A condor question: Yurok tribe works toward reintroducing condors on North Coast

With the hope of seeing the California condor's nine-foot wing span again gracing North Coast skies, biologists with the Yurok tribe are busy studying the majestic bird's pedestrian cousin -- the turkey vulture.

Biologists spent much of last week on the hills around Kneeland trapping and testing the vultures, working just a stone's throw from where the last confirmed sightings of the region's wild condors occurred about a century earlier. Armed with a grant received last year, the Yurok tribe is hoping to lay the framework for the condors' reintroduction to the area, which would be of huge cultural significance to the tribe.

”The condor feather features prominently in our jump dance,” said Tiana Williams, a wildlife technician with the tribe, adding that the dance tradition, which has been passed down through generations, is very formulaic and specific. “To have a complete dance done in a correct way it is imperative to have condor feathers. We haven't had them in a very long time.”

Once prominent, California condor populations were dwindling by the early 1900s, as the long-lived, slow-maturing birds were being poisoned, hunted, captured and driven from the area. The last confirmed sighting on the North Coast was between 1890 and 1914, and the bird, now stuffed, is currently housed in the Clarke Museum.

By the 1980s, it wasn't just North Coast condor populations that were in trouble, but populations throughout the region.

Chris West, a senior wildlife biologist for the Yurok tribe, said the captive breeding has proven successful, and that some reintroductions were attempted in the early 1990s. However, he said the reintroductions weren't so successful, as some of the same factors that led to the birds' decline are still present in their habitats. Consequently, West said there was a very high mortality rate for reintroduced birds, and that's where the Yurok tribe's study comes in.

Armed with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the tribe is studying the Pacific Northwest condor habitat to identify and attempt to mitigate the things that pose risks to the condors -- the largest of which are believed to be lead contamination from hunters and the water-borne remnants of pesticides and chemicals used decades in the past.

West said the Yurok study is attempting to assess the presence of those threats by studying two birds with similar diets to the condors -- turkey vultures and ravens. West said the tribe has been working to trap both types of birds in a handful of locations on the North Coast to take measurements and, most importantly, blood samples to test for lead, mercury and organochlorines.

The trapping and testing process can be grueling, West said. It begins with huge traps loaded with bait, which in this case consists of lots of dead animals.

”You have to have a lot of dead stuff to create a lot of scent to attract the birds,” West said.

The biggest trick, West said, is attracting the first bird to the trap, as once you have one, others will be drawn in by their social instincts. Once there are about eight birds in the trap, West said biologists then set about taking samples and measurements before releasing them back into the wild. Then, there's lots of processing and testing to do, which West said sometimes keeps him up into the wee hours of the morning.

”I was processing bird blood until 4 a.m., so I'm

a little bit out of it,” West

said apologetically last week when first contacted by the Times-Standard.

West said the study is about halfway done, adding that the Yurok tribe was recently awarded another grant that it hopes to use to continue the study and to embark on an information-sharing campaign, including a Hunters as Stewards campaign, to try to raise awareness of the dangers of lead and other contaminants.

”That's something we're really excited about,” West said.

In the meantime, West said there's plenty more trapping and testing to do in order to paint a clear picture of the threats that await condors in the Pacific Northwest.

Williams said seeing condors again fly through the skies of the area would be huge for the Yurok people. Not only would it provide the feathers for the sacred jump dance, but it would also mean that the ecosystem is healthy enough to support the great birds.

”To actually have condors here would be hugely impactful for the people, the dance and just the concept of having a whole world again,” Williams said.

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Condors at a glance:

Gymnogyps californianus

Length: 46 to 53 inches

Weight: 15 to 21 pounds

Wingspan: 9 feet

Nesting: Cliffs and tree cavities

Breeding: Lays one egg, usually every other year

Maturity: Begin breeding at 6 to 8 years old

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Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com.