Condors being prepared for Grand Canyon trip

Monday, Oct. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

On Tuesday, biologists were scheduled to take the condors to pens in the 1,000-foot-high Vermilion Cliffs near the Grand Canyon to acclimate them before they are released there in December.

"Everybody is excited about this," said Michael Wallace, leader of the Condor Recovery Team and a curator at the Los Angeles Zoo. "This is the first time the horizon is clear."

The move, engineered by the California Fish and Game Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is part of a long-delayed project to reintroduce the birds in other parts of the West. It will mark the first time in 70 years that the condor will live in the wild outside California.

"You are spreading their eggs out to protect against a total disaster of the species. We want to start at least two different populations," Wallace said.

With a wingspread of 9 1/2 feet, the vulture is one of the world's largest birds. The species was saved from extinction a decade ago by a captive breeding program that has brought the population up to 120. But fewer than 20 birds have been released in the wild, all in California.