California condor: Difference between revisions

Arredondo
California condor; Temporal range: 2.5–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ Early Pleistocene – Holocene
	Condor #534 soaring over the Grand Canyon, U.S.
Conservation status
	; Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
	CITES Appendix I (CITES)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Cathartidae
Genus:	Gymnogyps
Species:	G. californianus
Binomial name
	Gymnogyps californianus; (Shaw, 1797)
	Range map of California condor: Extant (resident) Possibly extinct
Synonyms
	Genus-level: Antillovultur Arredondo, 1971; Pseudogryphus Ridgway, 1874; Species-level: Vultur californianus Shaw, 1797;

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The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. It is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps, although four extinct members of the genus are also known. The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and similarly considered Critically Imperiled by NatureServe.^[5]

The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its 3.0 m (9.8 ft) wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to 12 kg (26 lb) nearly equals that of the trumpeter swan, the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years.^[6]

Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to agricultural chemicals (DDT), poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction.^[7] A conservation plan put in place by the United States government led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors by 1987, with a total population of 27 individuals.^[8] These surviving birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding, and beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. Since then, their population has grown, but the California condor remains one of the world's rarest bird species. By 31 December 2023, the Fish and Wildlife Service had updated the total world population of 561.^[9] A May 2024 population estimate of 561 is provided by the non-profit Ventana Wildlife Society on their website.^[10] The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths.^[11]

Taxonomy

The California condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as Vultur californianus; Archibald Menzies collected the type specimen "from the coast of California" during the Vancouver expedition.^[4] It was originally classified in the same genus as the Andean condor (V. gryphus), but, due to the Andean condor's slightly different markings, slightly longer wings, and tendency to kill small animals to eat,^[12] the California condor has been placed in its own monotypic genus. The generic name Gymnogyps is derived from the Greek gymnos/γυμνος "naked" or "bare", and gyps/γυψ "vulture",^[13] while the specific name californianus comes from its location in California. The word condor itself is derived from the Quechua word kuntur.^[14]

The exact taxonomic placement of the California condor and the other six species of New World vultures remains unclear.^[15] Though similar in appearance and ecological roles to Old World vultures, the New World vultures evolved from a different ancestor in a different part of the world. Just how different the two are is under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks.^[16] More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures^[17] or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes.^[18] The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.^[15]

As of the 51st Supplement (2010) of the American Ornithologists' Union, the California condor is in the family Cathartidae of the order Cathartiformes.^[19]

Evolutionary history

The genus Gymnogyps is an example of a relict distribution. During the Pleistocene Epoch, this genus was widespread across the Americas. From fossils, the Floridian Gymnogyps kofordi from the Early Pleistocene and the Peruvian Gymnogyps howardae from the Late Pleistocene have been described.^[20] A condor found in Late Pleistocene deposits on Cuba was initially described as Antillovultur varonai, but has since been recognized as another member of Gymnogyps, Gymnogyps varonai. It may even have derived from a founder population of California condors.^[21]

The California condor is the sole surviving member of Gymnogyps and has no accepted subspecies. However, there is a Late Pleistocene form that is sometimes regarded as a palaeosubspecies, Gymnogyps californianus amplus. Opinions are mixed, regarding the classification of the form as either a chronospecies or a separate species, Gymnogyps amplus.^[22] Gymnogyps amplus occurred over much of the bird's historical range – even extending into Florida – but was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean condor. This bird also had a wider bill.^[23] As the climate changed during the last ice age, the entire population became smaller until it had evolved into the Gymnogyps californianus of today,^[24]^[25] although more recent studies by Syverson question that theory.^[22]

Description

The adult California condor is a uniform black with the exception of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers surrounding the base of the neck, and brownish red eyes.^[26] The juvenile is mostly a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers.^[27]

The condor's head has little to no feathers, which helps keep it clean when feeding on carrion.^[28] The skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state.^[29] The skin color varies from yellowish to a glowing reddish-orange.^[26] The birds do not have true syringeal vocalizations. They can make a few hissing or grunting sounds only heard when very close.^[30]

The female condor is smaller than the male, an exception to the rule among birds of prey (the related Andean condor is another exception). Overall length ranges from 109 to 140 cm (43 to 55 in) and wingspan from 2.49 to 3 m (8 ft 2 in to 9 ft 10 in). Their weight ranges from 7 to 14.1 kg (15 to 31 lb), with estimations of average weight ranging from 8 to 9 kg (18 to 20 lb).^[27]^[31] Wingspans of up to 3.4 m (11 ft) have been reported but no wingspan over 3.05 m (10.0 ft) has been verified.^[32] Most measurements are from birds raised in captivity, so it is difficult to determine if major differences exist between wild and captive condors.

California condors have the largest wingspan of any North American bird. They are surpassed in both body length and weight only by the trumpeter swan and the introduced mute swan. The American white pelican and whooping crane also have longer bodies than the condor. Condors are so large that they can be mistaken for a small, distant airplane, which possibly occurs more often than that they are mistaken for other bird species.^[33]

The middle toe of the California condor's foot is greatly elongated, and the hind toe is only slightly developed. The talons of all the toes are straight and blunt and are thus more adapted to walking than gripping. This is more similar to their supposed relatives the storks^[34]^[35] than to birds of prey and Old World vultures, which use their feet as weapons or organs of prehension.

Historic range

California oak savanna on the east flank of Sonoma Mountain

At the time of human settlement of the Americas, the California condor was widespread across North America; condor bones from the late Pleistocene have been found at the Cutler Fossil Site in southern Florida.^[36] However, at the end of the last glacial period came the extinction of the megafauna that led to a subsequent reduction in range and population. Five hundred years ago, the California condor roamed across the American Southwest and West Coast. Faunal remains of condors have been found documented in Arizona,^[37] Nevada,^[38] New Mexico,^[39]^[40] and Texas.^[41] The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the early 19th century reported on their sighting and shooting of California condors near the mouth of the Columbia River.^[42]^[43]

In the 1970s, two Condor Observation Sites were established in the Santa Clara River Valley to host hopeful birders interested in the endangered species: one about 15 miles north of Fillmore, California, near the Sespe Wildlife Area of Los Padres National Forest, and one atop Mount Pinos, "accessible from a dirt road off the highway in from Gorman".^[44]

Habitat

The California condor lives in rocky shrubland, coniferous forest, and oak savanna.^[1] They are often found near cliffs or large trees, which they use as nesting sites. Individual birds have a huge range and have been known to travel up to 250 km (160 mi) in search of carrion.

There are two sanctuaries chosen because of their prime condor nesting habitat: the Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary in the San Rafael Wilderness^[45] and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest.

The Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act of 1992 expanded existing wilderness by 34,200 hectares (84,400 acres) and designated 127,900 hectares (316,050 acres) of new wilderness that provide habitat for the condor in the Los Padres.

Ecology and behavior

The California condor's large flight muscles are not anchored by a correspondingly large sternum, which restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. They have been known to fly up to speeds of 90 km/h (56 mph) and as high as 4,600 m (15,100 ft).^[46] They prefer to roost on high perches from which they can launch without any major wing-flapping effort. Often, these birds are seen soaring near rock cliffs, using thermals to aid them in keeping aloft.^[47]

The California condor has a long life span, reaching up to 60 years.^[6]^[7] If it survives to adulthood, the condor has few natural threats other than humans.^[48] Because they lack a syrinx, their vocal display is limited to grunts and hisses.^[29] Condors bathe frequently and can spend hours a day preening their feathers.^[46] Condors also perform urohidrosis, or defecate on their legs, to reduce their body temperature.^[29] There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a pecking order decided by body language, competitive play behavior, and a variety of hisses and grunts. This social hierarchy is displayed especially when the birds feed, with the dominant birds eating before the younger ones.^[49]

Breeding

Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of 6.^[46] To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display, in which the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life.^[49] The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other year. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April.^[50] The egg weighs about 280 grams (10 oz) and measures from 90 to 120 mm (3.5 to 4.7 in) in length and about 67 mm (2.6 in) in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for puppet-rearing; this induces the parents to lay a second (or even third) egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.^[51]^[52]

The eggs hatch after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to leave the shell completely.^[29] The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 5 to 6 months, but continue to roost and forage with their parents until they are in their second year, at which point the parents typically turn their energies to a new nest.^[26] Ravens are the main predatory threat to condor eggs, while golden eagles and bears are potential predators of condor offspring.

In 2021, the San Diego Zoo reported having had two unfertilized eggs hatch within its breeding program in 2001 and 2009, producing male young by parthenogenesis as indicated by genetic studies. The mothers had been housed with males and had mated before, but the offspring lacked markers of male paternity and showed all-maternal inheritance, suggesting the specific mechanism of parthenogenesis involved automixis, gametic fusion, or endomitosis.^[53]^[54]^[55] Earlier evidence of similar parthenogenesis in birds found that among the known examples the embryos died before hatching, unlike these condor chicks. Neither chick lived to sexual maturity, preventing data collection on their reproductive potential.^[56]

In July 2024, the LA Zoo reported that a record-setting 17 California condor chicks hatched during the year's breeding season, crediting the surge on novel breeding and rearing techniques developed by their condor team. The technique involves introducing 2 to 3 chicks to a single surrogate mature condor who raises them. Due to the endangered status of the California condor, all 17 chicks are to be released into the wild. ^[57]

Feeding

Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling 250 km (160 mi) a day in search of carrion.^[58] It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California condor lived off the carcasses of the Pleistocene megafauna, which are largely extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial mammalian carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears, or cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals such as rabbits, squirrels, and coyotes, aquatic mammals such as whales and California sea lions, or salmon.^[59] Bird and reptile carcasses are rarely eaten. Condors prefer fresh kills, but they also eat decayed food when necessary.^[59] Since they do not have a sense of smell,^[60] they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like eagles and smaller vultures, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and golden eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass.^[26] In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating,^[58] then gorging themselves on 1–1.5 kilograms (2.2–3.3 lb) of meat at once.

Conservation

The California condor conservation project may be one of the most expensive species conservation projects in United States history,^[61] costing over $35 million, including $20 million in federal and state funding, since World War II.^[62] As of 2007, the annual cost for the condor conservation program was around $2.0 million per year.^[62] Successful reintroduction of captive-bred condors into the wild has become a multi-step and complex process, fraught with the need to periodically recapture the birds to test for lead poisoning and sometimes the necessity for lead removal by chelation.^[63]

Recovery plan

As the condor's population continued to decline, discussion began about starting a captive breeding program for the birds. Opponents to this plan argued that the condors had the right to freedom and that capturing all of the condors would change the species' habits forever, and that the cost was too great.^[64] The project received the approval of the United States government, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service established the California Condor Recovery Program in 1979.^[65] The capture of the remaining wild condors was completed on Easter Sunday 1987, when AC-9, the last wild condor, was captured.^[66] At that point, there were only 22 surviving condors, all of them in captivity.^[67] The goal of the California Condor Recovery Plan was to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs.

The study and capture of the remaining California condors was made possible through the efforts of Jan Hamber, an ornithologist with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Hamber personally captured AC-9,^[68] the final wild California condor, and her dedication to the bird's conservation led her to compile decades of field notes into the Condor Archives, a searchable database focused on condor biology and conservation.^[68]

The captive breeding program, led by the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo,^[69] and with other participating zoos around the country, including the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double clutch, biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.

Aside from breeding programs, the Condor Recovery Center at Oakland Zoo treats condors that are ill from lead poisoning.^[70]

Reintroduction to the wild

In 1988, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Andean condors into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America.^[46] California condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California at Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge and in 1996 at the Vermilion Cliffs release site in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.^[27] The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Arizona condors as an experimental, nonessential animal so they would not affect land regulations or development as ranchers were concerned they could be charged with an offense if any birds were injured on their property after the release.^[71] Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.^[72]

Obstacles to recovery

In modern times, numerous causes have contributed to the California condor's decline, both before and after recovery efforts began. For example, between 1992 and 2013, 237 condor deaths occurred in the wild population.^[73] The leading cause of mortality in condor nestlings is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents.^[74] Among juveniles and adults, lead poisoning (from eating animal carcasses containing lead shot) is the leading cause of death.^[75]^[73]

Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to poaching,^[76] DDT poisoning,^[77]^[78] electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction. During the California Gold Rush, some condors were even kept as pets.^[79]

Reproduction

Its low clutch size (one young per nest) and late age of sexual maturity (≈6 years) make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline.

