Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
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Transcription
California Condor
Eben McMillan
3 June 1964
Suspected by the Stocktons and Mrs. Mona Curver, who banded
it. Dr. Stager stated that this Condor, that is recorded in his
Notes as 12 June 1962, was in very poor condition when it reached
his office, it only weighing [illegible] thirteen pounds at
that time. He also stated that the liver of this bird was
in a very degenerated shape, this having been due, Dr.
Stager thought, to disease or poison. This Condor
Nevertheless made up into a wonderful study skin and
remains, I think, as the most satisfactory specimen from
which valuable color data and feather development can
be obtained, of any specimen I have yet seen. It was
in full adult plumage and the head was all orange.
Dr. Stager stated that the best of his recollection, the
1947 Condor from the Bakersfield, Kern, Co. area had been caught
in a trap and had flown into a nearby tree where the trap
had become lodged in between limbs of the tree, thereby hanging
the bird by its leg when it tried to fly again. He also thought
this Condor had been alive when found, but very near
dying from the ordeal. Nevertheless it weighed 20 pounds when
put on the scales after coming into Dr. Stager's possession.
Dr. Stager understands the threat to all wildlife by the
multitude of hunters that swarm, particularly the
public lands, during hunting season. He recognizes this to the
extent that, he himself, never ventures forth onto public
lands during the hunting seasons. That is, public lands where
hunting is permitted by the public with no regulations as to
numbers.
Dr. Kenneth Stager stated that during 1960 and 1961 he had done-