LOS ANGELES (KNX) - Wildlife experts are worried that an outbreak of avian flu will have devastating effects on the already critically endangered California condor population.
“We have lost 21 condors since March 30, and that’s close to 20% of that population out there in the Southwest,” said Ashley Blackford with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
California condors nearly went extinct in the 1980s. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s captive breeding program brought the population back up to 504 by 2020, but experts worry that all that work may be undone by the current avian flu outbreak.
“This particular avian influenza is extremely damaging because of the flocking nature of these birds,” Blackford said. The condors’ communal feeding and roosting brings large numbers of birds together, allowing the disease to spread.
For now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is discontinuing their practice of putting out supplemental food for young condors in order to encourage the birds to disperse over a wider area.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said in a press release that avian flu has been found in northern Arizona, but hasn’t yet been confirmed in the condor populations in California, Utah, or Baja California.
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