California Condor delicately treated for fractured wing at Oakland Zoo
Video footage from the zoo shows staff members carefully bringing the animal inside the facility to be assessed for injuries, where it briefly flies around its pen in short bursts.
Staff members at the Northern California Condor Restoration Program bring in a California Condor to be treated for a wing injury
Video footage from the zoo shows staff members carefully bringing the California Condor inside the facility to be assessed for injuries.
OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Zoo is home to a wide variety of cute and fascinating animals, one of which recently exhibited minor injuries that prompted officials to take action.
During this summer, staff members from the Northern California Condor Restoration Program noticed issues with the wing of the bird known as C0, and it was transported to the zoo’s Condor Recovery Center for further evaluation.
According to experts at the Oregon Zoo, condors stretch up to 10 feet from wingtip to wingtip, as the once-endangered species is the largest land bird in North America.
In 1987, the entire wild population was reduced to just 22 birds. They were finally reintroduced into the wild in 1992 after years of conservation and recovery efforts.
PAGE, AZ - MARCH 22: A rare and endangered California condor flies through Marble Gorge, east of Grand Canyon National Park March 22, 2007 west of Page, Arizona. Condor managers taking blood samples from the 57 wild condors in Arizona both before and after hunting season find that all 57 condors test positive for contamination by lead matching the isotropic fingerprint of the lead commonly used in ammunition, and that those levels rise significantly by the end of the season. Many of the condors become so sick that biologists must re-capture them for lead-poisoning treatments. Several condors die each year. Experts believe the condors are ingesting the lead as they scavenge gut piles left behind hunters because lead bullets shatter and fragment inside the kill. Officials in Arizona are encouraging hunters to use copper bullets instead of lead-based ammunition and in California a coalition of conservation groups have sued the California Fish and Game Commission in an effort to force a ban on lead ammunition in Condor ranges. The condors in the Marble Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs area easily fly as far west as Lake Mead, by way of the Grand Canyon, and to Zion National Park and far into Utah. With a wingspan up to nine and a half feet, condors are the largest flying birds in North America. In 1982, when the world population of California condors dropped to only 22 and extinction was believed eminent, biologist captured them and began a captive breeding and release program which has increased the total population to 278, of which 132 now live in the wild in Arizona, California, and Baja California, Mexico.
(David McNew / Getty Images)
Video footage from the zoo shows staff members carefully bringing the animal inside the facility to be assessed for injuries, where it briefly flies around its pen in short bursts.
D'OH! BABY DEER FREED FROM FENCE, RUNS RIGHT BACK INTO TROUBLE
Staff members at the restoration program noticed swelling in the bird’s wing and later determined that it had suffered a minor fracture.
"Fortunately, it was determined at Oakland Zoo that Condor C0 had just a small fracture, and is healing well," read a statement from zoo officials.