Why California Condors Matter
I asked Marti Jenkins, who is employed by the Oregon Zoo why California Condors matter. She answered, “When we allow for an environment that is beneficial to condors, we protect an environment that is beneficial to us.”
The California Condor dates back to the Pleistocene Era . It is magnificent with the largest wingspan for a land bird in North America. Nine and a half feet. And the sitting bird is kind of chunky, homely. Its head looks bald. According to Marti, “Condors are a long-lived species with a slow reproductive rate. They can live up to 60 years and, in the wild, typically produce a single egg with an incubation period of 57 days, resulting in one offspring every other year.”
A member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition shot a “buzzard or vulture of the Columbia River” in February of 1806. William Clark included a sketch in his journal. The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), as it is now called, once ranged widely across the American west. But settlement led to a steady decline of the bird’s numbers. It was one of the first animals formally listed under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
One problem in particular: When settlers, cowboys and hunters kill game and varmints, lead bullets leave hundreds of splinters in the flesh. Condors eat the lead-infused carcass. Lead is poisonous to bird and human alike.
There is an educational campaign to motivate hunters to use solid copper ammunition instead of lead ammunition.
Another persistent issue: microtrash such as bottle caps, pull tabs and pieces of glass. We humans need to clean up our act.
By 1987 there were only 27 California Condors in the wild. That’s when the desperate decision was made to bring them all into a captive breeding program. People lost sleep wondering whether the next egg would hatch. It took five years before the first California condor was released back in the wild. Heroic work!
I heard about the rescue efforts before the Millennium. It truly sounded like mission impossible. Only a matter of time…
But my recent visit to the Oregon Zoo offered a refreshing update. The zoo operates the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation. It’s in a rural area with remote monitoring so the birds don’t get too used to human contact. Over the years, the Center has hatched 140 chicks. Of these a hundred have been released into the wild. (I gather the birds I saw at the zoo were breeders and mentors for the young birds.)
Five release sites have been chosen to rebuild wild populations of California Condors: In California, the Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest, Pinnacles National Park, and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge; in Arizona, the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument; and in Baja California Mexico, the Sierra de San Pedro Martin National Park.
Is federal funding at risk? Yes. And…
At least thirty organizations have cooperated in recovering California condors: Seven agencies, seven environment-oriented non-profits, eight zoos, and nine business and philanthropic organizations.[1] Their roles are complementary. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has been leading the effort. The Santa Barbara Zoo maintains web cams for nests. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park maintains a register which tracks every California Condor. The Avangrid Foundation supports chick-raising at the Oregon Zoo’s Center for Wildlife Conservation – as mitigation for potential bird kills at wind farms. The Ventana Wildlife Society releases condors (and eagles before that) from its Big Sur sanctuary.
The giant bird’s rebound is steady if not exponential. In 2012, according to a sign at the Portland Zoo, there were a total of 215 condors in the wild and another 169 in captivity. All tracked. As of mid 2025, according to the Ventana Wildlife Society, there are 561 total birds, 364 in the wild, 197 in captivity. All have numbered tags on their wings. Every bird is accounted for.
Again, why does the California Condor matter? “California Condors have recently served as the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for us,” according to Marti Jenkins. “By investigating the primary reasons for the decline of the condor population, the scientific community learned, once again, how easily we can unintentionally contaminate our own food sources, bodies and other wildlife.”
I would add this. A rescue effort on its face is about small numbers. But it is also about gathering energy. It is a source of ecological understanding, transferable experience, organizational partnership and spiritual motivation. When a few heroes do what they love, the rest of us Crewmembers on Spaceship Earth take heart.
Bio: Jon Biemer is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and holds a certificate in Process Oriented Psychology. He is a Professional Mechanical Engineer registered in California. Jon is the author of Our Journey to Sustainability (2024) and Our Environmental Handprints (2021), both published by Rowman & Littlefield.
[1] Federal and state government agencies: Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Mexico’s National Commission for Natural Protected Areas, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and the Yurok Tribe. Environment-oriented non-profits: Animal Welfare Institute, California Condor Recovery Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Nature Conservancy, Ventana Wildlife Society, Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, and Zoos and Aquariums Committing to Conservation. Zoos: Chaffee Zoo (Fresno , CA), Los Angeles Zoo, Mexico Zoológico de Chapultepec (Mexico City), Oakland Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and Santa Barbara Zoo. Business & philanthropic organizations: Avangrid Foundation, Bernice Barbour Foundation, Disney Conservation Fund, Author L. and Elain V. Johnson Foundation, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Patagonia, Peregrine Fund, Schwemm Family Foundation, and Gold Coast Toyota Dealers.