Original Wild California Condor Shot Dead
Thu Feb 20, 3:52 PM ET
By COLLEEN VALLES, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - One of the original California condors brought from the wild into a captive breeding program during the 1980s has been shot to death.
The bird, a female called Adult Condor 8, was captured in 1986 and released into the wild in 2000 after giving birth to about a dozen chicks. The carcass was found Feb. 13 in a remote area of Kern County.
"This is a senseless death that strikes a blow at our efforts to bring these great birds back from the edge of extinction," Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) said Thursday.
California condors are an endangered species, and anyone found guilty of killing one could face a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. No arrests have been made.
The bird was believed to be at least 30 years old and possibly as old as 40. It recently spent six weeks being treated for lead poisoning believed to have come from bullet pellets in a carcass it ate.
Condors once numbered in the thousands, but many died off as their habitat disappeared, power lines went up and poisons entered the food chain. Biologists captured the remaining wild condors in 1987 and began releasing them in 1992, after their numbers had grown to more than 60.
Now, there are 79 birds in the wild in California and Arizona and 118 in captivity at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
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