California Condor: Austin Fellows

California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

By: Austin Fellows

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The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is classified as a New World Vulture, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead mammals. It is the largest land bird of North America, with adults weighing between 15 and 30 pounds and having a wingspan as large as 10 feet long. The males and females are virtually indistinguishable in size and weight. Condor chicks may remain dependent on their parents for up to a year after being born. California condors reach adult size and develop the white pattern on the underside of their wings between 6 and 7 years old.

Before urbanization, the California condor once inhabited a vast area of land. Fossil records indicate that approximately 10,000 years ago prehistoric species of the condor ranged from most of the southern parts of North America to as far east as Florida, and down to Mexico. Modern day condors once ranged along the Pacific coastline from British Columbia, Canada down to Baja, California and some northern parts of Mexico. Today this range has been greatly diminished. Now the condors live in central and southern parts of California, which can be seen below.

The population of the condors has been on the decline until implementations of the recovery plan. Based on merely flock size, in 1930 the population of California condors was estimated to be 60. By 1986 only 2 California condors remained in the wild. The rest were brought into captivity to protect. After captive breeding began in 1988 the California condor population was able to make a bounce back from near extinction. The recovery plan which was published in 1996 states that, "today, (1996), there are 104 condors; 86 captive and 17 wild".

On March 11, 1967 the entire species of California condor was enlisted as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. Currently the species remains federally listed as an endangered species. The main cause to this listing in 1967 was due to lead poisoning and shooting. It's not that the condors were being shot, but the carcasses that they were consuming had these lead bullets in them from hunters. As for the future, rather than genetic or reproductive issues within the species, the major limitation to population growth for the California condor remains a result of human impact on their lifestyle.

As for recovery plans, the first one was released in 1975, but after many revisions the most recent plan for recovery came in 1996. The goal of the recovery plan is to take the California Condor out of endangerment and into the threatened listing group. In order to do so, the recovery plan has been laid out into 5 key sections: creating a captive breeding program, reintroduce these captive California condors back into the wild, reduce causes of death of the condors in their natural habitat, manage their natural environments, and educate/inform the public on California condors. If these main five actions are taken and their criteria are met, it is estimated that the status of the California condor as an endangered species should be diminished to a threatened species by the year 2010. Sadly enough, it is now 2015 and according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, the recovery plan to achieve these five needs is still ongoing.

Works Cited

Kiff, Lloyd F., Robert I. Mesta, and Michael Phillip. Wallace. California Condor (Gymnogyps Californianus): Recovery Plan. Portland, Or.: Service, 1996. Print.

Recovery Plan: http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/960425.pdf

(All figures and information taken from this document)