A Comeback On The Horizon
The iconic Caliornia condor struggles to maintain its momentum
The California condor was once a huge presence, literally and figuratively, in the Golden State. At one time there were thousands of condors in California. The giant vultures, the largest land bird in North America are able to fly faster than we can drive in a school zone and go farther than a Hummer with a full tank of gas.
Condors were so prominent in the Americas, in fact, they continue to play a central role in the culture of the Mapuche people of Chile who refer to the majestic creature as King of the Birds. To them the condor embodies their most important virtues: wisdom, justice, goodness, and leadership.
Closer to home, you can find condor pride on the walls of California High School in Whittier in the form of a blue and gold mascot.
In the wild, though, the California condor population is reduced to sanctuaries in the Sespe Wilderness near Ojai, Ventura County and the Sisquoc Sanctuary further north in the San Rafael Mountains of Santa Barbara County. These sanctuaries are in the Los Padres National Forest and were set aside in 1992 to preserve habitat for the birds. They continue to be the focus for condor recovery efforts.
The California Condor, the largest North American land bird, has been on the Endangered Species list since 1967. The iconic thunderbird has a 10-foot wingspan and can soar up to 15, 000 feet and cover 100 miles in a single flight. The condor stands at around four feet tall, and can weigh anywhere from 18 to 31 pounds. They have a particularly long lifespan, and can live up to 60 years.
Much of where the condors once flew has turned into the cities we flock to, such as New York and Los Angeles. According to National Geographic fossil expeditions have shown that this species at one time lived all over the continental United States. Their remains have been found from California to Florida, and even as far north as New York. However, the population is currently reduced to California, Utah, Arizona, and Mexico.
Condors nearly went extinct in the 1980s after decades of habitat destruction, shooting, cyanide, lead poisoning from bullets and other human-caused disturbances. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) initiated a recovery program in the early 80s, teaming with the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park for a captive-breeding program as condor numbers in wild reached the single digits. In 1987, the USFWS made the radical decision to bring all remaining wild condors into the captive-breeding program. Now, there are more than 500 condors living in the wild and in captivity.
While this sounds like a dramatic recovery, the birds, which lay about one egg per year in the wild, are still rare. Beginning in the late ‘80s captive condors were encouraged to lay more eggs. This was achieved by taking eggs from the nests which prompts the female to replace the egg. According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the eggs were then raised in incubation until they were viable.
After the eggs were hatched biologists working on recovery used condor puppets to feed the new chicks. According to L.A. Times, these puppets kept the condor chicks from thinking the humans were their moms. This way they would be able to be introduced back to other condors and the wild. When the population was growing stably in captivity, condors were steadily tagged and released into the wild starting in 2008. Once the condors are realeased the main help people can be to them is through advocacy.
The condor is much like the gray wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in the mid-90s in that they are a keystone species. Though they are not the typical predator, mainly living off carrion, without the condor, ecosystems can become overrun with rodents and with pathogens that grow in the decaying bodies of the dead animals they clean up.
Though Condors have come back from the edge of extinction, they are still endangered and one of the main threads is lead from ammunition used by hunters. Assemblyman Pedro Nava policy has been enforced to stop the use of lead ammunition in California. Lead poisoning has been a main threat to the condor. According to the Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the condors blood samples show dangerous levels of exposure to lead from bullets. a This, however, has been less than easy to enforce as hunters have limited access to lead-free ammunition.
The Los Angeles Zoo still advocates for the Condors and is reported to spend over a half a million dollars on the species annually. The zoo has tried new techniques to boost the breeding of these creatures from prompting more eggs to be laid to co-raising. The zoo doesn’t currently have a condor exhibit, which may be humane but doesn’t help promote knowledge and empathy among humans.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Santa Barbara Zoo and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, however, have created a program called CondorKids that attempts to engage students in condor advocacy. This program includes 27 online lessons that with the use of videos and games tries to inspire future advocates at a young age. These classes are not simply meant to inform, but also go in-depth of what it means to nest monitor. At the San Diego Zoo cameras are set up for a live feed of the condors there. People are able to tune in and watch as the birds live their daily lives at any time.
People can lend a hand to helping the iconic Thunderbird. An advocacy group known as Defenders of Wildlife, which lobbied for the legislation to outlaw lead ammunition, is also working with state agencies to save condor habitat, focusing on more eco-friendly, clean energy alternatives.
