California Condor- Nicole Raithel

photo by Phoenix Anguay

California Condor by Nicole Raithel 

At a glance,

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is scavenger bird known for being the largest flying bird in North America, with a wingspan reaching nearly 10 feet. When they are young, their coats are a dusty, fluffy gray. Adults’ feathers are a sleek black with a triangle shaped patch of white on the underside of their wings. The California Condor is known to fly for up to 200 miles without a single flap of its wings; it merely glides looking for carrion.  Its diet consists of the carcasses of large mammals such as cattle, deer and sheep. Their life spans range from 45-80 years, but the average is 60 years in the wilderness. They prefer to live in forested areas with rocky cliffs: such as mountains, canyons, and gorges. They do not reach sexual maturity until they’re about 6-8 years old,

The wingspan of a California Condor, sign at The Honeymoon tail, Utah.

and female condors birth one egg every two years. If that egg is removed somehow, the mother will lay another egg. Condor chicks do not learn to fly under they are 6 months old, and stay with their parents for a few more months afterwards. This huge amount of paternal care means a sudden population increase is not possible.

Population and Range

CA Condor historic range.         photo from the USFWS

The California Condor population as of 2016, was 446 in total with 276 in the wild and 170 in captivity. This is a vast improvement from the mere 22 individuals that existed in 1982. There’s no real estimate for how big their populations used to be, but the historic distribution of this large bird was extensive. Remains of California Condors have been found in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. The Lewis and Clark expedition tells of how they witnessed and shot a California Condor at the mouth of the Columbia River. The historic range of the California Condor parallels with in time with the existence of megafauna in North America. The decline of large mammals is perhaps one of the reasons as to why Condor populations decreased drastically.

 

CA Condor release sites and Condor Range.                      photo from USFWS

The current distribution of the California Condor is in relation to the release sites, because, well, that’s where we released captive-bred individuals. Currently there are established populations near Pinnacles National Monument, the Ventana Wilderness in Big Sur, Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, the Vermilion Cliffs site in Arizona, and the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park in Baja California. The US Fish and Wildlife Service plan on releasing more Condors in Northern California and Southern Oregon in chance of restoring the Condor to its historic range.

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photo by Phoenix Anguay

Current Status

According to the IUCN's Red List, the California Condor is Critically Endangered; however, the population is increasing.

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Why it's endangered...

photo by Phoenix Anguay

It's known that when settlers from the east came for a new start, they essentially shot anything that pestered them. The development of the west, with increased human interactions, telephone poles and the like, is what is thought to have originally brought the California Condor population to its knees. The main reason today as to why Condors are critically endangered are lead bullets. Condors eat the carcasses of large mammals, and most mammals they eat have been shot with lead bullets. When an animal is shot, the bullet fractures inside the animal's body and Condors then eat those lead fragments. The ingestion of these bullets leads to lead poisoning in Condors. The good news is that California is currently phasing out the lead bullet. California Condors along the coast also experience eggshell thinning from DDT, a chemical known to thin the calcium shell of the eggs of birds. This has compromised breeding in the wild for the Condors. They ingest the DDT when they eat the carcasses of large marine mammals; however DDT has been banned in the US since 1972, so this threat will go away with time.

The Recovery Plan

A tagged juvenile Condor at Pinnacles, photo by Phoenix Anguay

A large-scale, captive breeding and reintroduction program, managed by the Peregrine Fund, Oregon Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, and San Diego Wild Animal Park, and carried out by the USFWS, is currently preventing the extinction of California Condors. They captured the last wild California Condor in 1987, making it extirpated in the wild. In 1988 they had their first captive-birth of a condor, and since then they've achieved an annual hatch of 25-30 chicks. There are currently five release sites, dispersed throughout California. The main goal of the USFWS California Condor Recovery Plan is to establish a self-sustaining population of California Condors in the Pacific Northwest, and therefore down-listing the bird to threatened. Conservation biologists from the Peregrine Fund, Oregon Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park have collaborated on this project for over 30 years, capturing condors and captive

Condor chick being fed by puppet condor,
photo from the San Diego Zoo

breeding condors. Originally, they would leave food for them, but as their range grew, the condors found their own food source. They have trackers on all condors they've caught. Since their reintroduction to the wild, a hand full have been discovered poisoned from lead.

The implementation of this recovery did not go without it's hitches, it seems. During the initial capture, the biologists deloused the California Condors, effectively (however, accidentally) killing off a species of lice, the Colpocephalum Californianus. This kind of extinction is ironically known as "conservation-induced extinction."

What can you do?

Adult Condor, photo by Nathan Rupert

The California Condor cannot currently sustain it's population without conservationist intervention. The main threat to the California Condor's existence is lead bullets. So if you hunt, or if you have a family friend or a family member that hunts, urge them to not use lead bullets. Condors also need clean and intact habitat! When hiking or backpacking through the wilderness, clean up after yourself. Always make a place better than how you found it. You can also donate to The Peregrine Fund to help with condor restoration.

Some more photos of this CA Condor named Icarus, age 5, who flew up to my hiking group in Pinnacles.

photos by Phoenix Anguay

They try to train the condors to avoid humans, but old habits die hard.

They're terrifyingly beautiful, no?

Resources:

Donate to the Peregrine Fund:

https://peregrinefund.org/donate

Learn more about Condor Restoration: https://www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm

Find individual Condors you spot:

http://www.condorspotter.com/

Works Cited

1. Harvey, Nancy C., et al. “Egg Size, Fertility, Hatchability, and Chick Survivability in Captive California Condors ( Gymnogyps Californianus.” Zoo Biology, vol. 23, no. 6, 2004, pp. 489–500.

2. "Lewis & Clark: The Ultimate Adventure: California Condor". Time Magazine. July 8, 2002.

3. Mihalca, Andrei Daniel, et al. “Coendangered Hard-Ticks: Threatened or Threatening?” Vol. 4, no. 1, 2011, p. 71.

4. Miller, Loye (1931). "The California Condor in Nevada" (PDF). Condor. 33 (1): 32. doi:10.2307/1363932.

5. Wetmore, Alexander (1931). "The California Condor in New Mexico" (PDF). Condor. 33 (2): 76–77. doi:10.2307/1363313.

6. Wetmore, Alexander (1932). "Additional Records of Birds from Cavern Deposits in New Mexico" (PDF). Condor. 34 (3): 141–142. doi:10.2307/1363542.

7. Wetmore, Alexander; Friedmann, Herbert (1938). "The California Condor in Texas" (PDF). Condor. 35 (1): 37–38. doi:10.2307/1363462.