PAGE, Ariz. -- Three California condors are scheduled to be released to the wild in northern Arizona's Vermilion Cliffs National Monument next month.
Officials with the Idaho-based Peregrine Fund say the release is set for Sept. 24.
It will be the 17th public release of condors in Arizona since the recovery program began in 1996.
Condors are hatched and reared in captivity at The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise and transported to Arizona for release.
There currently are 70 condors in the wild in the Grand Canyon region. The world's total population of endangered California condors is 399 with 198 of them in Arizona, Utah, California, and Mexico.
There were just 22 condors in the 1980s when a program was started to save the species from extinction.
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