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Puff Daddy is one of our largest condors, but that doesn't stop him from trying to look even larger by puffing out the air sacs in his neck. All male condors do this to intimidate other males or to impress females, but Puff Daddy does this all the time. Even when he is being handled his cheeks and throat are awkwardly inflated: he just doesn't seem to know how to deflate! We don't think he's fooling anyone. His tough outward appearance is mixed with a naïve nature and he has been known to get into some real scrapes. Trash along Highway 1 in Big Sur is a constant problem for wildlife, a lesson Puff Daddy learned the hard way. Once, he somehow got an aluminum can stuck on his lower mandible, which made his face swell up even more and prevented him from being able to drink! Amazingly, he flew back to the flight pen where he had been released in the Big Sur backcountry. We have a trap there that biologists use to catch condors for health checks and the condors are normally extremely cautious before entering this portion of the flight pen. However, with the can seemingly glued to his face, Puff Daddy walked right in and waited patiently to be trapped, just as if he knew this was where he could get some help with his predicament! He recovered fully from the bizarre event and is a good reminder to everyone to clean up trash after ourselves and others.
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Puff Daddy was paired with Pinnacles-released condor #310 and they split their time flying over the high mountains of Big Sur and at Pinnacles National Park. In 2010, they fledged their first wild-born chick, condor #574.  He paired with #231, but unfortunately #231 went missing in May 2020 and is now presumed dead.