A four-and-a-half month old condor has successfully made its first flight attempt from Utah’s Zion National Park. The condor chick stretched its wings and stumbled out of its nesting cave, located on a red-rock cliff. Being the only condor chick in the national park, the hatchling’s flight was a sign that California condors are coming back from the brink of extinction, as the Los Angeles Times detailed:
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Tim Hauck, who manages the condor reintroduction program for the Peregrine Fund group, described the 4½-month-old condor’s flight attempt as a “controlled fall.”
“The chick soared downward from the nest and landed on a lower cliff ledge,” Hauck said. “We expect it to stay there for a while with its parents.”
Park rangers have nicknamed the surviving chick “1K” because it was the one thousandth condor hatched as part of the lengthy effort to boost the population.
“We’ve been looking forward to this all summer, and we’re excited to see the chick continue to learn how to fly,” said Eugene Moissa, a park spokesman.
The new chick’s parents are the only identified condor breeding pair in the park and are estimated to have been together two years.
image credit: National Parks Services / AP via theLos Angeles Times
Source: neatorama