A California condor released into the wild last winter has been missing since August and is now feared to have perished, possibly from smoke from a forest fire, officials said.
The bird's apparent demise, while certainly a "minor setback" for condor reintroduction efforts, still is the only such loss in the past 18 months, said Jane Hendron, information and education specialist with the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura County, headquarters for the California Condor Recovery Program."It's something that we're unhappy about but is going to happen from time to time in an ambitious effort like this," she said Thursday. "Especially with inexperienced juvenile birds like these, mortalities are to be expected.
"We remain committed to moving forward and are very excited about many positive developments in the reintroduction program."
The bird, one of 17 specially bred-and-released condors in Southern California, was last seen Aug. 14 near McPherson Peak in the Los Padres National Forest, accompanied by another condor.
The birds were flushed from McPherson Peak and were seen flying toward the Sisquoc area. Both birds remained unaccounted for until Sept. 5, when one of the pair was observed among a group of condors in the Lion Canyon area.
The other condor has not reappeared.
"The length of time involved and the failure to pick up any radio signals (the condors are outfitted with transmitters) leads us to believe the condor has died," Hendron said.
Hendron said one theory among biologists who track the movements of the endangered birds is that the missing condor may have flown too close to a burn area in the Machesna Wilderness Area and been overcome by smoke.
The California condor population - estimated at about 600 around 1890 - reached a low ebb of 22 in the mid-1980s before U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials made the controversial decision to capture the birds and begin a breeding and reintroduction program.