Oral legends and traditions handed down
from generation to generation indicate
that condors have always played an integral
role in western American Indian culture.
Condors are considered to be sacred and are
revered in ceremony, song and dance.
In more recent times, the California condor
has become the subject of an intense and
sometimes controversial effort to save the
species from extinction. Faced with rapidly
declining numbers, scientists began
collecting wild-laid eggs and capturing
free-flying birds to breed them in captivity
with the goal of restoring a healthy
population.
California condors are the largest flying land
birds in North America. They weigh about
20 pounds and have wingspans of 91⁄2 feet.
California condors have bare heads and
necks, dull gray-black feathers and blunt
claws. They have a triangle-shaped patch of
white, visible only when airborne, on the
underside of their wings.
California condors can soar on warm
thermal updrafts for hours, reaching speeds
of more than 55 miles per hour and altitudes
of 15,000 feet.
California condors do not become sexually
mature until they are six years old and may
not start breeding until age seven or eight.
They nest in shallow caves found on cliff
faces that usually have nearby trees for
roosting and a clear approach for easy
takeoffs and landings. Typically, an adult
pair raises one chick every other year. After
leaving the nest, the juvenile may be
dependent on its parents through the next
breeding season.
Like all vultures, condors are carrion-eaters.
They prefer large dead animals such as deer,
cattle, and sheep, but will also eat rodents
and, more rarely, fish. If a meal has been
particularly big, they may have to spend
hours on the ground or a low branch before
they can take off again. Condors are
fastidious birds—after eating they clean
their heads and necks by rubbing them on
grass, rocks or tree branches. Condors also
bathe frequently and spend hours preening
and drying their feathers.
Condors probably never were numerous in
North America. The species once ranged
along the entire Pacific Coast from British
Columbia to Baja California. Fossils have
been found as far east as Florida and New
York. More recently, however, they were
confined to a horseshoe shaped area of
California that included portions of coastal
mountain ranges, the Transverse range and
the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
For years, no one knew precisely how many
California condors existed, although they
have been considered
a declining
species
since
the 1890s. One estimate put their number at
100 in the early 1940s. Another indicated
there were 50 to 60 in the early 1960s. By the
late 1970s, the estimate had dropped to 25 to
30 birds.
Although scientists cannot pinpoint the exact
reason for the reduction in the condor
population, random shooting generally has
been considered the single most serious
cause of the condor’s decline. Other factors
include collection of condors and their eggs,
poisoning from substances used by ranchers
to eradicate livestock predators, and
poisoning from ingesting lead bullet
fragments embedded in the carcasses of
animals the condors feed on. In addition, the
roads, cities, housing tracts and weekend
mountain retreats of modern civilization
have replaced much of the open country
condors need to find food. Their slow rate of
reproduction and years spent reaching
breeding maturity undoubtedly make the
condor population as a whole more
vulnerable to these threats.
Recognizing the California condor’s perilous
state, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
listed it as an endangered species
in 1967 under a precursor to the
Endangered Species Act of
1973. Endangered means a
species is considered in
danger of extinction
throughout all or a
significant portion
of its range, while
threatened means
the a species
is likely to
become
California condor
Gymnogyps californianus
The largest North American bird,
California condors weigh up to 25 pounds
and have wingspans of 91⁄2 feet. California
condors have bear heads and necks, dull
gray-black feathers, blunt claws and a
triangle-shaped patch of white on the
underside of their wings which is visible
only when they are flying.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
endangered within the foreseeable future.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, the California
Department of Fish and Game and the
National Audubon Society, along with other
government and private groups, began a
joint effort in 1979 to study and preserve
condors.
As part of this effort, biologists captured
condors, weighed and measured them, and
fitted some with tags and radio transmitters
so they could be monitored and identified
after being released. Biologists learned
about the condors’ feeding, mating, and
chick-rearing habits, as well as their habitat
needs. They also confirmed that California
condor pairs that lost an egg would lay a
second or even a third one.
To increase the condors’ egg production, the
biologists began removing eggs laid in the
wild in 1983. The eggs were taken to the San
Diego Wild Animal Park or the Los Angeles
Zoo for hatching. The first California condor
hatched in captivity in 1983. Nicknamed
“Sisquoc,” this condor and subsequent
chicks hatched from wild-laid eggs were
raised in an environment designed to
simulate their natural habitat.
Meanwhile, researchers began capturing
young condors in order to start breeding
them as quickly as possible before the wild
population declined further. Bringing
immature, non-breeding birds into captivity
would speed up the time it would take to
create a viable, breeding population.
Until 1985, biologists planned to leave at
least some condors in the wild. It was
believed the free-flying condors would
provide role models to captive-hatched
birds that could hopefully be restored to
the wild in the 1990s.
Then, disaster struck. Members of four of
the five remaining breeding pairs
disappeared over the winter of 1984-85, and
the wild population was reduced from 15 to
nine birds. With the number of wild condors
continuing to plummet in 1986, the biologists
decided to capture all remaining wild
California condors and bring them into the
captive breeding program. The last
remaining wild California condor was
captured in 1987. Two captive birds
successfully mated and produced the first
captive-bred condor chick the following year.
In 1988, the Fish and Wildlife Service began
a three-year reintroduction experiment
using Andean condors as stand-ins for their
endangered California cousins.
Between December 1988 and January 1989,
thirteen female Andean condors were
released, equipped with radio transmitters
for monitoring by biologists. Only females
were released to prevent reproduction in the
wild—accidentally introducing a new species
into a new habitat. These birds helped
scientists perfect release techniques and to
identify environmental threats before
California condors were reintroduced. One
of the Andean condors died after a collision
with a power line and the rest were later
recaptured and returned to their native
habitat in South America.
In January 1992, two California condors
were reintroduced into the Los Padres
National Forest’s Sespe Condor Sanctuary
in California, along with two Andean
condors. Biological studies indicated that
California condors develop better in social
groups. And because there were only two
California condors ready for release,
biologists made up the difference with the
Andean relatives. Later that year the two
Andean condors were recaptured,
transported to South America and released
in a protected area. To date, 68 California
condors have been released into the wild.
In the early years of the reintroduction
program some of the condors died after
colliding with power lines and others were
returned to captivity because biologists
considered some of their behavior improper.
By nature, condors are exceptionally curious
and show no fear of humans. And while birds
born and raised in the wild could learn about
the hazards of their environment from their
parents, captive-released birds have no such
role models.
Condors scheduled to be released to the wild
now undergo a power pole aversion training
program which uses mock power poles that
deliver a small electric shock to the birds
when they try to land on them. As a result of
this program condor mortality from power
line collisions has been greatly reduced.
Today there are 153 California condors alive.
Thirty-seven birds are flying free in
California and Arizona and 116 remain in
captivity. Three facilities are breeding
condors for release to the wild—the San
Diego Wild Animal Park, Los Angeles Zoo
and the Peregrine Fund World Center for
Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.
While the outlook for the California condor
is more promising than it was years ago,
there is more work ahead. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service will continue releasing
California condors into the wild in hopes of
establishing two separate, self-sustaining
wild populations of birds, one in California
and the other in Arizona.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
1 800/344 WILD
http://www.fws.gov
August 1998
Zookeepers use hand puppets that look
like adult condors to feed captively-bred
condor chicks.
