Topa Topa
This California Condor image is a capture made of a famous character named Topa Topa, also known as just Topa.
Topa was born in the wild but was not doing well at the game of survival. As a result, he was brought into captivity and housed at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1967. He was the only California Condor in the captive state until 1982. It was about that time and shortly thereafter all California Condors were removed from the wild and became a part of a breeding program designed to restore and re-introduce a larger, viable, free-roaming condor population. Topa has been an important part of that program siring many of these magnificent birds that have been returned to soar free. Prior to the captive breeding program, I will never forget the day we saw a substantial portion of the then-current population. The year was 1971 and Vicki, myself and one of my college profs were exiting the Sespe Condor Sanctuary north of Los Angeles when 13 condors flew right over the top of us. It was truly a Pleistocene moment.
Awesome would be an understatement. I met Topa around 1980 at the Los Angeles Zoo while he was still on public display and not yet a part of the breeding program. He was a very curious and amiable creature. I managed to grab a few portraits of this remarkable entity, but … the thing I recall most about him is that he seemed to actually enjoy the attention of the camera and lens as he hammed it up and posed.
~ Anecdote and California Condor capture, Topa Topa © Jerry L. Ferrara