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October can be a busy month at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Condor Breeding Facility. This is the time of the year when we start to prepare for the next breeding season: clean nests, conduct routine health exams, and provide maintenance to flight pens that were previously off-limits to keepers because of the presence of our young chicks slated for release to the wild. But before we can start anything, we need to move the recently-fledged chicks to their new home—our socialization pen.
Our remote socialization pen is approximately one mile from the main part of the Safari Park. There, this year’s Condor Cam chick, Saqutinan (sah-koo-TEE-nahn), is isolated from any human activity and is socializing with other fledglings his age. In the wild, condor chicks stay with or around their parents for up to 18 months. We don’t let them stay that long here at the Park. If we did, the next breeding season would probably be compromised; the presence of the fledgling may prevent the parents from breeding the next year, or the parents may become aggressive towards the youngster if they try to nest again.
Saqutinan fledged into his parents’ flight pen on September 13 at 158 days of age. Father Sisquoc and mother Shatash kept a close eye on him as his flying skills improved and he began to eat on his own. We moved him to the socialization pen on October 3. Before his move, we affixed a wing tag to Saqutinan’s right wing for identification purposes. He is wearing blue wing tag with the number 61. He is now sharing this large pen with five other condors:
- Paka (PAH-kah): Female, 1 ½ years old, wearing blue tag 10 (right wing).
- Sununa (soo-NOO-nah): Male, 6 months old, wearing yellow tag 56 (right wing).
- Kuhmii (KOO-my): Male, 6 months old, wearing red tag 59 (right wing).
- Kiwanan (KEE-wah-nahn): Male, 6 months old, wearing blue tag 62 (left wing).
- Acis (AHTS-eess): Male, 6 months old, wearing red tag 67 (left wing).