Overview
- Ventana Wildlife Society staff, escorted by CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, opened a pen and released two California condors that had been trapped at the Big Sur sanctuary, an operation that succeeded Tuesday.
- The rescue team navigated hazardous, flame-lined roads for about three hours with Cal Fire battalion chief Curtis Rhodes guiding Ventana biologist Joe Burnett to reach the site and free the birds.
- The birds, program numbers 868 and 340, had spent months recovering from lead poisoning after treatment at the Oakland and Los Angeles zoos and were returned to the sanctuary to finish rehabilitation.
- The Timber Fire quickly engulfed the sanctuary’s lone access road and forced an earlier-than-planned release; Ventana said the release relieved immediate danger and it will give a public update and video on Aug. 27.
- The episode underscores two ongoing threats to condor recovery: lead poisoning from ammunition fragments, which remains a leading cause of condor deaths, and growing wildfire risk to remote conservation facilities.