Condors Eye Utah

Endangered species

Endangered California condors released last December in the Vermilion Cliffs of northern Arizona are making regular flights into Utah. They have been spotted several times near Bryce Canyon National Park and once at Moab.

“They don’t seem to have liked the Grand Canyon as much as we thought they would,” said Jeff Cilek from The Peregrine Fund, a Boise-based group caring for the rare vultures.

A group of five condors was spotted in June soaring off Bryce Canyon’s Rainbow Point - about 50 miles north of the Vermilion Cliffs.

The condors were harassed by a pair of peregrine falcons, another species on the endangered list. But the crow-size falcons posed no threat to the black condors with 10-foot wing spans.

The condors were back in northern Arizona the next day.

A different bird was spotted July 6 soaring along the cliffs near Moab - about 180 miles from the Arizona release site. The condor was forced to the ground by a pair of angry golden eagles that nest in the area. It landed just 30 feet from the park entrance road.

Repeated Utah sightings and the long distance traveled by these birds have surprised the experts. Biologists had anticipated condors wandering into Utah but believed most would move a short distance south from the Vermilion Cliffs into Grand Canyon National Park.

Eleven condors now are flying free in northern Arizona. A twelfth condor that was recaptured and sent to a zoo for treatment for exhaustion and should be returned to the group.

Four young condors produced in a captive-breeding program are scheduled for addition to the group in late September.