
By Stan Tekiela
It has been 17 years since I last wrote about the largest bird in North America. A bird that was almost killed off and is being brought back from the brink of extinction through some heroic captive breeding and reintroduction efforts.
The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture, which means this bird isn’t related to the vultures found in Africa and Europe. It is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps. There were at least 4 other similar species in the past, all of which are now extinct. The California Condor is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
California Condor populations dropped dramatically during the 20th century due to a variety of outside pressures such as agricultural chemicals (DDT), illegal shooting, and habitat destruction. Of course, all these reasons are human related pressures. So, it made sense that humans do something about it to help bring back the condor. In 1987 and with less than 25 individual condors left in the wild, all of these remaining birds where captured and brought into captive breeding programs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
These birds reproduce with just a single chick every two years so growing the population will take some time. The first birds released back into the wild was in 1991. They continued to release birds into the wild over the past couple decades. As of May 2024, there is an estimated population of 561 birds. This still makes the California Condor one of the rarest birds in America. In addition, since they started with so few birds, the genetic gene pool was very limited. Only time will tell if this genetic bottleneck will be an obstacle for these birds.
In 2007 I wrote a series of articles focused on a wide variety of endangered species such as the Whooping Crane, Black-footed Ferret and of course the California Condor. It is amazing that all of these had a very similar story. Each was nearly killed off by humans and their populations dwindled to around 20 total individuals. All of these animals needed to be brought into captive breeding programs to save them from ourselves. Each species still struggles today but is slowly establishing themselves back into the wild.
All of this was racing through my head last week while I was in northern Arizona to check in on the condors. These huge birds once ranged all across North America thousands of years ago. However, after the last glacial period about 10,000 years ago, the condors where restricted to the west coast of the United States.