The number of California condors in the wild are flying higher after being on the brink of extinction in the 1980s.
There are now nearly 100 of the large birds with black plumage in Central California and 500 elsewhere.
Kelly Sorenson, the executive director of Ventana Wildlife Society, said his group has been releasing bred condors since 1997 as part of the California Condor Recovery Program.
“The condors [are> a great example of how we’re able to achieve what we have,” Sorenson said, who compared the revived species with formerly endangered bald eagles and Peregrine falcons. "It's just a huge success."
The Society plans to release six more birds in San Simeon Valley in the coming weeks.
The main known killer of the condor is lead ammunition, which can poison the birds after consuming prey that had been shot by a lead bullet.
It became illegal to hunt wildlife in California with lead ammunition in July.