West Nile virus claims rare California condor
It was 1 of only 2 such birds hatched in the wild last year

An endangered California condor, born in the wild just three months ago in Ventura County, has died from West Nile virus.

The bird, one of only two hatched in the wild in California last year, was found nearly dead Aug. 25 in a nest in the Los Padres National Forest. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials attempted to revive the bird, but it died before they could airlift it for treatment.

Though adult birds have been vaccinated for West Nile, veterinarians continue to study whether antibodies are passed on to chicks. The dead chick's parents were inoculated with a West Nile vaccine in both 2003 and 2004.

"We know internal immunity is passed on from the female to the chick," said Denise Stockton, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "We were hoping the antibodies would last six months.

"Now, we will try to vaccinate chicks early on in their nests."

In captivity, condors are usually vaccinated at two and four months, said Cynthia Stringfield, veterinary coordinator for the California condor.

But in the wild, accessibility makes that difficult.

The condors live in shallow caves and rock crevices on sandstone cliffs. Federal officials must often travel by helicopter to get to them, then do mountain climbing and rappel.

"It is hard to retrieve them," Stockton said. "Our nest watchers saw this one wasn't doing well, but it was really difficult to get to it."

Stockton said the vaccinations would become a priority because of the West Nile death. The bird was infected by a mosquito, officials said.

"There isn't really anything we can do about mosquitoes out on the refuge," said Stockton. "We don't have standing water issues or anything like that."

The only other chick hatched in the wild this year was removed after it was found underweight. Veterinarians operated and found it had ingested trash, including plastic, shell casings and glass. It is dong well and may be released next spring.

Between two and four condor chicks hatch in the California wild each year. There are currently about 276 condors, up from a low of 22 in 1982, Stockton said. The number rose thanks to the captive breeding program in the zoos.

In order for the condor to be removed from the endangered list, there must be 300 in the wild and 30 breeding pairs. Half must be in California, the other half in Arizona.

Currently, there are about 50 in each state and about five breeding pairs, Stockton said.