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Wildlife officials on the central California coast have completed an aerial search for a number of missing California condors following a wildfire.
While the results were disappointing, there is reason for optimism.
The Dolan Fire is burning on U.S. Forest Service land, now 25% contained and closing in on 30,000 acres. It destroyed a large condor habitat and research facility in Big Sur, leaving several of the endangered birds unaccounted for.
"We are very disappointed the surveys just didn’t turn up any of those missing birds," Sorenson said. "We are extremely grateful to Ecoscan Resource Data for doing those surveys, but just very disappointed that none of those nine birds were found."
There is hope that the chicks high in trees may have survived.
However, wildlife officials won’t know for sure until they were given permission to enter the burn area. Witnesses nearby have reported sightings of several of the surviving condors carrying food, a possible indication that one or more of the chicks survived.
One of the birds from the Big Sur sanctuary, Shadow, was seen over the weekend at Pinnacles National Park. The park is known to host a large population of wild condors.
According to Ventana, six condor chick nests have been subjected to wildfire over the last twenty years in central California. Five chicks survived.