ZooNooz Article - MARCH 2007

Soaring to new heights

It’s almost graduation day at Flight School and Leslie is looking forward to spreading her wings, literally. MAGGIE CRUTCHER reports.

Photographs Helen Pantenburg and Jo Nevin

Leslie

Leslie just happens to be an Andean Condor, one of the largest of all flying birds, with a wingspan of nearly three metres. She will soon join Taronga’s renowned Free Flight Bird Show as the premier attraction, following in the "wingprints" of her father Bruce, a former star. But to arrive at this pinnacle of her career has been a lengthy process, involving many long hours of training.

Having been raised by her parents, Bruce and Connie, Leslie first had to get to know and trust her keepers. They then started training her to do simple tasks voluntarily, such as hopping onto scales for a weigh-in. Next, she had to be acclimatised to travelling in a (large) pet pack and then, in turn, get used to travelling in a vehicle. This was important as the keepers needed to start her flight training away from Taronga, where, if she were to overshoot the stage at the Bird Show amphitheatre, it’s a very long drop straight down to the ocean!

To expose her to different sights and different people, keepers took Leslie to various parks around Mosman, such as George’s Heights and Clifton Gardens. It was at the latter that Leslie had her first (unscheduled) long-distance flight.

Connie

The plan was to send her on a controlled drop flight from the road high on the steep hill above to a keeper waiting on the playing field below. As she flew down to the keeper, someone tripped over a bin with a great clatter, startling Leslie and causing her to abort the landing and to head back up into the wide blue yonder towards the other end of the field. Astonished visitors to Clifton Gardens that day must have watched in amazement as keepers ran frantically across the field in hot pursuit of Leslie as she soared high overhead. An Andean Condor in full flight is not a common sight around Sydney!

Despite this and one or two other unscheduled flights, training has proceeded well. Leslie loves people and loves her food, which the keepers always use as positive reinforcement during training. The final phase of Leslie’s free flight training has been at the Bird Show amphitheatre where she has been learning to take off from different heights. To help her out, a manual lift was purchased. She is now taking off from this, some six-and-a-half metres up in the air, and doing very well. A permanent lift is scheduled to be installed and once this is in place, Leslie will at last have her chance to become a star.

Little brother

Inti

There are very few Andean Condors in Australian zoos, so it was amid much excitement that another chick was hatched to Bruce and Connie in October 2006, particularly as the new arrival was only the second male ever to be hatched in Australia (his father, Bruce, was the first). He has been named Inti after an Incan sun-god; the Incas believed that condors pulled the sun across the sky each day.

When first hatched, Inti weighed just 125 grams. By mid-December, he weighed over two kilograms and was the size of a beach ball, albeit a very fuzzy one, covered in soft down. He should be ready for his first flight around April 2007, but will still be cared for by his parents for possibly another 12 months.

When fully grown, he should weigh around 13 kilograms and his brown junior feathers will have changed to the colour of his parents – black with white markings on the wings and a striking white ruff around his neck. Males are distinguished from females by the addition of a fleshy comb or caruncle, which sits atop their head. Males can even be identified by this caruncle while still in the egg. Females also have garnet-red eyes, whilst the eyes of males are brown. Andean Condors belong to the
family of New World (American) vultures. Adult pairs mate for life and, in zoos, they may live to 75 years of age or more.

Unfortunately, this longevity may not be true for condors in their natural habitat, the Andes Mountains in South America, where they are considered endangered, mainly due to persecution.

Here at Taronga Zoo though, Bruce and Connie are certainly ‘‘doing their bit” for their species, having bred three offspring so far: Megan, the first, who was hand- raised by keepers and went to a Queensland zoo; then Leslie, our soon-to-be star; and now Inti, the fuzzy beach ball. May this special family continue to grow and long may they soar to new heights.

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