Inbreeding may be causing increased incidence of fatal chondrodystrophic dwarfism in wild condors, as well as a syndrome presenting with 14 rather than the typical 12 tail feathers.^[80] A 2021 study found a surprising degree of genomic diversity in condors, however.^[81] Such data allow refinement to conservation strategies, helping mitigate the effects of inbreeding. One of the study's authors hopes to complete genomic analysis of all 22 individuals from which all living condors descend.^[80]

Lead poisoning

Lead poisoning is a significant threat to condors and other avian and terrestrial scavengers^[82]^[83] Fragmented lead ammunition in large game waste is highly problematic for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices.^[84] Blood-lead analysis of wild condors showed lead isotope signature matches to ammunition purchased by researchers near the range of the affected condors.^[84]^[85] In California, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act went into effect July 1, 2008, requiring that hunters use non-lead ammunition when hunting in the condor's range.^[86] Blood lead levels in golden eagles as well as turkey vultures has declined with the implementation of the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, demonstrating that the legislation has helped reduce other species' lead exposures aside from the California condor.^[87]^[88] There is no comparable anti-lead-bullet legislation in the other states in which the condor resides.

In 2015, Bruce Rideout, director of the wildlife disease laboratories for San Diego Zoo Global, indicated that lead poisoning is the most common cause of death for juvenile and adult condors in the wild. Among wild deaths with known causes between 1992 and 2013, over 60% (excluding chicks and fledglings) have been as a result of lead poisoning.^[73] Due to condors' long lifespan (over 50 years) and relatively late age of sexual maturity (≈6 years), and small clutch size in the wild (one egg every year or two), the population is very poorly suited to withstand the neurotoxic effects of lead exposure."^[73]

According to epidemiologist Terra Kelly, until all natural food sources are free from lead-based ammunition, "lead poisoning will threaten recovery of naturally sustaining populations of condors in the wild."^[73] While researchers and veterinarians involved in the condor recovery program note that hunters who use lead-free ammunition actually provide critical sources of food for condors and other scavengers, they caution that using lead ammunition presents a serious and preventable threat to condors and other wildlife.^[73]^[89]^[90]

Other premature death

Premature condor death may also occur due to contact with golden eagles, whose talons enable defense of carrion against condors. Evidence from condor release efforts also suggests golden eagles may occasionally kill condors.^[91]^[92]

Collision with power lines can also result in condor death. Since 1994, captive-bred California condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased.^[93]

Trash ingestion

"Being vultures, condors not only eat dead animals but they also have been observed eating small pieces of bone [which is especially crucial during the egg-laying period]. Although extremely intelligent, condors can’t always tell the difference between small pieces of trash and pieces of bone," according to Tim Hauck, Project Director for the California Condor Reintroduction Program.^[94] Indigestible trash can cause impaction, starvation, and death if affected condors do not receive timely medical intervention. Parent birds may unintentionally feed microtrash to nestlings,^[95] which some research has shown to be the leading cause of death among wild condor nestlings.^[74]

Disease

In 2023, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) infected members of the Utah-Arizona flock, killing 21 condors (including 13 individuals from 8 breeding pairs).^[96]^[97] Other individuals were released back into the wild following medical treatment. Sixteen condors were treated as part of a vaccine trial.^[98] As of 2 February 2024, 94 condors had received at least the first of two doses of the vaccine.^[99]

During routine winter trapping intended to assess lead levels, blood samples collected from 21 condors were tested for HPAI antibodies. About half the samples showed the presence of antibodies to the H5N1 strain of HPAI, indicating these birds were exposed to the virus and survived naturally.

Population growth

Nesting milestones have been reached by the reintroduced condors. In 2003, the first nestling fledged in the wild since 1981.^[100] In March 2006, a pair of California condors, released by Ventana Wildlife Society, attempted to nest in a hollow tree near Big Sur, California. This was the first time in more than 100 years that a pair of California condors had been seen nesting in Northern California.^[101]

In October 2010, the wild condor population reached 100 individuals in its namesake state of California, plus 73 wild condors in Arizona.^[72] In November 2011, there were 394 living individuals, 205 of them in the wild^[6]^[7] and the rest in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Oregon Zoo, and the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. In May 2012, the number of living individuals had reached 405, with 179 living in captivity.^[102] By June 2014, the condor population had reached 439: 225 in the wild and 214 in captivity.^[103] Official statistics from the December 2016 USFWS recorded an overall population of 446, of which 276 are wild and 170 are captive.^[104] A key milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were born in the wild than died.^[105]

Reintroduction to Mexico

As the Recovery Program achieved milestones, a fifth active release site in Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park, Baja California, Mexico, was added to the three release sites in California and the release site in Arizona.^[106]^[107] In early 2007, a California condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s.^[108]

In June 2016, three chicks that were born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, were flown to Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park, Baja California, Mexico.^[109] In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park and was named Inyaa ("Sun" in the Kiliwa language) by local environmentalists.^[110]

Expanded range

In 2014, Condor #597, also known as "Lupine", was spotted near Pescadero, a coastal community south of San Francisco.^[111] Lupine had been routinely seen at Pinnacles National Park after having been released into the wild at Big Sur the previous year. Younger birds of the central California population are seeking to expand their territory, which could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California.^[112] Also in 2014 the first successful breeding in Utah was reported. A pair of condors that had been released in Arizona, nested in Zion National Park and the hatching of one chick was confirmed.^[113] The 1,000th chick since recovery efforts began hatched in Zion in May 2019.^[114] The California condor was seen for the first time in nearly 50 years in Sequoia National Park in late May 2020.^[115]

As part of an effort headed by the Yurok tribe to reintroduce the condor (Yurok name 'prey-go-neesh') to the coastal redwoods of northern California, birds hatched at the Oregon Zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey were released at Redwood National Park in 2022.^[116]^[117] The first condor brought to the Yurok site was called Paaytoqin from the Nez Perce language meaning 'Come back'; he is also known as 'Mentor' or #736.^[118] He was brought to the site, but not released, to help instruct the younger condors how to behave "because of his calm nature and good disposition".^[118] Mentor condors are used to serve as a role model and establish a social hierarchy within a flock as an essential part of its survival.^[119]

The first condor to be released was called Poy’-we-son (Yurok for "the one who goes ahead"), followed by Nes-kwe-chokw ("He returns"), Ney-gem’ ‘Ne-chweenkah’ ("She carries our prayers") and ‘Hlow Hoo-let’ ("At last I (or we) fly!").^[118] The youngsters felt at home with one another having lived together at other facilities.^[119] As of March 2024 11 birds (4 females and 7 males) have been successfully introduced, with another 5 or more being released this year.^[120] An article in the North Coast Journal from November 2023 describes the 11 birds with their names and translations.^[121] By the end of November 2024, 18 condors have been released at the site.^[122]

Condor Watch

A crowdsourcing project called Condor Watch (CW) was started on April 14, 2014, and ended in 2020.^[123]^[124] Hosted by the web portal Zooniverse, volunteers were asked to examine motion-capture images of California condors associated with release sites managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Ventana Wildlife Society.^[125] The tasks on the website included identifying tagged condors and marking the distance to feeding sources such as animal carcasses. Biologists can then use this data to deduce which birds are at risk of lead poisoning.

Condor Watch enabled volunteers, or citizen scientists, to participate in active research. The project had up 175,000 images to view and assess far more than the team could hope to view on their own.^[124] Lead scientist Myra Finkelstein believes volunteering is fun because it allows enthusiasts to track the "biographies" of individual condors. Citizen science has long been used in ornithology, for instance in the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900 and the breeding bird survey which began in 1966. McCaffrey (2005) believes this approach not only directly benefits ongoing projects, but will also help train aspiring ornithologists.^[126]

Relationship with humans

Throughout its historic range, the California condor has been a popular subject of mythology and an important symbol to Native Americans. Unusually,^[127] this bird takes on different roles in the storytelling of the different tribes.

The Wiyot tribe of California say that the condor recreated mankind after Above Old Man wiped humanity out with a flood.^[128] However, other tribes, such as California's Mono, view the condor as a destroyer, not a creator; they say that Condor seized humans, cut off their heads, and drained their blood so that it would flood Ground Squirrel's home. Condor then seized Ground Squirrel after he fled, but Ground Squirrel managed to cut off Condor's head when Condor paused to take a drink of the blood.^[129] According to the Yokuts people, the condor sometimes ate the moon, causing the lunar cycle, and his wings caused eclipses.^[130] The Chumash tribe of Southern California tell that the condor was once a white bird, but it turned black when it flew too close to a fire.^[130]

Condor bones have been found in Native American graves,^[131] as have condor feather headdresses. Cave paintings of condors have also been discovered.^[132] Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers.^[133] Shamans then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds.^{[citation needed]} Whenever a Shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed,^[134] so new clothing had to be made for his successor.

Some researchers such as Snyder believe that this practice of making ceremonial clothing contributed to the condor's decline, writing that California Indians killed up to 700 condors each year.^[134]^[135] Snyder continues that this figure of 700 is "no doubt an unrealistically high estimate", writing that any estimate "would remain impressively high even if divided by 10".^[135] A few tribes were known to have killed condors such as the Miwok, the Patwin, the Luiseño and the Pomo but how many is not known and difficult to judge.^[136]^[137]^[138]^[139] Using available information, Wilbur writes that "a pre-European loss of condors to Indians might not have exceeded a dozen [12] or so annually."^[140] Wilbur concludes that Indians might have contributed to the decline of California condors, "but their impact was minor except in highly localized situations."^[140]

References

^ ^a ^b BirdLife International (2020). "Gymnogyps californianus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22697636A181151405. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697636A181151405.en. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
^ Baird, S. F.; Brewer, T. M.; Ridgway, R. (1874). "Genus Pseudogryphus, Ridgway". A History of North American Birds. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 338–343. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
^ ^a ^b Shaw, George (1797). "Vultur californianus The Californian Vulture". The Naturalist's Miscellany. Vol. 9. Pl. 301. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
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Cited texts

Lesson, René-Primevère (1842). L'Echo du monde savant. [Description of genus Gymnogyps]. ser. 2 6 (44): col. 1037
Nielsen, John (2006). Condor: To the Brink and Back—The Life and Times of One Giant Bird. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-008862-0.
Snyder, Noel; Snyder, Helen (2000). The California Condor. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-654005-5.

External links

U.S. Fish and Wildlife California Condor Recovery Program
Ventana Wildlife Society including the Live Condor cams at Big Sur and San Simeon.
Hunting with Non-Lead
Vulture Territory Facts and Characteristics: California condor Archived January 26, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
BirdLife Species Factsheet 2008 (archived)

[IUCN-1] BirdLife International (2020). "Gymnogyps californianus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22697636A181151405. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697636A181151405.en. Retrieved March 9, 2022.

[2] "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2022.

[Ridgway,_1874-3] Baird, S. F.; Brewer, T. M.; Ridgway, R. (1874). "Genus Pseudogryphus, Ridgway". A History of North American Birds. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. pp. 338–343. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2017.

[Shaw,_1797-4] Shaw, George (1797). "Vultur californianus The Californian Vulture". The Naturalist's Miscellany. Vol. 9. Pl. 301. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2017.

[5] "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved November 16, 2022.

[cnn.com-6] "Once nearly extinct, the California condor nears new milestones". CNN. April 27, 2011. Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2011.

[SDPop-7] "San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: California Condor". The Zoological Society of San Diego's Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. Archived from the original on August 3, 2003. Retrieved April 18, 2012.

[8] "Last Wild California Condor Capture for Breeding Program" (PDF). U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (press release). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2009.

[NPS_2023-9] "World CA Condor Update – 2023 Population Status" (PDF). National Park Service. December 31, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2024.

[VSt_2-10] "Condor Status". Ventana Wildlife Society. May 19, 2024. Retrieved May 19, 2024.

