Rare bird spotted inside Zion National Park

Undated photo of the sign at the east entrance of Zion National Park, Utah | File photo, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — On their hike up Angels Landing in Zion National Park, Jessie Gariepy and Shane Wayment came across a teenage California condor known by state biologists and park officials as #1111. The juvenile bird is people-friendly, photogenic and lives off a nest cave north of the iconic sandstone hike.

File photo of California condor nestling #1111, as seen in Zion National Park, Utah, Aug. 29, 2021 | Photo by J. Stroud-Settles via the National Park Service, St. George News

The Utah Division of Natural Resources shared a photo of #1111 on its Twitter page last week in part because the sight is so rare.

There are about 100 California wild condors that live and migrate between southern Utah and Northern Arizona, including the nesting places of Zion and Grand Canyon national parks, according to the National Park Service.

As a critically endangered species, California condors are thriving under the protection of the federal endangered species law and the efforts of nonprofits such as the Peregrine Fund, which is working to help bring this bird back from near extinction.

The California condors were nearly extinct in the 1980s — at one point there were only 22 birds, according to the Peregrine Fund. There are now a reported 500 birds worldwide flying from southern Utah to Mexico.

These scavenging birds sometimes die from lead poisoning after ingesting bullet fragments embedded in gut piles left by hunters.

Read the full story here: SLTrib.com.

Written by ALASTAIR LEE BITSOI, The Salt Lake Tribune.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.

Copyright © The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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