SAN PASQUAL VALLEY -- Some of the smallest and rarest evacuees of last year's Witch Creek wildfire settled into newly rebuilt quarters with little trouble Monday after keepers released five condors into a hatchery behind the scenes at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

The move did include a few brief moments of anxiety.

When keepers opened the gates on their plastic crates, a pair of Andean condors -- a male named Apollo and a female known as Athena -- jumped right out but then stopped to stare at human onlookers for several long moments began spreading their wings to catch the sun's warmth and exploring their new shared pen.

Their 7-month-old, unnamed chick was far less brave. An hour after its crate gate was opened, the youngster was still inside.

Released in an adjacent pen, a male California condor named Simerrye and its mate, Ojja, alternated between checking out the visitors and flying onto the roost, boulders and other features of their new quarters.

The scene was far more relaxed than it was exactly a year earlier in the same location.

The evening of Oct. 20, 2007, saw keepers frantically evacuating five California condors and two Andean condors as the massive, fast-moving Witch Creek wildfire advanced on the hatchery.

Twelve hours after the hasty relocation, flames had reduced the birds' home to a 2-foot-pile of ash and burned 600 of the park's 1,800 acres.

Part of a 16-year-old breeding program designed to increase wild condors' numbers, the lost hatchery gave condor pairs indoor and outdoor places to mate, lay eggs and tend to chicks before the youngsters were moved in preparation for possible release to the wild.

Animal park bird curator Michael Mace said Monday that the building's loss forced the park to get creative about housing the two dozen or so condors they were tending at the time of the fire.

"We immediately started planning (the replacement hatchery) and working with the insurance company because it was important that we be ready for the next breeding season," he said.

Condors typically begin courting in fall and start producing eggs as early as December. The new hatchery was finished last week.

Watching the condors released Monday adjust to their new environment, senior condor keeper Sheila Murphy described a controlled but frantic evacuation that included chasing birds until they were too tired to evade capture.

"We saw the glow of the fire; it was coming," she said. "All I could think of was getting them all."

Two more pairs of condors are scheduled to be moved into the new hatchery in the next few days. Murphy said she was happy with the bird behavior she was seeing so far.

"There is really very minimal displacement," the keeper said, adding that the chick's reaction was no surprise because that bird has never been out of the temporary facility in which it was born. "She's scared. But this (facility) is beautiful. They did a very wonderful job with it."

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.