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Whalebone Magazine: The National Parks Issue, Presented by Fjällräven. |
Critically Endangered California Condors
Synopsis:
California condors are North America's biggest bird species, flying or otherwise. They are also one of the world's rarest birds; a Critically Endangered species. The last two free-flying California condors were taken out of the wild in 1987 to join the remaining 25 captive individuals in a mass effort to repopulate the species. Conservation organizations, AZA accredited zoos, public support in all, and two decades later... some wild California Condors unabashedly roam Central California's skies again. However, the battle is far from over. The main threat to these sky giants was, and continues to be, lead poisoning. Lead fragments from exploded bullets are found in the carrion they eat, which travels into their blood stream and, if without intervention from biologists, eventually kills them. Biologists are able to track and monitor their health them thanks to GPS devices that are plainly seen attached to their enormous wings. Other challenges they face include eating carrion with both rodenticides and pesticides like DDT and DDE, micro-trash ingestion, rangeland conversion, and wind-energy development. For a biological anachronism, an obligate scavenger and obligate soaring bird, this is an uphill battle that has taken decades to recover and probably will take decades more before California condors can be downgraded from their "Critically Endangered" status.
California condors are North America's biggest bird species, flying or otherwise. They are also one of the world's rarest birds; a Critically Endangered species. The last two free-flying California condors were taken out of the wild in 1987 to join the remaining 25 captive individuals in a mass effort to repopulate the species. Conservation organizations, AZA accredited zoos, public support in all, and two decades later... some wild California Condors unabashedly roam Central California's skies again. However, the battle is far from over. The main threat to these sky giants was, and continues to be, lead poisoning. Lead fragments from exploded bullets are found in the carrion they eat, which travels into their blood stream and, if without intervention from biologists, eventually kills them. Biologists are able to track and monitor their health them thanks to GPS devices that are plainly seen attached to their enormous wings. Other challenges they face include eating carrion with both rodenticides and pesticides like DDT and DDE, micro-trash ingestion, rangeland conversion, and wind-energy development. For a biological anachronism, an obligate scavenger and obligate soaring bird, this is an uphill battle that has taken decades to recover and probably will take decades more before California condors can be downgraded from their "Critically Endangered" status.
One of the adult California Condors sits calmly in line, waiting to be blood tested, measured, and weighed. Most condors have been through this health check routine many times, so know how to handle the situation. They are extremely intelligent and it shows both in their patience and curiosity as they study each other being handled by the biologists. It's surprisingly funny and amazing to witness.
A juvenile California Condor gets released after passing the lead poisoning blood test and is seen coming in for a landing over the Santa Lucia Mountains, deep within the Ventana Wilderness. Juveniles have black heads as opposed to the time-tested adults who sport full sunset colors at seven years old.
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To entice them to the research site, biologists lay out cow carcasses provided by ranchers. The food also acts as reliable supplements for newly released birds, and in times where finding animal carcasses to feast on in the wild becomes difficult.
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Kingdom of the Condor - Pinnacles National Park
A submissive mating display from the female and the male accepts.
Their role is to clean the environment, which means that, as living biological anachronisms, they provided the same services for ice-age animals like mastodons, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and even giant sloths. They are one of the last ice-age animals alive today, along with komodo dragons, echindas, musk oxen, tapirs, white rhinos, whale sharks, and saiga antelopes.
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Copyright 2023 Joshua Asel All Rights Reserved |
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joshua.asel@wewildlife.org // 707.703.2221 |