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@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
  | status              = CR
  | status_system       = IUCN3.1
- | status_ref          = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |year=2020 |title=''Gymnogyps californianus'' |page=e.T22697636A181151405 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697636A181151405.en |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref>
+ | status_ref          = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |year=2020 |title=''Gymnogyps californianus'' |page=e.T22697636A181151405 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22697636A181151405.en |access-date=March 9, 2022}}</ref>
 | status2 = CITES_A1
  | status2_system = CITES
- | status2_ref = <ref>{{Cite web|title=Appendices {{!}} CITES|url=https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php|access-date=2022-01-14|website=cites.org|archive-date=February 4, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204020215/http://www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>
+ | status2_ref = <ref>{{Cite web|title=Appendices {{!}} CITES|url=https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php|access-date=January 14, 2022|website=cites.org|archive-date=February 4, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204020215/http://www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>
  | image               = California-condor-gymnogyps-californianus-078 (21196759264).jpg
  | image_upright       = 1.2
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 }}
-The '''California condor''' ('''''Gymnogyps californianus''''') is a [[New World vulture]] and the largest [[North America]]n land bird. It became [[extinct in the wild]] in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the [[Grand Canyon]] area and [[Zion National Park]]), the coastal mountains of [[California]], and northern [[Baja California]] in [[Mexico]]. It is the only surviving member of the [[genus]] ''[[Gymnogyps]]'', although four extinct members of the genus are also known. The species is listed by the [[International Union for the Conservation of Nature]] as [[Critically Endangered]], and similarly considered ''Critically Imperiled'' by [[NatureServe]].<ref>{{cite web |title=NatureServe Explorer 2.0 |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101273/Gymnogyps_californianus |website=explorer.natureserve.org |access-date=16 November 2022}}</ref>
+The '''California condor''' ('''''Gymnogyps californianus''''') is a [[New World vulture]] and the largest [[North America]]n land bird. It became [[extinct in the wild]] in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the [[Grand Canyon]] area and [[Zion National Park]]), the coastal mountains of [[California]], and northern [[Baja California]] in [[Mexico]]. It is the only surviving member of the [[genus]] ''[[Gymnogyps]]'', although four extinct members of the genus are also known. The species is listed by the [[International Union for the Conservation of Nature]] as [[Critically Endangered]], and similarly considered ''Critically Imperiled'' by [[NatureServe]].<ref>{{cite web |title=NatureServe Explorer 2.0 |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101273/Gymnogyps_californianus |website=explorer.natureserve.org |access-date=November 16, 2022}}</ref>
 The [[plumage]] is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its {{cvt|3.0|m}} [[wingspan]] is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to {{cvt|12|kg}} nearly equals that of the [[trumpeter swan]], the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor is a [[scavenger]] and eats large amounts of [[carrion]]. It is one of the world's [[List of long-living organisms|longest-living]] birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years.<ref name="cnn.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/26/california.condor/index.html?hpt=C2|work=CNN|title=Once nearly extinct, the California condor nears new milestones|date=April 27, 2011|access-date=April 27, 2011|archive-date=August 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804052658/http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/26/california.condor/index.html?hpt=C2|url-status=live}}</ref>
-[[Condor]] numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to agricultural chemicals ([[DDT]]), [[poaching]], [[lead poisoning]], and [[habitat destruction]].<ref name="SDPop">{{cite web| title= San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: California Condor| publisher= The Zoological Society of San Diego's Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species| url= http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html| access-date= April 18, 2012| archive-date= August 3, 2003| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030803211953/http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html| url-status= live}}</ref> A [[conservation movement|conservation]] plan put in place by the United States government led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors by 1987, with a total population of 27 individuals.<ref>{{cite web | title=Last Wild California Condor Capture for Breeding Program | work=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (press release) | url=https://www.fws.gov/news/Historic/NewsReleases/1987/19870421.pdf | access-date=2009-05-06 | archive-date=August 18, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818080111/https://www.fws.gov/news/Historic/NewsReleases/1987/19870421.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><!-- Please see [[Talk:California_condor#22_vs_27_captive_individuals]] for some info regarding conflicting estimates here --> These surviving birds were bred at the [[San Diego Wild Animal Park]] and the [[Los Angeles Zoo]]. Numbers rose through [[captive breeding]], and beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. Since then, their population has grown, but the California condor remains one of the world's rarest bird species. By 31 December 2022, the National Park Service gave a total world population of 561.<ref name=NPS_2022>{{cite web| title=World CA Condor Update – 2022 Population Status| url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/caco-world-2022.htm| publisher=National Park Service| date=31 December 2022| access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> A 2023 estimation of a population of 558 is provided by the non-profit Ventana Wildlife Society on their website.<ref name=VSt_2>{{cite web| title=Condor Status| url=https://www.ventanaws.org/status.html| website=Ventana Wildlife Society| date=29 October 2023| access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their [[Mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas|traditional myths]].
+[[Condor]] numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to agricultural chemicals ([[DDT]]), [[poaching]], [[lead poisoning]], and [[habitat destruction]].<ref name="SDPop">{{cite web| title= San Diego Zoo's Animal Bytes: California Condor| publisher= The Zoological Society of San Diego's Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species| url= http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html| access-date= April 18, 2012| archive-date= August 3, 2003| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030803211953/http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html| url-status= live}}</ref> A [[conservation movement|conservation]] plan put in place by the United States government led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors by 1987, with a total population of 27 individuals.<ref>{{cite web | title=Last Wild California Condor Capture for Breeding Program | work=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (press release) | url=https://www.fws.gov/news/Historic/NewsReleases/1987/19870421.pdf | access-date=May 6, 2009 | archive-date=August 18, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818080111/https://www.fws.gov/news/Historic/NewsReleases/1987/19870421.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><!-- Please see [[Talk:California_condor#22_vs_27_captive_individuals]] for some info regarding conflicting estimates here --> These surviving birds were bred at the [[San Diego Wild Animal Park]] and the [[Los Angeles Zoo]]. Numbers rose through [[captive breeding]], and beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. Since then, their population has grown, but the California condor remains one of the world's rarest bird species. By 31 December 2023, the [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service|Fish and Wildlife Service]] had updated the total world population of 561.<ref name=NPS_2023>{{cite web| title=World CA Condor Update – 2023 Population Status| url=https://11ae4d20-b6ab-49c3-9b63-36196fc358e7.usrfiles.com/ugd/11ae4d_758a5cc7833b4836b7cc140ff60526b8.pdf| publisher=[[National Park Service]]| date=December 31, 2023| access-date=19 May 2024}}</ref> A May 2024 population estimate of 561 is provided by the non-profit Ventana Wildlife Society on their website.<ref name=VSt_2>{{cite web| title=Condor Status| url=https://www.ventanaws.org/status.html| website=Ventana Wildlife Society| date=19 May 2024| access-date=19 May 2024}}</ref> The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their [[Mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas|traditional myths]].<ref name=WOS_2>{{cite web| title=Wings of the Spirit: The Place of the California Condor Among Native Peoples of the Californias| author=Foster, J.W| url=https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23527| quote=It is apparent that California condors held a special place in the lives and ceremonies of California natives.| website=[[California Department of Parks and Recreation]]| publisher=[[State of California]]| date=2024| access-date=April 22, 2024}}</ref>
 ==Taxonomy==
@@ Line 95: / Line 95: @@
 ===Breeding===
 [[File:Gymnogyps californianus -near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, California, USA -adult and chick-8 (1).jpg|thumb|An adult with a 30-day-old chick in a cave nest near the [[Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge]], California, U.S.]]
-Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of 6.<ref name="USFW"/> To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display, in which the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life.<ref name="Behavior"/> The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white [[egg (biology)|egg]] every other year. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Snyder | first1 = Noel | last2 = Snyder | first2 = Helen | title = The California Condor | publisher = Academic Press | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-12-654005-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/californiacondor00snyd }}</ref> The egg weighs about {{convert|280|g|0}} and measures from {{convert|90 to 120|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and about {{convert|67|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for [[puppet-rearing]]; this induces the parents to lay a second egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 186</ref>
+Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of 6.<ref name="USFW"/> To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display, in which the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life.<ref name="Behavior"/> The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white [[egg (biology)|egg]] every other year. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Snyder | first1 = Noel | last2 = Snyder | first2 = Helen | title = The California Condor | publisher = Academic Press | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-12-654005-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/californiacondor00snyd }}</ref> The egg weighs about {{convert|280|g|0}} and measures from {{convert|90 to 120|mm|in|abbr=on}} in length and about {{convert|67|mm|in|abbr=on}} in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for [[puppet-rearing]]; this induces the parents to lay a second (or even third) egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 186</ref><ref name="NPS-CCRec">{{cite web |title=California Condor Reintroduction & Recovery |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/california-condor-recovery.htm |website=U.S. National Park Service |access-date=24 April 2024 |date=25 January 2017}}</ref>
 The eggs hatch after 53 to 60&nbsp;days of [[Avian incubation|incubation]] by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to leave the shell completely.<ref name="CoolFacts"/> The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 5 to 6 months, but continue to roost and forage with their parents until they are in their second year, at which point the parents typically turn their energies to a new nest.<ref name="Cornell"/> [[Common raven|Raven]]s are the main predatory threat to condor eggs, while [[golden eagle]]s and [[bear]]s are potential predators of condor offspring.
-In 2021, the San Diego Zoo reported having had two unfertilized eggs hatch within its breeding program in 2001 and 2009, producing male young by [[parthenogenesis]] as indicated by genetic studies. The mothers had been housed with males and had mated before, but the offspring lacked markers of male paternity and showed all-maternal inheritance, suggesting the specific mechanism of parthenogenesis involved automixis, gametic fusion, or endomitosis.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Ryder, Oliver A|author2=Thomas, Steven|author3=Judson, Jessica Martin|author4=Romanov, Michael N|author5=Dandekar, Sugandha|author6=Papp, Jeanette C|author7=Sidak-Loftis, Lindsay C|author8=Walker, Kelli|author9=Stalis, Ilse H|author10=Mace, Michael|author11=Steiner, Cynthia C |author12=Chemnick, Leona G |date= 2021 |title=Facultative Parthenogenesis in California Condors |journal=Journal of Heredity |volume=112 |issue=7 |pages=569–574|doi=10.1093/jhered/esab052 |pmid=34718632 |pmc=8683835 |quote=(Advance Access publication, October 28, 2021.) }}</ref><ref name="NatGeo2021Oct28">{{cite news |last1=Bittel |first1=Jason |title=Endangered birds experience 'virgin birth,' a first for the species |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/in-extremely-rare-event-two-female-birds-make-babies-without-males |access-date=30 October 2021 |work=[[National Geographic]] |date=28 October 2021 |language=en |archive-date=February 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207035945/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/in-extremely-rare-event-two-female-birds-make-babies-without-males |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Conservation Scientists Report First Confirmed Hatchings of Two California Condor Chicks from Unfertilized Eggs |author=San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance |url=https://stories.sandiegozoo.org/2021/10/28/san-diego-zoo-wildlife-alliance-conservation-scientists-report-first-confirmed-hatchings-of-two-california-condor-chicks-from-unfertilized-eggs/ |date=28 October 2021 |access-date=2021-10-30 |website=stories.sandiegozoo.org |archive-date=October 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029222122/https://stories.sandiegozoo.org/2021/10/28/san-diego-zoo-wildlife-alliance-conservation-scientists-report-first-confirmed-hatchings-of-two-california-condor-chicks-from-unfertilized-eggs/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Earlier evidence of similar parthenogenesis in birds found that among the known examples the embryos died before hatching, unlike these condor chicks. Neither chick lived to sexual maturity, preventing data collection on their reproductive potential.<ref>Wilcox, Christie, ''[https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/flying-solo-parthenogenesis-discovered-in-california-condors-69359 Flying Solo: Parthenogenesis Discovered in California Condors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164456/https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/flying-solo-parthenogenesis-discovered-in-california-condors-69359 |date=November 1, 2021 }}'', The Scientist, October 29, 2021</ref>
