Endangered Species: California Condor

With a wingspan of almost 10 feet and weighing 20 to 23 pounds the California condor is the heaviest flying bird and the largest flying bird in the North America. They will fly up to 15,000 feet and can reach speeds of 55 miles per hour. The may travel hundreds of miles every day looking for food. The condor is also one of the most critically endangered of all the North American birds.

California condors are vultures and as such they eat carrion. They originally fed mostly on the remains of pronghorns and bison. This source rapidly declined when the Europeans came to the Americas. In 1987 there were so few California condors left that they were all captured and a captive-breeding program was implemented. The captive condors today that are being released into the wild feed mainly on dead cattle and deer.

California condors once thrived on the land. They were present in North America during the Ice Age at which time their area covered the Western United States all the way to New York State. By the 1940's their range had shrunk to cover only a small area north of Los Angeles and by the 1960's there were only about 60 individuals left. It was until 1967 that they were official recognized as an endangered species.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service's California Condor Recovery Program they started out with 22 birds and as of last year that number had gone up to almost 300 birds. Many of them have been released in central and south California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico. The first captive-bred condors that were released all the way back in 1992 are thriving in Sespe Condor Sanctuary and have begun to reproduce in the wild.