Edition: U.S. / Global

Zoo Condors to Be Released in Andes

Published: December 16, 1997

Five condor chicks born and raised in captivity will be released into the Andes on Thursday and tracked by satellite to gather information that could make it easier to re-introduce condors into countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

The scientists directing the program hope that the chicks will be adopted by wild condors. The young birds will be released with tiny transmitters attached to their wings so they can be tracked.

Condors live throughout the Andes but are in danger of extinction in most of South America, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

When fully grown, condors have a wingspread of about 10 feet, making them the world's largest flying birds. Condor chicks usually cannot fly until they are a year old.

The chicks will be set free near the resort town of Bariloche, 990 miles southwest of Buenos Aires.

The birds were raised in captivity at the Buenos Aires Zoo, then taken to the town of Valle Encantado, not far from Bariloche, and held in special cages away from people.

Once released, the birds will be allowed to fend for themselves but will get some help from researchers, said the project director, Luis Jacome of the Buenos Aires Zoo.

''As time goes by, the chicks will gain self-confidence,'' Mr. Jacome told Diarios y Noticias, a private news service, ''but they will continue depending on us for another year so we will continue to take food to them.''

Condors prefer to eat carrion but will attack animals as large as deer.

Two months ago, wild condors apparently recognized the chicks as their offspring, program officials said.

Argentina and Chile have the largest population of wild condors in Latin America, Mr. Jacome said, although they have not been studied closely. Scientists have attached radio transmitters to condors in the past, but the signals are often distorted or blocked by the high mountains.

The researchers are trying to prove theories that condors can fly up to 120 miles a day searching for food and that they can fly from east to west across the Andes.

Another project member, Lorenzo Sympson, said that science was not the only goal. He said that setting the condor chicks free would be ''personally a very emotional moment.''