This California condor is making history and giving ‘hope’ in Utah’s Zion National Park

A California condor recently was tagged as biologists celebrate the “second wild-hatched condor to fledge” in Utah’s Zion National Park.

The Peregrine Fund was able to tag California condor number 1111, representing the 1,111th condor “identified since the recovery program began,” according to a Feb. 22 news release by the fund.

A bird fledges when its feathers develop enough for flight.

1111 joins his brother 1k and nearly 350 condors in the monitored population that are free to fly in the wild, biologists said.

California condor 1111 hatched in April 2021 near Zion National Park’s Angels Landing and fledged in August 2021, according to the news release.

“Having a wild-fledged condor for the second time in Zion National Park not only highlights the steady growth of wild-bred condors in the Southwest condor population, but also exhibits the outstanding condor habitat in and surrounding Zion,” said Janice Stroud-Settles, Zion National Park program manager.

The California Condor Recovery program aims to “recover the endangered California condor” and is led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to its website.

“To be able to have 1111 in hand and know that it is thriving and healthy gives me great hope that the future of the species is bright,” said Tim Hauck, the fund’s reintroduction program director. “A true success story in the making but our work is far from over.”

Lead poisoning accounts for about 50% of deaths “for free-flying populations of condors,” the news release said.

In 2005, Arizona Game and Fish Department began offering hunters non-lead ammunition, and a similar program started three years later in Utah to help the conservation effort, the release said.

“We are encouraged by the support that our hunters have shown thus far, and expect that they will continue to support and spread the word about condor conservation and the benefits of non-lead ammunition,” said Danielle Finlayson, Utah’s Department of Natural Resources conservation species biologist, according to the news release.

1111’s parents are being monitored by the fund in hopes that they lay another egg soon, officials said.

Biologists are happy with 1111’s story but are eager to start the process of a third wild-hatched egg to fledge in the park, according to the release.

“Only 25 years ago we wondered if condors would ever breed again in the wild. And now here we are not only watching these birds survive, but taking great pride in how they are thriving,” Hauck said.

Zion National Park is about 310 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 11:21 AM with the headline "This California condor is making history and giving ‘hope’ in Utah’s Zion National Park."