Topa Topa: Condor Icon Turns 60

0:00Topotopa just turned 60 years old, and he's the first California condor ever to call a zoo home. This massive vulture, with a wingspan close to 10 feet, is a true legend in conservation. For Earth Month, the Los Angeles Zoo is celebrating him as their icon, since he's a founding bird in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Recovery Program. Over his life, he's helped produce around 300 condors, with 94 now soaring free and another hundred mentoring or breeding in the Bistist Program. Back in 1967, they rescued him as a scrawny one-year-old from Ventura County Mountains. After a quick rehab at the LA, zoo, they tried releasing him, but he couldn't hack it alone with no adults around, so he got a permanent spot there for his own good. Fast forward to the 1970s, when only a few dozen condors were left in the wild. In 1978, Topotopa broke ground again as the first one shown to the public, shining a light on the endangered species. By the mid-1980s, they brought all remaining condors into zoos to save them from dying

1:04out. His real magic kicked in behind the scenes with breeding. In 1993, he fathered his first two chicks, released to the wild, becoming the program's star player after years of prep. Today, the condor population has climbed past 600, a huge win from the brink, but lead poisoning from bullet fragments and carcasses and a new avian flu threat keep the fight going strong. Proving icons like Topotopa are still. Vito for the Long Hall. California News Today, powered by AI bringing you what matters.