The challenge
Only 22 California condors survived, and lead from hunters’ bullets kept killing wild birds.
The case
By the early 1980s only 22 California condors were left. The US Fish and Wildlife Service and partners captured the last wild bird on 19 April 1987 and bred the species at the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos, later joined by the Peregrine Fund and others. Releases began in 1992 in California, then Arizona and Baja California. Wild birds are regularly caught, tested and given chelation treatment for lead poisoning, mostly from spent ammunition. By the end of 2024 there were 566 condors, 369 of them flying free. A 2012 PNAS study found that without continued releases and treatment, the wild population would decline again.
Why it worked
Captive breeding and hands-on rescue bought time, but the species is still kept alive by constant intervention because the main threat, lead ammunition, has not been removed.
Sources
- US Fish and Wildlife Service (2025). 2024 California Condor Population Status.
- Finkelstein, M.E. et al. (2012). Lead poisoning and the deceptive recovery of the critically endangered California condor. PNAS 109(28): 11449–11454.
- National Park Service. Condor Reintroduction and Recovery, Grand Canyon.
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