U.S. Hopes to Seize All 6 Free Condors

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it plans to capture all six of the California condors still living in the wild and keep them in zoos to prevent them from becoming extinct.

The announcement drew a strong protest from the National Audubon Society, which argued that it is “biologically unsound” to capture all of the giant birds rather than to leave three free, as originally planned.

But Jan Riffe, chief of wildlife research for the federal agency, said that survival of the condors is too important “to be left to chance.”

At a press conference in Los Angeles, Riffe said that the decision was difficult but that “you’ve got to do something” to ensure the birds’ survival.

Alexander Sprunt IV, Audubon Society vice president for research, said, however, that he considers the decision a “betrayal” of trust and charged that the federal agency acted “unilaterally” without the knowledge of his own group or others involved in the condor preservation effort.