Ventana Wildlife Society

Iniko came home!

Watch Iniko along with nine other young condors on the San Simeon condor cam!

Catch the live-streaming release of Iniko to the wild on Saturday, December 4th.

What's New at Ventana Wildlife Society?

• Big Sur Condor Sanctuary Rebuild Update: Watch Video

• San Simeon Condor Release - Tuesday, November 2
This year, the cohort of five chicks are all female! Watch them on the Condor Cam.

live-streaming release

In honor of women in conservation science, both past and present, we asked your help in naming these young birds. Winning names: Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, Rosalie Barrow Edge, Jan Hamber, Dian Fossey. Our two condor interns who are watching over and caring for the young chicks in San Simeon will match the names to each condor based on personality and behavior they observe over the next month. Meet these new interns on our recorded September zoom-chat and hear the news about condor releases in November and the arrival of Iniko in San Simeon!

• USFWS Matching Funds 1:1, Help Us Restore the Flock

Thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species Fund, every dollar raised this year will be matched 1:1 up to $359,116. Please consider making a gift today and help the condor survive in the wild again.

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Double your donation online OR mail a check to:
Ventana Wildlife Society
9699 Blue Larkspur Ln, Ste 105
Monterey, CA 93940

make a donation online

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We wish to thank the Nootbaar Family Foundation, Nancy Eccles & Homer M Hayward Family Foundation, Susan Graham and Bruce Mengler, Ruth Smart Foundation, Kinnoull Foundation, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Avangrid Foundation, Sherilyn Dunklau, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Sylvanus Charitable Trust, Jean and Tim Weiss, and Mark and Joan Loebel and the many other donors who have contributed toward the matching grant by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Your support is crucial so that we can continue to:
- Conduct as many releases of captive-bred condors to the wild as possible
- Ensure population growth and healthy dynamics of the flock
- Ensure the survival of condor chicks and adult pairs as they successfully nest in the wild
- Minimize hazards such as lead poisoning from the ingestion of spent ammunition

Species Recovery
Conserving Native Wildlife and Their Habitats Since 1977

During 1986-2000, we released 70 juvenile Bald Eagles at our Big Sur wildlife sanctuary. Our goal was to establish a population of four adult breeding Bald Eagle pairs, in the hopes of creating a self-sustaining population. At our last count, we found 30 nesting territories. The wild Bald Eagle population is thriving!

Condors
Restoring California Condors to the Wild Since 1997

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By the 1980s, the California Condor population was in crisis, and
extinction in the wild seemed imminent. The dramatic decline of condors
in the 20th century has been attributed to shooting, poisoning, electric
power lines, egg collecting, and habitat loss. In 1987, the last wild
California Condor was taken into captivity to join the 26 remaining
condors in an attempt to bolster the population through a captive
breeding program. At that time, it was uncertain whether or not North
America's largest flying land bird (by wingspan, 9.5 feet) would ever
again soar in the wild.

Help Us Restore the Central California Condor Flock
Spring has brought new hope with the arrival of two new condor chicks and several others on the way! You can build upon this hope and help us restore the critically endangered California Condor to the wild. READ MORE

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Education
Connecting Youth to Nature Since 1992

Since 1992, we've been providing outdoor education programs for youth. We pick them up in our fleet of four 15-passenger vans, meeting in communities from Marina to Salinas, and inland from Prunedale to Greenfield. Our destinations have included whale watching boats in the bay, kayaks at Elkhorn Slough, tidepools at Point Pinos, caves in Pinnacles National Park, and forests in the Ventana Wilderness. We provide opportunities for children who have never experienced these things before and offer the discovery of a new world, new emotions, and new possibilities. More than 1,300 youth enroll in our outdoor education programs each year, but we still focus on the individual, their unique discoveries, and the potential they have to shape the lives of others.

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