Blogger Profile: Michael Wallace
Dr. Michael Wallace received his M.S. in field ornithology and his Ph.D. in ornithology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has worked extensively with birds of prey throughout his career, most notably with the California condor recovery program for over 30 years. He has served as the California Condor Recovery team leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for over a decade as well as AZA's Species Survival Program Coordinator for California condors for over 25 years. As a conservation program manager, Mike directs the California condor release program in Baja California, Mexico. Other species he has worked with include giant peccaries, Andean condors, San Clemente loggerhead shrikes, and golden and harpy eagles.
Phantom Condor Chick Appears
Finally, on February 4, 2013, Juan and a crew member observed a juvenile condor showing behavior that stood out from the others. Further scrutiny revealed that the black-headed youngster had no tags. It was hard to keep the excitement contained as we realized that the phantom chick had survived! read more
Releasing Condors: Not So Easy
On Friday, September 18, 2009, we attempted to release three more California condors to the wild at our condor reintroduction site in Baja California, Mexico. We had conditioned the three new birds in the large aviary with our adult mentor, Xewe, since they arrived at the site from the Wild Animal Park on March 19. read more
Baja Condor Chick Update
With enough rope to make the 550-foot (170-meter) rappel to the cliff base, Juan Vargas and I moved steadily downward to this year’s only condor nest in the Baja California, Mexico, California condor release program. read more
