Galloping around Oregon Zoo with their 9-foot wingspans and bloodshot red heads, in the words of zookeeper Gwen Harris, condors are goofy creatures.

Their feather-ruffling mating signals are especially off the wall to Harris. When they put their heads down, wings out and walk in circles, Harris said, that is their way of saying, Hey, Im in the mood. Lets have a baby.

After near-extinction during much of the 20th century in the Pacific Northwest, condors now have a $2.3 million home for animal admirers to fawn over their striking features and effervescent personalities. The zoo has participated in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service California Condor Recovery Program in a secret rural Clackamas County location since 2003, hatching 40 chicks in about a decade.

On April 12, the Oregon Zoo opened a visitor path between Cougar Crossing and the Family Farm, allowing some fairly good views of the condors as they flap about the aviary, perching high on 20-foot tree snags. One of just a few condor exhibits throughout the world the third of eight major projects funded by the voter-approved 2008 zoo bond measure opens to the public May 24. And, until the end of their settling-in period, the huge scavengers will show off from a distance.

The exhibit is a natural destination for condors at the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation in Clackamas County that arent genetically valuable for breeding, arent effective mentors, and that arent suitable for release into the wild. In baseball, the No. 42 was retired after Jackie Robinson broke through racial barriers and became the first black player in the major leagues. At the Oregon Zoo, the number is synonymous with the most inquisitive condor around Kaweah.

Hes gonna be the star, Harris said.

At the Jonsson Center, Kaweah (42) was on thin ice for breaking eggshells and causing general mischief. He also proved to be a lousy mentor. Because zookeepers didnt feel comfortable sending him off into the wild, they decided to enlist him in an industry that better suits him the entertainment business.

Though he is a crowd pleaser, his mischievous self hasnt changed since being placed in the exhibit.

This guy is a handful, Harris said. If you set a tool down, he may take it from you and run off with it.

But Kaweah is just an extreme representative of a species that is naturally inclined to investigate anything and everything.

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The condors have landed