Condors: Returning to Our Skies

The California condor is an ancient species that once soared from Mexico to Canada. In 1805 Lewis and Clark were the first explorers to record condors for western science when they saw the huge dark birds on their expedition down the great Columbia River and dubbed them "The Beautiful Buzzards of Columbia." Lewis made detailed journal notes describing and illustrating a condor that was shot for a specimen. Due to early collection for museums, the loss of top predators to provide carrion in the landscape, hunting, and poisoning, condor populations steadily declined as settlers expanded west. By the 1970s, condors were on the very brink of extinction, and in 1987 scientists captured the last 27 condors from the wild in a last-ditch effort to save them. The captive breeding program was successful, and the population is slowly recovering as birds continue to be released in remote areas of the West to live and raise their young in the wild once again. Condors are scavengers that eat carcasses rather than hunting for food, favoring marine mammals such as whales along the coast and dead elk, deer, wild pig, rabbit, squirrel, or even mice inland. Full recovery is still hampered because condors often swallow fragments of lead ammunition found in carrion left behind by hunters; lead is fatal, and scientists study feathers, which record lead exposure as they grow, to monitor the birds' health while wildlife experts advocate the responsible use of non-lead ammunition.

California · United States