Some of Big Sur's most displaced residents are those of the winged variety, as fires surge the canyons of California's popular residential and tourist destination. The endangered California Condor that has been carefully bred and then released into the Ventana Wilderness is being closely monitored at this critical time. Only two weeks ago, the Coast Guard airlifted eight birds, too young to release, from Big Sur to another shelter in the Salinas Valley.
A reported 43 birds live in the wild in the Big Sur area now, and wildlife experts are keeping tabs on them. To do so, experts have banded over thirty of the mature condors with a transmitter that beams a radio signal. The remaining ten condors bear a more sophisticated GPS tracking device, and one bird has been spotted as far as 100 miles southeast of Big Sur. Although the birds are well-equipped with technology and have been either moved or released, the Big Sur shelter with its holding pens and staff cabin lies empty in the severely-burned canyon.
To learn more about the California Condor Reintroduction Program in Big Sur, visit: http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/condors.html.