Twenty Endangered California Condors Die Amid Avian Flu Outbreak | Sensible Information

After getting back from the brink of extinction, critically endangered California condors at the moment are battling a brand new, lethal menace: the avian flu.

In latest weeks, 20 California condors have died, together with 13 that laboratory testing confirmed had been contaminated with Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), in response to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). A further two condors examined optimistic however are nonetheless alive, and outcomes from 4 different birds’ assessments are pending.

Wildlife officers concern the extremely contagious virus, also referred to as H5N1 chook flu, will proceed to unfold among the many small however rising inhabitants of North America’s largest birds, undermining a long time of sluggish restoration efforts. The virus, which has been sweeping the continent since December 2021, has additionally killed bald eagles and prompted business chook farmers to slaughter thousands and thousands of chickens and turkeys to restrict transmission.

The now-deceased condors had been a part of the Southwest flock that flies freely all through the desert panorama of northern Arizona and southern Utah; the flock’s vary contains quite a lot of protected public lands, together with Zion Nationwide Park, Grand Canyon Nationwide Park and the Vermillion Cliffs Nationwide Monument.

California condors very practically disappeared from the Earth within the Nineteen Eighties due to human-caused points, together with habitat loss and poaching; many additionally died from lead poisoning after ingesting bullet fragments whereas scavenging animal carcasses, per the USFWS. Their numbers reached a low level of simply 22 surviving wild condors in 1982. Over the following 5 years, conservation teams led by the USFWS captured all remaining birds in an effort to save lots of the species.

Since then, profitable captive breeding applications have bolstered the species’ numbers: In 2019, wildlife officers celebrated the 1,000th California condor chick hatching since restoration efforts started. In complete, 347 California condors flew freely within the wild and one other 214 lived in captivity as of December 2022, the newest numbers accessible.

With a complete world inhabitants of simply 561 birds, the 20 latest deaths signify a major loss to the species—roughly 3.6 p.c. Extra narrowly, the deaths make up 17 p.c of the Arizona-Utah flock, which had 116 particular person birds previous to the outbreak, in response to the nonprofit Peregrine Fund, which manages that flock.

“Losses embody 14 breeding-aged birds, 11 of which had not too long ago been noticed to be nesting or tending to younger,” per the group. “In a matter of weeks, this occasion has set our restoration effort again a decade or extra.”

Although California condors can stay to be greater than 50 years outdated, they’re sluggish to breed—the birds don’t breed yearly, and females lay only one egg per tried nesting interval. Younger birds should stay with their mother and father for not less than a yr and take between six and eight years to achieve breeding maturity.

Because of this, the deaths are a “substantial setback” for the flock, nevertheless it’s “not insurmountable,” says Ashleigh Blackford, California condor coordinator for the USFWS, to the Ventura County Star’s Cheri Carlson. Up to now, HPAI doesn’t seem like affecting the condor populations that stay in California.

Ornithologists suspect that unusually chilly and moist winter climate might have contributed to the virus’s unfold. However they’re beginning to really feel barely extra optimistic as temperatures within the area creep upward this spring; some particular person birds which are receiving “supportive care” additionally seem like enhancing, per the Peregrine Fund.

As HPAI spreads, the birds are nonetheless susceptible to habitat loss and lead poisoning. USFWS officers are consulting with avian flu specialists, veterinarians and different companions all through the California condors’ habitat to find out how finest to handle this rising menace. With no identified vaccine, biologists concern the virus might, at finest, “set again California condor restoration for years, and on the worst, it might decimate the inhabitants,” as Ileene Anderson, senior scientist with the nonprofit Heart for Organic Range, tells New Scientist’s Corryn Wetzel.

With wingspans of greater than eight toes, California condors are the biggest birds in North America, in response to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Like buzzards and vultures, condors are scavengers—aka nature’s clean-up crew—that feast on the stays of lifeless animals. In doing so, the birds assist stop transmission of ailments from animal carcasses to people, livestock and wildlife.