GOOD NEWS FROM EL NINO: MORE CONDORS.

Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer

It's been a long time in coming, but the California condor may soon be called the comeback kid.

Possibly as early as next month, federal wildlife officials plan to release six young condors bred at the Los Angeles Zoo, while the Peregrine Fund, a private environmental group, plans to release eight more, marking a high point in the more than 25-year fight to bring the condor back from extinction.

``It's taken a lot of work to get where we're at,'' said Mike Barth, a supervisory wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura. ``We'll add 14 to the 21 out there now. So that's a pretty big jump.''

The 14 birds to be released will equal the number of condors flying free in the entire state of Arizona.

Wildlife officials said by February they'll release six of the big black birds either from Lion Canyon, about 15 miles north of Santa Barbara in the Los Padres National Forest, or at an as-yet undetermined location in the southern Sierras.

The abundance of young condors is apparently related to last winter's El Nino, according to Jihadda Govan, a condor specialist and wildlife biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

``For some reason, El Nino produced a high number in the zoo,'' said Govan, who is assigned to monitor condors at the 2,450-acre Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge north of Fillmore. ``They had a very good year as far as egg viability. It's a trend that was seen all over by different biologists studying different bird species - not just the condor.''

But what has biologists excited is that the first group of condors bred in captivity and released into the wild will soon be old enough to reproduce.

``Right now, there are 11 birds that are approaching five years of age,'' Barth said. ``They're potentially capable of breeding at age 6. So this time next year, we'll be looking for breeding behavior. This is kind of an exciting time with the program.''

Since the first captively bred condors were released into the wild in 1992, the program has not been without its setbacks. Of the 67 condors released in California and Arizona, only 35 are now flying free in the wild. Nearly half either died in the wild or had to be returned to captivity because they were attracted to human activities. Six of the birds died after colliding with power lines - the leading cause of death among condors being tracked by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Eventually, officials hope that the state's condor population reaches 300, with 150 more in Arizona and Utah.

``Results do not come next year. They don't come in two years. It's a very long process,'' Govan said. ``People can be somewhat impatient with it. But it's definitely worth it.''

Part of the condors' problem is that there are few adult condors in the wild to teach the younger ones that are released.

``In nature, they would follow their parents to learn where to find shelter and food,'' Barth said. ``But they've picked it up pretty well on their own. A lot of condor behavior is innate. That's lucky for us because they don't have any adult role models.''

As the vulturelike condors expand their range, they have found their way to the southern Sierras and nearby grazing lands, which provide an abundance of cattle carcasses on which condors feed.

``Four years ago, their range was maybe 30 miles around the Cuyama Valley (north of Santa Barbara),'' Barth said. ``Now it's closer to 150 miles. We're finding that the more they get out, the more they find the historic condor haunts.

``They use the ridge lines as kind of their highways. They probably use a lot of landmarks. But they also use the updrafts coming off the ridges. So that may be how they are cuing in on the range cattle.''

The Hopper refuge was established in 1974 to protect foraging and roosting habitat for condors. And although there are no condors roosting within the reserve at this time, it is in the center of the condor's territorial range.

``I think we're in a good place now, and I see a bright future for the condor both here in California and in Arizona. It's a long-term project. And I think we're going to start seeing results soon.''