+In 2021, the San Diego Zoo reported having had two unfertilized eggs hatch within its breeding program in 2001 and 2009, producing male young by [[parthenogenesis]] as indicated by genetic studies. The mothers had been housed with males and had mated before, but the offspring lacked markers of male paternity and showed all-maternal inheritance, suggesting the specific mechanism of parthenogenesis involved automixis, gametic fusion, or endomitosis.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Ryder, Oliver A|author2=Thomas, Steven|author3=Judson, Jessica Martin|author4=Romanov, Michael N|author5=Dandekar, Sugandha|author6=Papp, Jeanette C|author7=Sidak-Loftis, Lindsay C|author8=Walker, Kelli|author9=Stalis, Ilse H|author10=Mace, Michael|author11=Steiner, Cynthia C |author12=Chemnick, Leona G |date= 2021 |title=Facultative Parthenogenesis in California Condors |journal=Journal of Heredity |volume=112 |issue=7 |pages=569–574|doi=10.1093/jhered/esab052 |pmid=34718632 |pmc=8683835 |quote=(Advance Access publication, October 28, 2021.) }}</ref><ref name="NatGeo2021Oct28">{{cite news |last1=Bittel |first1=Jason |title=Endangered birds experience 'virgin birth,' a first for the species |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/in-extremely-rare-event-two-female-birds-make-babies-without-males |access-date=October 30, 2021 |work=[[National Geographic]] |date=October 28, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=February 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207035945/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/in-extremely-rare-event-two-female-birds-make-babies-without-males |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Conservation Scientists Report First Confirmed Hatchings of Two California Condor Chicks from Unfertilized Eggs |author=San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance |url=https://stories.sandiegozoo.org/2021/10/28/san-diego-zoo-wildlife-alliance-conservation-scientists-report-first-confirmed-hatchings-of-two-california-condor-chicks-from-unfertilized-eggs/ |date=October 28, 2021 |access-date=October 30, 2021 |website=stories.sandiegozoo.org |archive-date=October 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029222122/https://stories.sandiegozoo.org/2021/10/28/san-diego-zoo-wildlife-alliance-conservation-scientists-report-first-confirmed-hatchings-of-two-california-condor-chicks-from-unfertilized-eggs/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Earlier evidence of similar parthenogenesis in birds found that among the known examples the embryos died before hatching, unlike these condor chicks. Neither chick lived to sexual maturity, preventing data collection on their reproductive potential.<ref>Wilcox, Christie, ''[https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/flying-solo-parthenogenesis-discovered-in-california-condors-69359 Flying Solo: Parthenogenesis Discovered in California Condors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164456/https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/flying-solo-parthenogenesis-discovered-in-california-condors-69359 |date=November 1, 2021 }}'', The Scientist, October 29, 2021</ref>
+In July 2024, the [[Los Angeles Zoo|LA Zoo]] reported that a record-setting 17 California condor chicks hatched during the year's breeding season, crediting the surge on novel breeding and rearing techniques developed by their condor team. The technique involves introducing 2 to 3 chicks to a single surrogate mature condor who raises them. Due to the endangered status of the California condor, all 17 chicks are to be released into the wild. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy Marcos |first=Coral |date=July 25, 2024 |title='Nature's clean-up crew': record-setting 17 condor chicks hatch at LA Zoo |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/25/condor-chicks-record-los-angeles-zoo |website=The Guardian}}</ref>
 ===Feeding===
 [[File:California-Condor.jpg|thumb|left|Juveniles feeding]]
 {{See also|Evolutionary anachronism}}
-Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling {{convert|250|km|mi|abbr=on}} a day in search of [[carrion]].<ref name="Ventana">{{cite web|title = California Condor Life History|publisher = Ventana Wildlife Society|url = http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_history/|access-date = August 14, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070730113425/http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_history/|archive-date = July 30, 2007|url-status = dead|df = mdy-all}}</ref> It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California condor lived off the carcasses of the [[Pleistocene megafauna]], which are largely extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial [[mammal]]ian carcasses such as [[deer]], [[goat]]s, [[sheep]], [[donkey]]s, [[horse]]s, pigs, [[cougar]]s, bears, or [[cattle]]. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals such as [[rabbit]]s, [[squirrel]]s,<ref name="animaldiversity.org">{{cite web | url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gymnogyps_californianus/ | title=Gymnogyps californianus (California condor) | website=[[Animal Diversity Web]] | access-date=August 12, 2022 | archive-date=August 12, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812133525/https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gymnogyps_californianus/ | url-status=live }}</ref> or [[coyote]]s, [[aquatic mammal]]s such as [[whale]]s and [[California sea lion]]s, or [[salmon]]. Bird and [[reptile]] carcasses are rarely eaten. Condors prefer fresh kills, but they also eat decayed food when necessary.<ref name="animaldiversity.org"/> Since they do not have a [[sense of smell]],<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 58</ref> they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like [[eagle]]s and smaller [[vulture]]s, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and [[golden eagle]]s, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass.<ref name="Cornell"/> In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating,<ref name="Ventana"/> then gorging themselves on {{convert|1|–|1.5|kg|lb}} of meat at once.
+Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling {{convert|250|km|mi|abbr=on}} a day in search of [[carrion]].<ref name="Ventana">{{cite web|title = California Condor Life History|publisher = Ventana Wildlife Society|url = http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_history/|access-date = August 14, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070730113425/http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_history/|archive-date = July 30, 2007|url-status = dead|df = mdy-all}}</ref> It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California condor lived off the carcasses of the [[Pleistocene megafauna]], which are largely extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial [[mammal]]ian carcasses such as [[deer]], [[goat]]s, [[sheep]], [[donkey]]s, [[horse]]s, pigs, [[cougar]]s, bears, or [[cattle]]. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals such as [[rabbit]]s, [[squirrel]]s, and [[coyote]]s, [[aquatic mammal]]s such as [[whale]]s and [[California sea lion]]s, or [[salmon]].<ref name="animaldiversity.org">{{cite web | url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gymnogyps_californianus/ | title=Gymnogyps californianus (California condor) | website=[[Animal Diversity Web]] | access-date=August 12, 2022 | archive-date=August 12, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812133525/https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Gymnogyps_californianus/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Bird and [[reptile]] carcasses are rarely eaten. Condors prefer fresh kills, but they also eat decayed food when necessary.<ref name="animaldiversity.org"/> Since they do not have a [[sense of smell]],<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 58</ref> they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like [[eagle]]s and smaller [[vulture]]s, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and [[golden eagle]]s, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass.<ref name="Cornell"/> In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating,<ref name="Ventana"/> then gorging themselves on {{convert|1|–|1.5|kg|lb}} of meat at once.
 ==Conservation==
 [[File:Numbered condor.jpg|thumb|A juvenile in the [[Grand Canyon]], with its numbered tag prominent.]]
-The California condor conservation project may be one of the most expensive species conservation projects in United States history,<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 7</ref> costing over $35&nbsp;million, including $20&nbsp;million in federal and state funding, since [[World War II]].<ref name="Frequently Asked Questions">{{cite web|title = Frequently Asked Questions|publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge|  url = http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/FAQ.html| access-date = August 23, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070808215527/http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/FAQ.html| archive-date = August 8, 2007}}</ref> As of 2007, the annual cost for the condor conservation program was around $2.0 million per year.<ref name="Frequently Asked Questions"/> Successful reintroduction of captive-bred condors into the wild has become a multi-step and complex process, fraught with the need to periodically recapture the birds to test for lead poisoning and sometimes the necessity for lead removal by [[chelation]].<ref name="undark-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=Sharon |title=How the Yurok Tribe Is Bringing Back the California Condor |journal=Undark Magazine |date=22 June 2022 |url=https://undark.org/2022/06/22/how-the-yurok-tribe-is-bringing-back-the-california-condor/?utm_source=Undark%3A+News+%26+Updates&utm_campaign=64a05db269-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_06_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5cee408d66-64a05db269-175997989}}</ref>
+The California condor conservation project may be one of the most expensive species conservation projects in United States history,<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 7</ref> costing over $35&nbsp;million, including $20&nbsp;million in federal and state funding, since [[World War II]].<ref name="Frequently Asked Questions">{{cite web|title = Frequently Asked Questions|publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge|  url = http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/FAQ.html| access-date = August 23, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070808215527/http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/FAQ.html| archive-date = August 8, 2007}}</ref> As of 2007, the annual cost for the condor conservation program was around $2.0 million per year.<ref name="Frequently Asked Questions"/> Successful reintroduction of captive-bred condors into the wild has become a multi-step and complex process, fraught with the need to periodically recapture the birds to test for lead poisoning and sometimes the necessity for lead removal by [[chelation]].<ref name="undark-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=Sharon |title=How the Yurok Tribe Is Bringing Back the California Condor |journal=Undark Magazine |date=June 22, 2022 |url=https://undark.org/2022/06/22/how-the-yurok-tribe-is-bringing-back-the-california-condor/?utm_source=Undark%3A+News+%26+Updates&utm_campaign=64a05db269-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_06_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5cee408d66-64a05db269-175997989}}</ref>
 ===Recovery plan===
@@ Line 115: / Line 117: @@
 As the condor's population continued to decline, discussion began about starting a captive breeding program for the birds. Opponents to this plan argued that the condors had the right to freedom and that capturing all of the condors would change the species' habits forever, and that the cost was too great.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 13</ref> The project received the approval of the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]], and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service established the California Condor Recovery Program in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 3, 2023 |title=California Condor Recovery Program |url=https://www.fws.gov/program/california-condor-recovery |access-date=November 3, 2023 |website=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service}}</ref> The capture of the remaining wild condors was completed on [[Easter Sunday]] 1987, when AC-9, the last wild condor, was captured.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 24</ref> At that point, there were only 22 surviving condors, all of them in captivity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/california-condor|title=California Condor - San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants|website=animals.sandiegozoo.org|access-date=June 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928155515/http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/california-condor|archive-date=September 28, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The goal of the California Condor Recovery Plan was to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs.
-The study and capture of the remaining California condors was made possible through the efforts of [[Jan Hamber]], an ornithologist with the [[Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History]]. Hamber personally captured AC-9,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2020-09-29|title=This Bird Lives Because She Never Quit|url=https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2020/this-bird-lives-because-she-never-quit|access-date=2021-06-01|website=[[Audubon (magazine)|Audubon]]|archive-date=June 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602223211/https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2020/this-bird-lives-because-she-never-quit|url-status=live}}</ref> the final wild California condor, and her dedication to the bird's conservation led her to compile decades of field notes into the Condor Archives, a searchable database focused on condor biology and conservation.<ref name=":0" />
+The study and capture of the remaining California condors was made possible through the efforts of [[Jan Hamber]], an ornithologist with the [[Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History]]. Hamber personally captured AC-9,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=September 29, 2020|title=This Bird Lives Because She Never Quit|url=https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2020/this-bird-lives-because-she-never-quit|access-date=June 1, 2021|website=[[Audubon (magazine)|Audubon]]|archive-date=June 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602223211/https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2020/this-bird-lives-because-she-never-quit|url-status=live}}</ref> the final wild California condor, and her dedication to the bird's conservation led her to compile decades of field notes into the Condor Archives, a searchable database focused on condor biology and conservation.<ref name=":0" />
-The captive breeding program, led by the [[San Diego Wild Animal Park]] and [[Los Angeles Zoo]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-zoo-new-condor-breeding-technique-20190514-story.html|title=These condor chicks have a better chance in the wild, thanks to the L.A. Zoo|last=Reyes-Velarde|first=Alejandra|date=May 14, 2019|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=2019-05-14|archive-date=May 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514202123/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-zoo-new-condor-breeding-technique-20190514-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and with other participating zoos around the country, including the [[Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden]], got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double [[clutch (eggs)|clutch]], biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.
