California Condor
(Gymnogyps californianus)
In 1982, there were just 22 California Condors in the world. Today, more than 500 exist. Their recovery is one of the most ambitious, controversial, and ultimately successful conservation efforts ever attempted.
California Condors are arresting birds. Bald heads flushed with pinks and oranges, glossy black feathers, and wings spanning nearly ten feet give them an unmistakable presence. When a condor passes overhead, it casts a shadow on the ground below.
Today, California Condors range across the American West and into northern Mexico, but their historic distribution was far more expansive. Condors are obligate carrion eaters that prefer carcasses of large mammals. During the Pleistocene, when mega-fauna roamed North America, California Condors reached east of the Mississippi River, as carcasses from these large animals offered abundant food. As the mega-fauna vanished, so too did much of the condor’s range.
By the late twentieth century, human pressures pushed the species to the brink. Habitat loss, persecution rooted in fallacy, pesticides such as DDT, and most devastatingly lead poisoning from ammunition reduced the population to a grim 22 birds. At this stage, they were considered among the ranks of the living-dead.
In response, conservation biologists made a radical decision: every remaining wild condor was captured and brought into captivity. The move sparked outrage. Critics argued that captive breeding efforts would likely fail and that life in captivity would strip condors of the dignity of soaring on thermals, living autonomously, and ultimately going extinct in the wild.
They were wrong.
Condor conservation remains intensely hands-on. Most birds are marked with unique ID tags on their wings, lead-free carcasses are provided at feeding stations, and most condors have had their blood lead levels checked within the past year. This level of intervention raises uncomfortable questions about what it means to be wild.
Yet, if you stand on a remote canyon rim in the Southwest and a condor soars past on rising air, those questions disappear. The experience is breathtaking, wild, and unforgettable.
Preservation Priorities: Who lives, who dies...
The California condor louse (Colpocephalum californici) was an unintended victim of the successful preservation of the California Condor.
In captivity, condors were deloused with pesticides. In so doing, this harmless and completely host-specific feather louse was eliminated. Their loss illustrates how conservation actions have often prioritized species that are more appealing to humans.
This case is just one example of how focusing conservation efforts on individual species is insufficient for preserving the biodiversity of entire ecosystems.