The Condor Re-introduction Program
Why did Condor Numbers Decline? Today, the California condor is regarded as one of the rarest birds in the world. In prehistoric times, condors ranged from Canada to Mexico, across the southern United States to Florida, and north on the east coast to New York. During that period, condors were a common resident of the Grand Canyon based on bones, feathers and eggshells found in caves where it nested. A dramatic range reduction occurred about 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the late Pleistocene extinction of large mammals such as mastodons, giant sloths, camels, and sabretooth cats that condors fed on. By the time Europeans arrived in western North America, condors had retreated to a stronghold along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Baja California. The birds managed to maintain a strong population until the settlement of the west, when shooting, poisoning from lead and DDT, egg collecting, and general habitat degradation began to take a heavy toll. Between the mid-1880s and 1924, there were scattered reports of condors in Arizona. But by the late 1930s, all remaining condors were found only in California and by 1982, the total population had dwindled to just 22 birds and extinction loomed.
What's Being Done to Save the Condor? As a result of the continued downward spiral of the condor population, one of the longest wildlife recovery efforts every attempted began. The California condor was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1967. Critical habitat was identified and mortality factors were studied. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a captive breeding program in 1980, teaming with the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. A third breeding facility was added in 1993 at The Peregrine Fund World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise. And in the wild, condor numbers continued to decline until only nine birds remained in 1985.
A controversial decision was made to bring all remaining condors into captivity and the last wild bird was captured on April 19, 1987. All hope for recovery was now placed on the captive breeding program and the task was formidable. Condors aren't capable of reproducing until they are about six years old and once a pair mate, only a single egg will be produced every year or two. Because of these factors, recruitment into the population is very low. To offset this, captive breeding techniques were developed in which eggs are removed as they are laid, usually causing the captive condors to lay a second and sometimes third egg. The extra eggs are incubated and the chicks are raised by caretakers using a hand puppet shaped like a condor head. The puppet prevents the young condors from imprinting on people, a phenomenon in which a bird will identify more with humans than its own species. Some condor chicks are also allowed to be raised by their parent birds. As a result, the captive condor population increased dramatically from 27 birds in 1987 to the more than 90 that are currently being held.
Best of all, captive bred condors were being released back into the wild in California beginning in January 1992. Today, about 20 condors fly free in designated California sanctuaries located in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Kern, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
In October, 1996 six birds, two males and four females, were transferred from captive breeding facilities to an acclimation pen constructed on top of the Vermilion Cliffs located about 30 miles north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. From here the five and six-month-old birds could look out over their new home of the cliffs, House Rock Valley and the Kaibab Plateau. Radio transmitters and numbered tags were attached to each condor to aid biologists in locating and identifying the birds. Finally, it was time to have California condors in Arizona's skies again.
Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt led the assembled crowd of biologists, ranchers, schoolchildren, teachers, reporters, local citizens, and birding enthusiasts in a ten second countdown. "Fly free," Babbitt and the crowd shouted as the signal to open the holding pen. Within minutes the condors were making their first flight ever and just as significant, the first condor flight in Arizona since 1924.