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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
March 10, 2021
Oregon condor program adds nine new prospects
D
uring a blessing cer-
emony seventeen years ago,
atwai Wasco Chief Nelson
Wallulatum bestowed the
name Kun-wak-shun upon
the first California condor
chick hatched at the Oregon
Zoo. The Wasco name Kun-
wak-shun refers to thunder
and lightning—the tradi-
tional Native association of
the condor: The bird’s voice
was thunder and its eyes
would flash lightning. In
some Wasco tradition the
condor came from the Pa-
cific Ocean. In later and
more ominous years a
darker association arose, as
the bird was often seen dur-
ing the smallpox, malaria
and other plagues that set-
tlers brought to Native Co-
lumbia River tribes.
The condor is among the
sacred Native wildlife, and
Oregon Zoo
In-captivity condor eggs
are kept in an incubator.
its likeness is a traditional el-
ement in beadwork, basketry,
regalia and hieroglyphic de-
signs of the Paiute, Wasco
and Ichishkeen tribes of the
Northwest.
Atwai Chief Wallulatum
long advocated for the re-
turn of the California con-
dor, or Thunderbird, to the
Northwest. And so in 2004
he was asked to bestow a
name upon the first in-cap-
tivity Oregon Zoo chick,
Kun-wak-shun.
The Native history of the
condor is from time imme-
morial. For example: At an-
cient tribal village sites along
the Columbia, archaeologists
have found 9,000-year-old
condor bones. Because of
the accumulation of bones
at specific sites, speculation
is that Wasco people may
for some reason have kept
the birds in captivity.
In the nineteenth century
the arrival of non-Native
settlers brought the demise
of the condor to the Oregon
Territory and beyond. Lead
poisoning was a main cause:
The adult condors would in-
gest carrion and other game
that had been shot with lead
bullets. Passing through the
system, the eggs of these
condors were then deci-
mated. The plight of the
species was such that in
1987 U.S. Fish and Wildlife
biologists captured all of the
remaining wild California
condors in North America.
At the time there were 22
of them.
Through a captive breed-
ing program, in partnership
with the San Diego Zoo and
others, biologists in 1992 re-
introduced condors into the
wild. Today, there may be
more than 300 of the birds
in the wild.
In more recent years,
with lead bullets banned
from hunting, a challenge in
California has been loss of
habitat due to wildfires.
Wild California condors
live in California, Arizona,
Utah and Baja California,
Mexico. As of yet they do
not live in the wild in Or-
egon or the Northwest.
The Oregon Zoo joined
Oregon Zoo
Condor at the Oregon Zoo.
the California condor breed-
ing program in 2003, when
they welcomed their first six
breeding pairs.
The following year saw
the birth of the zoo’s first
in-captivity chick, Kun-wak-
shun. And this year the zoo
reports the breeding pairs
have produced nine addi-
tional condor chick eggs.
At adulthood the con-
dors will grow to be the larg-
est North American birds
with a wingspan up to ten
feet.
Dave McMechan