more passionate
conservationists.

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So it isn't a issue of sport hunting;
it's an issue of toxin in an environment.

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And one of the ways
that it is is through lead.

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We've had lead in other products.
We've had lead in paint.

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And we found out that children
mouthing on their toys,

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chewing on their cribs,

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were ingesting lead through paint.

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And it was removed from that product.
It was removed from gasoline.

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Lead was even removed from shotgun shells
and replaced with steel

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because it was causing
problems with waterfowl.

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So we have the ability to make adjustments
in programs like this

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as it affects wildlife and humans.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, in a program like this,
we also have to anticipate

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what the next challenge might be.

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And I have to say that with wind turbines
coming into United States,

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it is a good green initiative to reduce
our consumption of fossil fuels.

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And wind energy
is one of those alternatives.

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And to date, there's never been
a condor taken by a turbine.

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But turbines have affected
other raptors like eagles and hawks.

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And so we're working
with utility companies,

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these wind energy companies,

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to develop techniques
to reduce the threat.

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One way to do that is looking at condors
and how they utilize their habitat

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through spatial ecology.

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That's not just looking at how condors fly
north, south, east and west,

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but how they fly in that
third dimension, in elevation,

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and working with companies to see
if they're willing to adjust the field,

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based on a condor's activity

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and understanding why condors
use the habitat that they use.

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That's part of the research
that's going on.

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Another way that we're working
with utility companies

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is early detection systems.

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Condors outfitted with devices
that would send a signal

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as they proceeded
towards a turbine field -

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one that's existing 
or one that's in planning.

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What that would allow
those energy companies to do

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is turn down or turn off those turbines
as those condors were flying through.

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In a program like this,
it is imperative to have collaboration

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from so many different people
and organizations.

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No one entity can do it by themselves,

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but collectively it's,
as we've seen, possible.

NOTE Paragraph

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So where are we today?

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We started with 22 condors
left in the world.

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Now we have more than 400,

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more than half of those flying free

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in the skies of California,
Arizona and Baja, Mexico.

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The program has gone full cycle.

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Whereas you can see, there's
an egg in the wild that's about to hatch.

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That dark spot
on that egg is a "pip" site.

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That is a chick about to emerge.

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And the picture on the bottom right shows
a chick that hatched in the wild.

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Birds that were raised in zoos
and breeding centers and released

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are now carrying out the life cycle
themselves in the wild.

NOTE Paragraph

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So people ask me all the time, "Why?"

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And we've heard this today,

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"Why spend so much resource
and so much energy to save a species?"

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If you look at these species like condors
and pandas and elephant and tiger,

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we share the same environments
around this planet as they do.

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We live in the same places.

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If you look at them as environmental
indicators, they're telling us

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how healthy the environment is
that we share with them.

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What we've got to do
is listen to what they're saying

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We have the ability to affect change.

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We've seen that.

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We've had the ability
to affect change around the world.

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We just have to make sure
that we continue those efforts

00:14:47.688 --> 00:14:49.914
because it is all possible.

00:14:49.914 --> 00:14:51.192
Thank you.

00:14:51.192 --> 00:14:54.182
(Applause)