As of today, anyone with Internet access can watch nesting California condors raise their baby chicks on a live-streaming webcam of a condor nest near Ventura County’s Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. Check out the stream here.
In addition to raising community awareness about the endangered birds, which almost became extinct in the 1980s, biologists at the Santa Barbara Zoo will use the video as a tool to monitor growing chicks.
The idea was conceived in 2010 by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees after a condor nest failed because of an injured chick. Since then, conservationists in both the Ventura and Big Sur areas have worked to install two real-time cameras, the Southern California camera as well as another camera in the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Sanctuary in Big Sur.
The condor couple currently being observed in the Ventura County nest hatched their first chick last April. Together they create one of only 11 active nests in the state.