Seven Condors Released, Safari Park Reaches 200

Seven young California condors bred at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park were released over Yurok Country in Northern California, bringing the park’s total number of condors released into the wild to 200. The birds join 26 already living at the site, part of a restoration program run by the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks; they are the first Safari Park-bred condors released there. The release advances efforts to restore the species to a region where it had been absent since the late 19th century and carries particular cultural significance for the Yurok people. After falling to just 22 birds in the early 1980s, the California condor population has grown to more than 600, with over half living in the wild.