+The captive breeding program, led by the [[San Diego Wild Animal Park]] and [[Los Angeles Zoo]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-zoo-new-condor-breeding-technique-20190514-story.html|title=These condor chicks have a better chance in the wild, thanks to the L.A. Zoo|last=Reyes-Velarde|first=Alejandra|date=May 14, 2019|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=May 14, 2019|archive-date=May 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514202123/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-zoo-new-condor-breeding-technique-20190514-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and with other participating zoos around the country, including the [[Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden]], got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double [[clutch (eggs)|clutch]], biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.
-Aside from breeding programs, the Condor Recovery Center at [[Oakland Zoo]] treats condors that are ill from [[lead poisoning]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.kalw.org/post/program-save-california-condor-extinction-making-strides|title=Program To Save The California Condor From Extinction Is Making Strides|last=Kapnik|first=Alyssa|work=KALW|language=en|access-date=2019-08-07|df=mdy-all|archive-date=August 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807211617/https://www.kalw.org/post/program-save-california-condor-extinction-making-strides|url-status=live}}</ref>
+Aside from breeding programs, the Condor Recovery Center at [[Oakland Zoo]] treats condors that are ill from [[lead poisoning]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.kalw.org/post/program-save-california-condor-extinction-making-strides|title=Program To Save The California Condor From Extinction Is Making Strides|last=Kapnik|first=Alyssa|work=KALW|language=en|access-date=August 7, 2019|archive-date=August 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807211617/https://www.kalw.org/post/program-save-california-condor-extinction-making-strides|url-status=live}}</ref>
 [[File:California-Condor3-Szmurlo edit.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Large black bird with featherless head and hooked bill|upright|The California condor once numbered only 22 birds, but conservation measures have raised that number to over 500 today.]]
 === Reintroduction to the wild ===
-In 1988, the [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service]] began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive [[Andean condor]]s into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America.<ref name="USFW"/> California condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California at [[Big Sur]], [[Pinnacles National Park]] and [[Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge]] and in 1996 at the [[Vermilion Cliffs]] release site in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.<ref name="BirdLife"/> The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Arizona condors as an ''experimental, nonessential'' animal so they would not affect land regulations or development as ranchers were concerned they could be charged with an offense if any birds were injured on their property after the release.<ref name="NYT 1996-12-10">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/10/science/majestic-species-fate-may-ride-on-wings-of-6-freed-condors.html|title=Majestic Species' Fate May Ride on Wings Of 6 Freed Condors|last=Kopytoff|first=Verne G.|date=1996-12-10|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2019-08-08|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|df=mdy-all|archive-date=August 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808031819/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/10/science/majestic-species-fate-may-ride-on-wings-of-6-freed-condors.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.<ref name=USAToday>{{cite news |title=Condor population reaches 100 in California |author=Weise, Elizabeth |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=October 7, 2010 |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/10/california-california-condor-population-reaches-100/1 |access-date=October 7, 2010 |archive-date=June 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628171735/http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/10/california-california-condor-population-reaches-100/1 |url-status=live }}</ref>
+In 1988, the [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service]] began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive [[Andean condor]]s into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America.<ref name="USFW"/> California condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California at [[Big Sur]], [[Pinnacles National Park]] and [[Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge]] and in 1996 at the [[Vermilion Cliffs]] release site in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.<ref name="BirdLife"/> The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Arizona condors as an ''experimental, nonessential'' animal so they would not affect land regulations or development as ranchers were concerned they could be charged with an offense if any birds were injured on their property after the release.<ref name="NYT 1996-12-10">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/10/science/majestic-species-fate-may-ride-on-wings-of-6-freed-condors.html|title=Majestic Species' Fate May Ride on Wings Of 6 Freed Condors|last=Kopytoff|first=Verne G.|date=December 10, 1996|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 8, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=August 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808031819/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/10/science/majestic-species-fate-may-ride-on-wings-of-6-freed-condors.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.<ref name=USAToday>{{cite news |title=Condor population reaches 100 in California |author=Weise, Elizabeth |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=October 7, 2010 |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/10/california-california-condor-population-reaches-100/1 |access-date=October 7, 2010 |archive-date=June 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628171735/http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/10/california-california-condor-population-reaches-100/1 |url-status=live }}</ref>
 [[File:Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, California, USA -sign-18Aug2010.jpg|thumb|left|A USFWS sign at [[Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge]] showing the site's association with the California Condor Recovery Program]]
 ===Obstacles to recovery===
-In modern times, a wide variety of causes have contributed to the California condor's decline. Its low clutch size (one young per nest), combined with a late age of sexual maturity, make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline. Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to [[poaching]],<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 83</ref> [[lead poisoning]] (from eating animals containing lead shot),<ref name=j5/> [[DDT]] poisoning,<ref name=c7/><ref name="DDT 2013"/> [[Electric power transmission|electric power line]]s, [[egg collecting]], and [[habitat destruction]]. During the [[California Gold Rush]], some condors were even kept as pets.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 88</ref> The leading cause of mortality in condor nestlings is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents.<ref name=j4/>
+In modern times, numerous causes have contributed to the California condor's decline, both before and after recovery efforts began. For example, between 1992 and 2013, 237 condor deaths occurred in the wild population.<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/> The leading cause of mortality in condor nestlings is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents.<ref name=j4/> Among juveniles and adults, [[lead poisoning]] (from eating animal carcasses containing lead shot) is the leading cause of death.<ref name=j5/><ref name=Eco_Jan2015/>
+Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to [[poaching]],<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 83</ref> [[DDT]] poisoning,<ref name=c7/><ref name="DDT 2013"/> [[Electric power transmission|electric power line]]s, [[egg collecting]], and [[habitat destruction]]. During the [[California Gold Rush]], some condors were even kept as pets.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 88</ref>
+====Reproduction====
+Its low clutch size (one young per nest) and late age of sexual maturity (≈6 years) make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline.
+Inbreeding may be causing increased incidence of fatal [[chondrodystrophy|chondrodystrophic]] [[dwarfism]] in wild condors, as well as a syndrome presenting with 14 rather than the typical 12 tail feathers.<ref name="UCBGenome">{{cite web |last1=Sanders |first1=Robert |title=High genomic diversity is good news for California condor |url=https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/05/13/high-genomic-diversity-is-good-news-for-california-condor |website=Berkeley News |publisher=University of California Berkeley |access-date=24 April 2024 |date=13 May 2021}}</ref> A 2021 study found a surprising degree of genomic diversity in condors, however.<ref name="Robinson2021CurBio">{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Jacqueline A. |last2=Bowie |first2=Rauri C.K. |last3=Dudchenko |first3=Olga |last4=Liberman Aiden |first4=Erez |last5=Hendrickson |first5=Sher L. |last6=Steiner |first6=Cynthia C. |last7=Ryder |first7=Oliver A. |last8=Mindell |first8=David P. |last9=Wall |first9=Jeffrey D. |title=Genome-wide diversity in the California condor tracks its prehistoric abundance and decline |journal=Current Biology |date=12 July 2021 |volume=31 |issue=13 |pages=P2939–2946.E5 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.035 |pmid=33989525 |bibcode=2021CBio...31E2939R |doi-access=free }}</ref> Such data allow refinement to conservation strategies, helping mitigate the effects of inbreeding. One of the study's authors hopes to complete genomic analysis of all 22 individuals from which all living condors descend.<ref name="UCBGenome"/>
+====Lead poisoning====
+[[Lead poisoning]] is a significant threat to condors and other avian and terrestrial scavengers<ref name=sci_news_1>{{cite web| last=milius| first=susan| title=Lead poisoning stymies condor recovery| url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lead-poisoning-stymies-condor-recovery| work=[[Science News]]| date=June 26, 2012| access-date=August 24, 2014| archive-date=September 14, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214530/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lead-poisoning-stymies-condor-recovery| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NPSMyths">{{cite web |title=Condor Myths & Facts |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/condors/condor-myths-facts.htm |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |access-date=24 April 2024 |date=22 February 2021}}</ref> Fragmented lead ammunition in large game waste is highly problematic for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices.<ref name=j2/> Blood-lead analysis of wild condors showed lead isotope signature matches to ammunition purchased by researchers near the range of the affected condors.<ref name=j2/><ref name="Church2006LeadAmmo">{{cite journal |last1=Church |first1=Molly E. |last2=Gwiazda |first2=Roberto |last3=Risebrough |first3=Robert W. |last4=Sorenson |first4=Kelly |last5=Chamberlain |first5=C. Page |last6=Farry |first6=Sean |last7=Heinrich |first7=William |last8=Rideout |first8=Bruce A. |last9=Smith |first9=Donald R. |title=Ammunition is the principal source of lead accumulated by California condors re-introduced to the wild |journal=Environmental Science & Technology |date=1 October 2006 |volume=40 |issue=19 |pages=6143–50 |doi=10.1021/es060765s |pmid=17051813 |bibcode=2006EnST...40.6143C |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17051813/ |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> In California, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act went into effect July 1, 2008, requiring that hunters use [[Bullet#Materials|non-lead ammunition]] when hunting in the condor's range.<ref>{{cite web|title=Assembly Bill No. 821 |publisher=CA State Senate |url=http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070711_amended_sen_v97.pdf |access-date=July 3, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910201851/http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070711_amended_sen_v97.pdf |archive-date=September 10, 2008 }}</ref> Blood lead levels in golden eagles as well as turkey vultures has declined with the implementation of the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, demonstrating that the legislation has helped reduce other species' lead exposures aside from the California condor.<ref name=j3/><ref>Taylor, Dennis L. (May 8, 2014) [http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20140508/NEWS01/305080015/Lead-ammo-deadly-beyond-target "Lead ammo deadly beyond the target"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120922/http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20140508/NEWS01/305080015/Lead-ammo-deadly-beyond-target |date=August 26, 2014 }} ''The Californian'' (Salinas, CA)</ref> There is no comparable anti-lead-bullet legislation in the other states in which the condor  resides.
+In 2015, Bruce Rideout, director of the wildlife disease laboratories for San Diego Zoo Global, indicated that lead poisoning is the most common cause of death for juvenile and adult condors in the wild. Among wild deaths with known causes between 1992 and 2013, over 60% (excluding chicks and fledglings) have been as a result of lead poisoning.<ref name=Eco_Jan2015>{{cite web| author=Dawn Starin| title=Condors or lead ammunition? We can't have both| url=http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2719714/condorsnbspor_lead_ammunition_we_cant_have_both.html| work=[[The Ecologist]]| date=January 21, 2015| access-date=January 26, 2015| archive-date=September 14, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://theecologist.org/2015/jan/21/condors-or-lead-ammunition-we-cant-have-both| url-status=live}}</ref> Due to condors' long lifespan (over 50 years) and relatively late age of sexual maturity (≈6 years), and small clutch size in the wild (one egg every year or two), the population is very poorly suited to withstand  the neurotoxic effects of lead exposure."<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/>
