The California condor, once revered by the native American tribes of California, were almost extinct by the early 1980's. Now, they are a success story of hard work and determination by the two biggest breeding centers for the condors, the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo. From the brink of extinction, condors have been brought back and are now being released back into the wild.

For years though, the condor was in trouble and hardly anyone noticed the plight of this bird. By the beginning of the 1980's, there were less than thirty Californian condors left in the wild and people finally started taking notice. A joint program between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the California Dept. of Fish & Game, the San Diego Zoo, and Los Angeles Zoo was set up in 1982 to try and save this species.

The first step was to learn more about the condor in hopes of finding out what was killing it and how to help. Scientists at the San Diego Zoo and L.A. Zoo concluded that there were three main threats to this species. The three threats were: hunting of the bird for game (the condor being 45 inches with a wingspan of 120 inches proved to be a very big prize for hunters), residues from pesticides such as DDT making condor eggshells so thin that the parent condors would accidentally crush the eggs while nesting, and finally lead poisoning from un-recovered deer shot by hunters. The California Condor is a scavenger, meaning they eat dead animals and with deer that were shot by hunters, the condors would end up inadvertently eating the bullets in the deer as well.

Steps have been taken to try and minimize these risks, such as the banning of DDT, and putting the condor on the Endangered Species List (therefore making it illegal to hunt this bird). Unfortunately, there was little they could do for condors dying of lead poisoning other than asking hunters to use bullets made of non- toxic material and making sure that the buck shot was not left out in the wild.

While the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service tried to save the condor by fighting the legal battles, the San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo set up breeding centers in their zoos for the condor. They set about trying to capture the remaining condors in the wild and transport them to these breeding centers to try to increase the population. The last condor from the wild was brought to the breeding center in 1987. The first successful breeding of captive condors was accomplished in 1988 and by late 1995, the population had grown to 103 individuals.

In January 1992, biologists involved with the breeding program were able to start releasing some of the captive born young condors into the wild. Additional condors were just recently released on the Vermillion Cliffs near the Grand Canyon, the first condors to fly outside of California in 70 years. Because of the work done at the breeding centers, there are now more condors in the wild than there were in 1982 when efforts were first started to save this species.

The positive results from the reintroduction of the California condors into the wild is a step in the right direction; however, there are still threats to this bird. Unfortunately a lot of the habitat that the condor used to live in has been demolished and/or turned into homes for wealthy actors. Condors need high cliffs with caves or ledges for nesting as well as large open spaces with regular winds and thermal updrafts for taking off for flight. With the population explosion in California, there are very few areas left for the condor to live, let alone find food.

Since much of California has been turned into cities, there are very few animals for them to eat anymore. Their primary diet consists of dead deer, antelope, elk and occasionally domestic cattle, and there is little of that left in the wild in the regions the condor inhabits. As you can guess due to their size difference, the condor, in comparison to the turkey vulture, feeds on larger dead animals, and eats about 3-4 lbs. at a time. Luckily, after feeding, they can go without food for another three days. But supply is dwindling.

We need to ensure that when the condors are released back into the wild, there is a place for them to live and breed as well as ensuring that they will have a source of food. We also need to make people more aware of the effects of their actions on the environment, so we can reduce the chances that a condor will fall victim to toxic chemicals and materials. There is hope for the California Condor and with more work, we might be able to take this bird off the endangered list.