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.