+According to [[epidemiologist]] Terra Kelly, until all natural food sources are free from lead-based ammunition, "lead poisoning will threaten recovery of naturally sustaining populations of condors in the wild."<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/> While researchers and veterinarians involved in the condor recovery program note that hunters who use lead-free ammunition actually provide critical sources of food for condors and other scavengers, they caution that using lead ammunition presents a serious and preventable threat to condors and other wildlife.<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/lead-shooting-ranges-osha/|title=How Dangerous Is the Lead in Bullets?|last=Zhang|first=Sarah|date=January 3, 2013|magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|access-date=January 8, 2020|quote=The most direct solution is switching to lead-free ammunition or at least jacketed bullets, which have a lead core covered with a coating made of copper or nylon. Lead has been traditionally favored because of its density, but the military has since developed lead-free ammunition that reportedly works just as well.|archive-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621140422/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/lead-shooting-ranges-osha/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kelly2014Lead">{{cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=Terra R. |last2=Grantham |first2=Jesse |last3=George |first3=Daniel |last4=Welch |first4=Alacia |last5=Brandt |first5=Joseph |last6=Burnett |first6=L. Joseph |last7=Sorenson |first7=Kelly J. |last8=Johnson |first8=Matthew |last9=Poppenga |first9=Robert |last10=Moen |first10=David |last11=Rasico |first11=James |last12=Rivers |first12=James W. |last13=Batistone |first13=Carie |last14=Johnson |first14=Christine K. |title=Spatiotemporal Patterns and Risk Factors for Lead Exposure in Endangered California Condors during 15 Years of Reintroduction |journal=Conservation Biology |date=15 July 2014 |volume=28 |issue=6 |pages=1721–1730 |doi=10.1111/cobi.12342 |pmid=25040286 |bibcode=2014ConBi..28.1721K |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12342 |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref>
-Premature deaths among condor populations continued to occur due to contact with [[golden eagle]]s, [[lead poisoning]], and other factors such as power line collisions.<ref name=sci_news_1>{{cite web| last=milius| first=susan| title=Lead poisoning stymies condor recovery| url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lead-poisoning-stymies-condor-recovery| work=[[Science News]]| date=June 26, 2012| access-date=August 24, 2014| archive-date=September 14, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214530/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lead-poisoning-stymies-condor-recovery| url-status=live}}</ref> Since 1994, captive-bred California condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased.<ref>{{cite web|title = California Condor Recovery Program| publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge| url = http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/recovery.html|date=December 2006|access-date = September 13, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070911194220/http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/recovery.html| archive-date = September 11, 2007}}</ref>
+====Other premature death====
-Lead poisoning due to fragmented lead bullets in large game waste is a particularly big problem for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices; lead waste is not as much of a problem for other avian scavengers such as the [[turkey vulture]] and [[common raven]].<ref name=j2/> In California, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act went into effect July 1, 2008, requiring that hunters use [[Bullet#Materials|non-lead bullets]] when hunting in the condor's range.<ref>{{cite web|title=Assembly Bill No. 821 |publisher=CA State Senate |url=http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070711_amended_sen_v97.pdf |access-date=July 3, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910201851/http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0801-0850/ab_821_bill_20070711_amended_sen_v97.pdf |archive-date=September 10, 2008 }}</ref> Blood lead levels in golden eagles as well as turkey vultures has declined with the implementation of the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, demonstrating that the legislation has helped reduce other species' lead exposures aside from the California condor.<ref name=j3/><ref>Taylor, Dennis L. (May 8, 2014) [http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20140508/NEWS01/305080015/Lead-ammo-deadly-beyond-target "Lead ammo deadly beyond the target"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120922/http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20140508/NEWS01/305080015/Lead-ammo-deadly-beyond-target |date=August 26, 2014 }} ''The Californian'' (Salinas, CA)</ref> There is no comparable anti-lead-bullet legislation in the other states in which the condor  resides.
+Premature condor death may also occur due to contact with [[golden eagle]]s, whose talons enable defense of carrion against condors. Evidence from condor release efforts also suggests golden eagles may occasionally kill condors.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thornton |first1=Stuart |title=Little Lost Condor: After a fight with a golden eagle in Big Sur, Centennia disappears |url=https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/after-a-fight-with-a-golden-eagle-in-big-sur-centennia-disappears/article_5a59c07b-f516-5e00-8e00-87212bf7751f.html |access-date=24 April 2024 |publisher=Monterey County Now |date=24 January 2008}}</ref><ref name="GOEAAttack">{{cite web |title=Golden Eagle Swoops on Condor Chick with Condor Parents in Hot Pursuit: October 11, 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJR3VWwD9Hk |website=Cornell Lab Bird Cams |publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology |access-date=24 April 2024 |date=11 October 2022}}</ref>
+Collision with power lines can also result in condor death. Since 1994, captive-bred California condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased.<ref>{{cite web|title = California Condor Recovery Program| publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge| url = http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/recovery.html|date=December 2006|access-date = September 13, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070911194220/http://www.fws.gov/hoppermountain/cacondor/recovery.html| archive-date = September 11, 2007}}</ref>
-"Over 60 percent of the adult and juvenile deaths (that is, excluding chicks and fledglings) in the wild population have been as a result of lead poisoning" according to Dawn Starin in an article ("Condors or lead ammunition? We can't have both") published by ''[[The Ecologist]]'' in January 2015.<ref name=Eco_Jan2015>{{cite web| author=Dawn Starin| title=Condors or lead ammunition? We can't have both| url=http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2719714/condorsnbspor_lead_ammunition_we_cant_have_both.html| work=[[The Ecologist]]| date=21 January 2015| access-date=26 January 2015| archive-date=September 14, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://theecologist.org/2015/jan/21/condors-or-lead-ammunition-we-cant-have-both| url-status=live}}</ref> She continues: "Because condors have been known to live past the age of 50, do not breed until they are at least six years old, and raise only one chick every other year, their populations cannot withstand the mortality rates caused by this neurological toxin."<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/>
+====Trash ingestion====
-According to [[epidemiologist]] Terra Kelly: "Until all natural food sources are free from lead-based ammunition, lead poisoning will threaten recovery of naturally sustaining populations of condors in the wild."<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/> The article also states: "The military doesn't use lead, and if that isn't a huge message I don't know what is."<ref name=Eco_Jan2015/><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/lead-shooting-ranges-osha/|title=How Dangerous Is the Lead in Bullets?|last=Zhang|first=Sarah|date=January 3, 2013|magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|access-date=2020-01-08|quote=The most direct solution is switching to lead-free ammunition or at least jacketed bullets, which have a lead core covered with a coating made of copper or nylon. Lead has been traditionally favored because of its density, but the military has since developed lead-free ammunition that reportedly works just as well.|archive-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621140422/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/lead-shooting-ranges-osha/|url-status=live}}</ref>
+"Being vultures, condors not only eat dead animals but they also have been observed eating small pieces of bone [which is especially crucial during the egg-laying period]. Although extremely intelligent, condors can’t always tell the difference between small pieces of trash and pieces of bone," according to Tim Hauck, Project Director for the California Condor Reintroduction Program.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yablonski |first=Steven |date=February 14, 2024 |title=Endangered California condors compete for love on Valentine's Day: It's complicated |url=https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/california-condor-endangered-navajo-bridge-arizona |access-date=March 20, 2024 |website=FOX Weather |language=en-US}}</ref> Indigestible trash can cause impaction, starvation, and death if affected condors do not receive timely medical intervention. Parent birds may unintentionally feed microtrash to nestlings,<ref name="Hovey2020">{{cite journal |last1=Hovey |first1=Tim E. |last2=Pareti |first2=Jennifer S. |title=Unusual feeding observations of the California condor in the wild |journal=California Fish and Wildlife |date=2020 |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=191–193 |url=https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=178596&inline |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> which some research has shown to be the leading cause of death among wild condor nestlings.<ref name="j4"/>
+====Disease====
-[[Avian influenza]] infected and killed condors in the Arizona-Utah flock in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carlson |first=Cheri |date=April 24, 2023 |title=California agencies on high alert after 20 endangered condors die |url=https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2023/04/24/california-agencies-on-alert-after-20-endangered-condors-die/70135868007/ |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=Ventura County Star |language=en-US}}</ref>
+In 2023, Highly Pathogenic [[Avian Influenza]] (HPAI) infected members of the Utah-Arizona flock, killing 21 condors (including 13 individuals from 8 breeding pairs).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carlson |first=Cheri |date=April 24, 2023 |title=California agencies on high alert after 20 endangered condors die |url=https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2023/04/24/california-agencies-on-alert-after-20-endangered-condors-die/70135868007/ |access-date=April 26, 2023 |website=Ventura County Star |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="FWS-HPAI-2June2023">{{cite web |title=California Condor HPAI Response Update - June 2, 2023 |url=https://www.fws.gov/story/2023-06/california-condor-hpai-response-update-june-2-2023 |website=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |date=June 2, 2023 |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> Other individuals were released back into the wild following medical treatment. Sixteen condors were treated as part of a vaccine trial.<ref name="FWS-HPAI-4Aug2023">{{cite web |title=California Condor HPAI Response Update - August 4, 2023|url=https://www.fws.gov/story/2023-08/california-condor-hpai-response-update-august-4-2023 |website=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |access-date=24 April 2024 |date=4 August 2023}}</ref> As of 2 February 2024, 94 condors had received at least the first of two doses of the vaccine.<ref>{{cite web |title=California Condors & HPAI Update |url=https://www.fws.gov/program/california-condor-recovery/southwest-california-condor-flock-hpai-information-updates-2023 |website=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |access-date=24 April 2024|date=2 February 2024}}</ref>
+During routine winter trapping intended to assess lead levels, blood samples collected from 21 condors were tested for HPAI antibodies. About half the samples showed the presence of antibodies to the H5N1 strain of HPAI, indicating these birds were exposed to the virus and survived naturally.
-"While they scavenge for bone chips to supplement their calcium, which is especially crucial during the egg-laying period, California condors often mistake small pieces of trash for food. That can have a tragic outcome because they can't be digested. And to make matters even worse, the microtrash can be unintentionally fed to their nestlings," according to Steven Yablonski in an article published by [[Fox Weather|''Fox Weather'']] in February 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yablonski |first=Steven |date=2024-02-14 |title=Endangered California condors compete for love on Valentine's Day: It's complicated |url=https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/california-condor-endangered-navajo-bridge-arizona |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=FOX Weather |language=en-US}}</ref>
 === Population growth ===
 Nesting milestones have been reached by the reintroduced condors. In 2003, the first nestling [[fledge]]d in the wild since 1981.<ref name="SheppardSoftware">{{cite web|title=Condors|first=Brad|last=Sheppard|publisher=Sheppard Software|url=http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/animals/birds/condor.htm|access-date=August 27, 2007|archive-date=August 22, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822005715/http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/animals/birds/condor.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 2006, a pair of California condors, released by [[Ventana Wildlife Society]], attempted to nest in a hollow tree near [[Big Sur]], California. This was the first time in more than 100 years that a pair of California condors had been seen nesting in Northern California.<ref>{{cite news|title=Condors Set Up First Nest In 100 Years|date=March 30, 2006 |work=Sky News |url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/200806413516474|access-date=August 14, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209095733/http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/200806413516474|archive-date=December 9, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>
-In October 2010, the wild condor population reached 100 individuals in its namesake state of California, plus 73 wild condors in Arizona.<ref name=USAToday/> In November 2011, there were 394 living individuals, 205 of them in the wild<ref name="cnn.com"/><ref name="SDPop"/> and the rest in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the [[Santa Barbara Zoo]], the Los Angeles Zoo, the [[Oregon Zoo]], and the [[World Center for Birds of Prey]] in [[Boise, Idaho]]. In May 2012, the number of living individuals had reached 405, with 179 living in captivity.<ref name="Muldoon">{{cite news|last=Muldoon|first=Katy|title=California Condors Hit a Milestone – a Population of 405 – after Nearly Going Extinct.|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/05/california_condors_hit_a_miles.html|work=The Oregonian|access-date=May 20, 2012|date=May 20, 2012|archive-date=May 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521083140/http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/05/california_condors_hit_a_miles.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By June 2014, the condor population had reached 439: 225 in the wild and 214 in captivity.<ref name=CCRP_June2014>{{cite web| title=California Condor Recovery Program (monthly status report)| date=30 June 2014| url=http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/upload/Condor-Program-Monthly-Status-Report-2014-6-30-One-Page.pdf| publisher=National Park Service| access-date=31 August 2014| archive-date=September 3, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903130425/http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/upload/Condor-Program-Monthly-Status-Report-2014-6-30-One-Page.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref> Official statistics from the December 2016 USFWS recorded an overall population of 446, of which 276 are wild and 170 are captive.<ref name="fedcondor">{{cite web|url=https://www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm|title=California Condor Recovery Program|publisher=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=August 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827201853/https://www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm|url-status=live}}</ref> A key milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were born in the wild than died.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-02-23|title=California condors reach key survival milestone in the wild|url=https://www.unknown.com/business/20160223/california-condors-reach-key-survival-milestone-in-the-wild|access-date=2020-07-06|website=Monterey Herald|language=en-US}}</ref>
