Cranky Evacuees
Good article in the Union-Tribine on San Diego’s Wild Animal Park and the efforts to evacuate the animals, including a number of endangered species under their protection. Six hundred acres were scorched at the park, but none of the public areas were reported damaged.
Among the endangered species threatened by the fire were five California and two Andean condors housed in the breeding facility.
They were also the hardest to capture, Mace said. The birds have 10-foot wingspans and a bad attitude.
Mace said the birds were anxious because of the fire and disliked being chased around their enclosure by pesky humans.
The article includes a good photo at the end showing how close the fire got to the public areas. This is a self-portrait taken overlooking that same valley last November.
The WAP website has this additional info:
Of the over 3,500 animals that reside at the Park, two animals (a clapper rail and a kiang) were lost due to complications from the fire.
(Never heard of either one but it’s still sad).
I thought this article was particularly interesting because when following the news on Monday morning I never even thought about the logistics of moving the birds. I remember thinking about what kind of truck would be needed for giraffes, and trying to imagine herding rhinos and elephants into pens at 5:00 in the morning, but how to catch a condor, or any of the other birds in their aviaries, under those conditions never even crossed my mind.