Endangered Species

The California condor is the largest bird in North America with a wingspan of 9-feet! Like all vultures, condors are scavengers, meaning they like to eat animals that are already dead. Thousands of years ago, California condors were found across most of North America, but by the 1980s, there were only 22 remaining in a small part of California. While human development was harmful to condor populations, the largest threat they faced was lead poisoning. Hunters often used lead bullets when hunting deer or other mammals and these bullets would explode when they hit their target. They would take the meat from the animal they hunted, but leave the lead-filled guts behind. This was an easy meal for condors that would quickly make them very sick. 

In the 1980s, biologists captured the last 22 California condors and brought them to San Diego Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo to start a breeding program! The first zoo-born chick hatched in 1988 and the breeding program slowly became very successful. In 1992, the first zoo-born California condor chick was released into the wild. Today, more than 1,000 California condor chicks have hatched (and been tagged!) and more than 300 California condors fly over Arizona, California, and Mexico. While California condor populations are recovering, they still face threats of lead poisoning, pollution, and human expansion.