+In October 2010, the wild condor population reached 100 individuals in its namesake state of California, plus 73 wild condors in Arizona.<ref name=USAToday/> In November 2011, there were 394 living individuals, 205 of them in the wild<ref name="cnn.com"/><ref name="SDPop"/> and the rest in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the [[Santa Barbara Zoo]], the Los Angeles Zoo, the [[Oregon Zoo]], and the [[World Center for Birds of Prey]] in [[Boise, Idaho]]. In May 2012, the number of living individuals had reached 405, with 179 living in captivity.<ref name="Muldoon">{{cite news|last=Muldoon|first=Katy|title=California Condors Hit a Milestone – a Population of 405 – after Nearly Going Extinct.|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/05/california_condors_hit_a_miles.html|work=The Oregonian|access-date=May 20, 2012|date=May 20, 2012|archive-date=May 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521083140/http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/05/california_condors_hit_a_miles.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By June 2014, the condor population had reached 439: 225 in the wild and 214 in captivity.<ref name=CCRP_June2014>{{cite web| title=California Condor Recovery Program (monthly status report)| date=June 30, 2014| url=http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/upload/Condor-Program-Monthly-Status-Report-2014-6-30-One-Page.pdf| publisher=National Park Service| access-date=August 31, 2014| archive-date=September 3, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903130425/http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/upload/Condor-Program-Monthly-Status-Report-2014-6-30-One-Page.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref> Official statistics from the December 2016 USFWS recorded an overall population of 446, of which 276 are wild and 170 are captive.<ref name="fedcondor">{{cite web|url=https://www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm|title=California Condor Recovery Program|publisher=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service|access-date=July 11, 2017|archive-date=August 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827201853/https://www.fws.gov/cno/es/calcondor/Condor.cfm|url-status=live}}</ref> A key milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were born in the wild than died.<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 23, 2016|title=California condors reach key survival milestone in the wild|url=https://www.unknown.com/business/20160223/california-condors-reach-key-survival-milestone-in-the-wild|access-date=July 6, 2020|website=Monterey Herald|language=en-US}}</ref>
 === Reintroduction to Mexico ===
@@ Line 151: / Line 168: @@
 As the Recovery Program achieved milestones, a fifth active release site in [[Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park]], Baja California, Mexico, was added to the three release sites in California and the release site in Arizona.<ref>{{cite web |title=Condors to take flight in Baja Sierras |publisher=UCMEXUS (University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States) |date=Spring 2003 |url=http://ucmexus.ucr.edu/publications/n40Sp03/condors.html |access-date=October 7, 2010 |archive-date=June 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622040112/http://ucmexus.ucr.edu/publications/n40Sp03/condors.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=FAQ About California Condors |publisher=Santa Barbara Zoo |date=April 15, 2009 |url=http://www.sbcondors.com/sb-zoo-condors/faq/#14 |access-date=February 17, 2011 |archive-date=June 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613113945/http://www.sbcondors.com/sb-zoo-condors/faq/#14 |url-status=live }}</ref> In early 2007, a California condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s.<ref>{{cite news|title = California Condor lays egg in Mexico|author = Watkins, Thomas|url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-03-condor-egg_N.htm|date = April 3, 2007|agency = Associated Press|work = USA Today|access-date = August 14, 2007|archive-date = May 26, 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080526153521/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-03-condor-egg_N.htm|url-status = live}}</ref>
-In June, 2016, three chicks that were born in [[Chapultepec Zoo]] in Mexico City, were flown to [[Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park]], Baja California, Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/2016/06/26/1101222|title=Polluelos de cóndor de California inician el 'vuelo' hacia su liberación|date=June 27, 2016|language=ES|access-date=June 26, 2016|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://www.excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/2016/06/27/1101222|url-status=live}}</ref> In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the [[Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park]] and was named ''Inyaa'' ("Sun" in the [[Kiliwa language]]) by local environmentalists.<ref>{{cite web|title=Condor Chick Hatches in Mexican Wilderness |first=Yadira |last=Galindo |publisher=California Condor Conservation |date=June 18, 2009 |url=http://cacondorconservation.org/2009/06/ |access-date=March 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204090120/http://cacondorconservation.org/2009/06/ |archive-date=February 4, 2011 }}</ref>
+In June 2016, three chicks that were born in [[Chapultepec Zoo]] in Mexico City, were flown to [[Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park]], Baja California, Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/2016/06/26/1101222|title=Polluelos de cóndor de California inician el 'vuelo' hacia su liberación|date=June 27, 2016|language=ES|access-date=June 26, 2016|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://www.excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/2016/06/27/1101222|url-status=live}}</ref> In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the [[Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park]] and was named ''Inyaa'' ("Sun" in the [[Kiliwa language]]) by local environmentalists.<ref>{{cite web|title=Condor Chick Hatches in Mexican Wilderness |first=Yadira |last=Galindo |publisher=California Condor Conservation |date=June 18, 2009 |url=http://cacondorconservation.org/2009/06/ |access-date=March 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204090120/http://cacondorconservation.org/2009/06/ |archive-date=February 4, 2011 }}</ref>
 === Expanded range ===
 [[File:Rock formations at Pinnacles National Park 2.jpg|thumb| right| [[Pinnacles National Park]], a release site]]
-In 2014, Condor #597, also known as "Lupine", was spotted near [[Pescadero, California|Pescadero]], a coastal community south of [[San Francisco]].<ref name=Timesherald_1>{{cite web| author=P. Rogers| date=14 June 2014| title=First California condor spotted in San Mateo County since 1904| url=http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| work=[[Vallejo Times Herald]]| access-date=28 August 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903042237/http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| archive-date=September 3, 2014| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}</ref> Lupine had been routinely seen at [[Pinnacles National Park]] after having been released into the wild at Big Sur the previous year. Younger birds of the central California population are seeking to expand their territory, which could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California.<ref>Banks, Alicia (June 16, 2014) [http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-condor-spotted-20140616-story.html "Condor spotted in San Mateo County is first in 110 years"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620121640/http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-condor-spotted-20140616-story.html |date=June 20, 2014 }} ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''</ref> Also in 2014 the first successful breeding in Utah was reported. A pair of condors that had been released in Arizona, nested in [[Zion National Park]] and the hatching of one chick was confirmed.<ref>National Park Service: [http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/condor-chick-in-znp.htm Zion National Park – Biologists Catch First Glimpse of Condor Chick in Utah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719032322/http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/condor-chick-in-znp.htm |date=July 19, 2014 }}, July 15, 2014</ref> The 1,000th chick since recovery efforts began hatched in Zion in May 2019.{{r|CNN 2019/07/22}} The California condor was seen for the first time in nearly 50 years in [[Sequoia National Park]] in late May 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-07-07|title=California condors seen in Sequoia after nearly 50 years|url=https://apnews.com/7e32cb478dfe45a56b724272b9164e3e|access-date=2020-07-09|website=AP NEWS|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://connatix-d.openx.net/v/1.0/av?auid=539870438&schain=1.0,1!connatix.com,405820850599017,1,,,,&url=apnews.com%2Farticle%2Fbirds-condors-national-parks-parks-az-state-wire-7e32cb478dfe45a56b724272&cb=0dc3c0df-1536-433b-a3b7-f6443c2f4b13&vwd=575&vht=324&gdpr=0&gdpr_consent=undefined&us_privacy=|url-status=live}}</ref>
+In 2014, Condor #597, also known as "Lupine", was spotted near [[Pescadero, California|Pescadero]], a coastal community south of [[San Francisco]].<ref name=Timesherald_1>{{cite web| author=P. Rogers| date=June 14, 2014| title=First California condor spotted in San Mateo County since 1904| url=http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| work=[[Vallejo Times Herald]]| access-date=August 28, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903042237/http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| archive-date=September 3, 2014| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}</ref> Lupine had been routinely seen at [[Pinnacles National Park]] after having been released into the wild at Big Sur the previous year. Younger birds of the central California population are seeking to expand their territory, which could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California.<ref>Banks, Alicia (June 16, 2014) [http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-condor-spotted-20140616-story.html "Condor spotted in San Mateo County is first in 110 years"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620121640/http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-condor-spotted-20140616-story.html |date=June 20, 2014 }} ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''</ref> Also in 2014 the first successful breeding in Utah was reported. A pair of condors that had been released in Arizona, nested in [[Zion National Park]] and the hatching of one chick was confirmed.<ref>National Park Service: [http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/condor-chick-in-znp.htm Zion National Park – Biologists Catch First Glimpse of Condor Chick in Utah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719032322/http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/condor-chick-in-znp.htm |date=July 19, 2014 }}, July 15, 2014</ref> The 1,000th chick since recovery efforts began hatched in Zion in May 2019.{{r|CNN 2019/07/22}} The California condor was seen for the first time in nearly 50 years in [[Sequoia National Park]] in late May 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 7, 2020|title=California condors seen in Sequoia after nearly 50 years|url=https://apnews.com/7e32cb478dfe45a56b724272b9164e3e|access-date=July 9, 2020|website=AP NEWS|archive-date=September 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914214535/https://connatix-d.openx.net/v/1.0/av?auid=539870438&schain=1.0,1!connatix.com,405820850599017,1,,,,&url=apnews.com%2Farticle%2Fbirds-condors-national-parks-parks-az-state-wire-7e32cb478dfe45a56b724272&cb=0dc3c0df-1536-433b-a3b7-f6443c2f4b13&vwd=575&vht=324&gdpr=0&gdpr_consent=undefined&us_privacy=|url-status=live}}</ref>
-As part of an effort headed by the [[Yurok]] tribe to reintroduce the condor (Yurok name 'prey-go-neesh') to the [[Sequoia sempervirens|coastal redwoods]] of northern California, birds hatched at the Oregon Zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey were released at [[Redwood National and State Parks|Redwood National Park]] in 2022.<ref>{{cite news |title=Condors are soaring again over Northern California's coastal redwoods |agency=Associated Press |publisher=National Public Radio |date=May 3, 2022 |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096447625/condors-return-california-redwoods |access-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510155148/https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096447625/condors-return-california-redwoods |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=PGN_1>{{cite web| title=California Condors and Native American Culture| url=https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/california-condors-and-native-american-culture/#:~:text=Tribes%2C%20including%20the%20Wiyot%20in%20Humboldt%20County%20and,tribes%20as%20the%20Tongva%2C%20Cahuilla%2C%20Kumeyaay%2C%20and%20Cupe%C3%B1o| publisher=Visit California| date=2023| access-date=8 November 2023}}</ref> The first condor brought to the Yurok site was called Paaytoqin from the [[Nez Perce]] language meaning 'Come back'; he is also known as 'Mentor' or #736.<ref name=MTC_1>{{cite web| title=Meet the condors of the Pacific Northwest| author=Fabbri, R.| url=https://www.fws.gov/story/2022-07/meet-condors-pacific-northwest-0| publisher=[[U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service]]| date=14 July 2022| access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref> He was brought to the site, but not released, to help instruct the younger condors how to behave "because of his calm nature and good disposition".<ref name=MTC_1/> Mentor condors are used to serve as a role model and establish a social hierarchy within a flock as an essential part of its survival.<ref name=HTYI_1>{{cite web| title=How the Yurok Tribe Is Bringing Back the California Condor| author=Levy, S.| url=https://undark.org/2022/06/22/how-the-yurok-tribe-is-bringing-back-the-california-condor/| publisher=[[Undark]]| date=22 June 2022| access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref>
+As part of an effort headed by the [[Yurok]] tribe to [[Yurok#Condor restoration|reintroduce the condor]] (Yurok name 'prey-go-neesh') to the [[Sequoia sempervirens|coastal redwoods]] of northern California, birds hatched at the Oregon Zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey were released at [[Redwood National and State Parks|Redwood National Park]] in 2022.<ref>{{cite news |title=Condors are soaring again over Northern California's coastal redwoods |agency=Associated Press |publisher=National Public Radio |date=May 3, 2022 |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096447625/condors-return-california-redwoods |access-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510155148/https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096447625/condors-return-california-redwoods |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=PGN_1>{{cite web| title=California Condors and Native American Culture| url=https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/california-condors-and-native-american-culture/#:~:text=Tribes%2C%20including%20the%20Wiyot%20in%20Humboldt%20County%20and,tribes%20as%20the%20Tongva%2C%20Cahuilla%2C%20Kumeyaay%2C%20and%20Cupe%C3%B1o| publisher=Visit California| date=2023| access-date=November 8, 2023}}</ref> The first condor brought to the Yurok site was called Paaytoqin from the [[Nez Perce]] language meaning 'Come back'; he is also known as 'Mentor' or #736.<ref name=MTC_1>{{cite web| title=Meet the condors of the Pacific Northwest| author=Fabbri, R.| url=https://www.fws.gov/story/2022-07/meet-condors-pacific-northwest-0| publisher=[[U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service]]| date=July 14, 2022| access-date=April 3, 2024}}</ref> He was brought to the site, but not released, to help instruct the younger condors how to behave "because of his calm nature and good disposition".<ref name=MTC_1/> Mentor condors are used to serve as a role model and establish a social hierarchy within a flock as an essential part of its survival.<ref name=HTYI_1>{{cite web| title=How the Yurok Tribe Is Bringing Back the California Condor| author=Levy, S.| url=https://undark.org/2022/06/22/how-the-yurok-tribe-is-bringing-back-the-california-condor/| publisher=[[Undark]]| date=June 22, 2022| access-date=April 3, 2024}}</ref>
-The first condor to be released was called Poy’-we-son (Yurok for "the one who goes ahead"), followed by Nes-kwe-chokw ("He returns"), Ney-gem’ ‘Ne-chweenkah’ ("She carries our prayers") and ‘Hlow Hoo-let’ ("At last I (or we) fly!").<ref name=MTC_1/> The youngsters felt at home with one another having lived together at other facilities.<ref name=HTYI_1/> As of March 2024 11 birds (4 females and 7 males) have been successfully introduced, with another 5 or more being released this year.<ref name=HER_1>{{cite news| title=Humboldt ERFSA learns about California condors| url=https://www.times-standard.com/2024/03/03/humboldt-erfsa-learns-about-california-condors| website=[[Times Standard]]| publisher=[[MediaNews Group]]| date=3 March 2024| access-date=6 March 2024}}</ref> An article in the [[North Coast Journal]] from November 2023 describes the 11 birds with their names and translations.<ref name=RTAL_1>{{cite news| title=Reclaiming Their Ancestral Lands| author=Wear, K.| url=https://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/reclaiming-their-ancestral-lands-28124204| publisher=[[North Coast Journal]]| date=9 November 2023| access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref>
+The first condor to be released was called Poy’-we-son (Yurok for "the one who goes ahead"), followed by Nes-kwe-chokw ("He returns"), Ney-gem’ ‘Ne-chweenkah’ ("She carries our prayers") and ‘Hlow Hoo-let’ ("At last I (or we) fly!").<ref name=MTC_1/> The youngsters felt at home with one another having lived together at other facilities.<ref name=HTYI_1/> As of March 2024 11 birds (4 females and 7 males) have been successfully introduced, with another 5 or more being released this year.<ref name=HER_1>{{cite news| title=Humboldt ERFSA learns about California condors| url=https://www.times-standard.com/2024/03/03/humboldt-erfsa-learns-about-california-condors| website=[[Times Standard]]| publisher=[[MediaNews Group]]| date=March 3, 2024| access-date=March 6, 2024}}</ref> An article in the [[North Coast Journal]] from November 2023 describes the 11 birds with their names and translations.<ref name=RTAL_1>{{cite news| title=Reclaiming Their Ancestral Lands| author=Wear, K.| url=https://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/reclaiming-their-ancestral-lands-28124204| publisher=[[North Coast Journal]]| date=November 9, 2023| access-date=April 4, 2024}}</ref> By the end of November 2024, 18 condors have been released at the site.<ref name="HATB_1">{{cite web| first1=Lucy| last1=Sherriff| title=How a tribe brought back its sacred California condors| url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241127-bringing-back-californias-mighty-condor| website=[[BBC]]| date=28 November 2024| access-date=29 November 2024| quote=The Yurok Tribe has released 18 condors}}</ref>
 ===Condor Watch===
 [[File:Avatar condors.jpg|thumb|110px|left|[[Zooniverse (citizen science project)|Zooniverse]] icon for Condor Watch]]
-A [[crowdsourcing]] project called Condor Watch (CW) was started on April 14, 2014, and ended in 2020.<ref name=CW_ZooAr>{{cite web| title=Condor Watch Archived| url=https://www.condorwatch.org/| publisher=Zooniverse| access-date=13 February 2020| archive-date=May 5, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505073428/https://www.condorwatch.org/| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=SaCruz_1>{{cite web| last=Stephens| first=Tim| title='Condor Watch' enlists citizen scientists to help an endangered species| url=http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/04/condor-watch.html| publisher=University of California| date=April 15, 2014| access-date=August 21, 2014| archive-date=September 2, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902004758/http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/04/condor-watch.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Hosted by the web portal [[Zooniverse (citizen science project)|Zooniverse]], volunteers were asked to examine [[Remote camera#Game camera|motion-capture images]] of California condors associated with release sites managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, [[National Park Service]] and Ventana Wildlife Society.<ref name=SciDai_1>{{cite web| title='Condor watch' enlists citizen scientists to help endangered species| url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140415125257.htm| work=[[ScienceDaily]]| date=April 15, 2014| access-date=August 19, 2014| archive-date=August 21, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821010311/http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140415125257.htm| url-status=live}}</ref> The tasks on the website included identifying tagged condors and marking the distance to feeding sources such as animal carcasses. Biologists can then use this data to deduce which birds are at risk of lead poisoning.
+A [[crowdsourcing]] project called Condor Watch (CW) was started on April 14, 2014, and ended in 2020.<ref name=CW_ZooAr>{{cite web| title=Condor Watch Archived| url=https://www.condorwatch.org/| publisher=Zooniverse| access-date=February 13, 2020| archive-date=May 5, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505073428/https://www.condorwatch.org/| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=SaCruz_1>{{cite web| last=Stephens| first=Tim| title='Condor Watch' enlists citizen scientists to help an endangered species| url=http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/04/condor-watch.html| publisher=University of California| date=April 15, 2014| access-date=August 21, 2014| archive-date=September 2, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902004758/http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/04/condor-watch.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Hosted by the web portal [[Zooniverse (citizen science project)|Zooniverse]], volunteers were asked to examine [[Remote camera#Game camera|motion-capture images]] of California condors associated with release sites managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, [[National Park Service]] and Ventana Wildlife Society.<ref name=SciDai_1>{{cite web| title='Condor watch' enlists citizen scientists to help endangered species| url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140415125257.htm| work=[[ScienceDaily]]| date=April 15, 2014| access-date=August 19, 2014| archive-date=August 21, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821010311/http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140415125257.htm| url-status=live}}</ref> The tasks on the website included identifying tagged condors and marking the distance to feeding sources such as animal carcasses. Biologists can then use this data to deduce which birds are at risk of lead poisoning.
 Condor Watch enabled volunteers, or [[citizen scientists]], to participate in active research. The project had up 175,000 images to view and assess far more than the team could hope to view on their own.<ref name=SaCruz_1/> Lead scientist Myra Finkelstein believes volunteering is fun because it allows enthusiasts to track the "biographies" of individual condors. Citizen science has long been used in [[ornithology]], for instance in the [[National Audubon Society|Audubon Society]]'s [[Christmas Bird Count]], which began in 1900 and the [[breeding bird survey]] which began in 1966. McCaffrey (2005) believes this approach not only directly benefits ongoing projects, but will also help train aspiring ornithologists.<ref>McCaffrey, R.E. (2005). Using Citizen Science in Urban Bird Studies. Urban Habitats. 3 (1). p. 70–86.</ref>
@@ Line 175: / Line 192: @@
 Condor bones have been found in Native American graves,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Ceremonial Bird Burials in San Francisco Bay Shellmounds
-|first1=William J. |last1=Wallace| first2=  Donald W. |last2=Lathrap| journal=American Antiquity| volume=25| issue=2| year=1959| pages=262–264 | jstor=277447 |doi=10.2307/277447 |s2cid=163835230 }}</ref> as have condor feather [[war bonnet|headdresses]]. [[Cave painting]]s of condors have also been discovered.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 36</ref> Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers{{which|date=April 2024}}. [[Shamanism|Shaman]]s then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds.{{citation needed| reason=unreferenced statement| date=April 2024}} Whenever a Shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed,<ref name="Nielsen41">Nielsen 2006, p. 41</ref> so new clothing had to be made for his successor.
+|first1=William J. |last1=Wallace| first2=  Donald W. |last2=Lathrap| journal=American Antiquity| volume=25| issue=2| year=1959| pages=262–264 | jstor=277447 |doi=10.2307/277447 |s2cid=163835230 }}</ref> as have condor feather [[war bonnet|headdresses]]. [[Cave painting]]s of condors have also been discovered.<ref>Nielsen 2006, p. 36</ref> Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers.<ref name=WOS_1>{{cite web| title=Wings of the Spirit: The Place of the California Condor Among Native Peoples of the Californias| author=Foster, J.W| url=https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23527| quote=Many ceremonies throughout California involved dancers dressed in capes of condor skins or condor feather bands| website=[[California Department of Parks and Recreation]]| publisher=[[State of California]]| date=2024| access-date=March 4, 2024}}</ref> [[Shamanism|Shaman]]s then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds.{{citation needed| reason=unreferenced statement| date=April 2024}} Whenever a Shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed,<ref name="Nielsen41">Nielsen 2006, p. 41</ref> so new clothing had to be made for his successor.
-Some researchers such as Snyder believe that this practice of making ceremonial clothing contributed to the condor's decline, writing that California Indians killed up to 700 condors each year.<ref name="Nielsen41"/><ref name=TCCA_1>{{cite book| title=The California condor : a saga of natural history and conservation| author1=Snyder, N.F.R.| author2=Snyder, H.| url=https://archive.org/details/californiacondor00snyd| publisher=San Diego: Academic Press| pages=43–44| date=2000| isbn=978-0-12-654005-5| access-date=20 April 2024}}</ref> A few tribes were known to have killed condors such as the [[Miwok]], the [[Patwin]], the [[Luiseño]] and the [[Pomo]] but how many is not known and difficult to judge.<ref name=MC_1>{{cite journal| title=Miwok Cults| author=Gifford, E.W.| url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp018-004.pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=The eagle and condor were bird chiefs and their capture or killing was always preceded by the making of meal or seed offerings.| volume=18| issue=3| pages=394–396| date=8 May 1926| access-date=20 April 2024}}</ref><ref name=TPAN_1>{{cite journal| title=The Patwin and their neighbours| author=Kroeber, A.L.| url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp029-005.pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=Eagles (sul) and condors (molok), were shot, not netted, according to most informants; though one told of a spring noose on a bent-over live oak sapling.| volume=29| issue=4| page=279| date=27 February 1932| access-date=20 April 2024}}</ref><ref name=BHL_1>{{cite book| title=The California Condor and the California Indians| author1=Bates, C.D.| author2=Hamber, J.A.| author3=Lee, M.J.| publisher=American Indian Art| quote=| quote=Young birds taken from the nest were raised and then used in a ceremony that culminated in the killing of the bird by strangulation or pressing on its heart.| volume=19| issue=1| page=41| date=1993}}</ref><ref name=CED_1>{{cite journal| title=Culture Element Distributions: IV Pomo"| author1=Gifford, E.W.| author2=Kroeber, A.L.| url=https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/82939?ln=en&v=pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=Whole condor (sul) skin worn by male dancer.| volume=37| issue=4| pages=170, 130| date=1 July 1937| access-date=20 April 2024}}</ref> Using available information, Wilbur writes that "a pre-European loss of condors to Indians might not have exceeded a dozen [12] or so annually."<ref name=C&I_1>{{cite web| title=Condors and Indians| author=Wilbur, S.| url=http://www.condortales.com/california-condor/condors-and-indians.html| publisher=Symbios Books| date=2012| access-date=21 April 2024}}</ref> He writes that Indians might have contibuted to the decline of California condors, "but their impact was minor except in highly localized situations."<ref name=C&I_1/>
+Some researchers such as Snyder believe that this practice of making ceremonial clothing contributed to the condor's decline, writing that California Indians killed up to 700 condors each year.<ref name="Nielsen41"/><ref name=TCCA_1>{{cite book| title=The California condor : a saga of natural history and conservation| author1=Snyder, N.F.R.| author2=Snyder, H.| url=https://archive.org/details/californiacondor00snyd| publisher=San Diego: Academic Press| pages=43–44| date=2000| isbn=978-0-12-654005-5| access-date=April 20, 2024}}</ref> Snyder continues that this figure of 700 is "no doubt an unrealistically high estimate", writing that any estimate "would remain impressively high even if divided by 10".<ref name=TCCA_1/> A few tribes were known to have killed condors such as the [[Miwok]], the [[Patwin]], the [[Luiseño]] and the [[Pomo]] but how many is not known and difficult to judge.<ref name=MC_1>{{cite journal| title=Miwok Cults| author=Gifford, E.W.| url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp018-004.pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=The eagle and condor were bird chiefs and their capture or killing was always preceded by the making of meal or seed offerings.| volume=18| issue=3| pages=394–396| date=May 8, 1926| access-date=April 20, 2024}}</ref><ref name=TPAN_1>{{cite journal| title=The Patwin and their neighbours| author=Kroeber, A.L.| url=https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp029-005.pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=Eagles (sul) and condors (molok), were shot, not netted, according to most informants; though one told of a spring noose on a bent-over live oak sapling.| volume=29| issue=4| page=279| date=February 27, 1932| access-date=April 20, 2024}}</ref><ref name=BHL_1>{{cite book| title=The California Condor and the California Indians| author1=Bates, C.D.| author2=Hamber, J.A.| author3=Lee, M.J.| publisher=American Indian Art| quote=Young birds taken from the nest were raised and then used in a ceremony that culminated in the killing of the bird by strangulation or pressing on its heart.| volume=19| issue=1| page=41| date=1993}}</ref><ref name=CED_1>{{cite journal| title=Culture Element Distributions: IV Pomo| author1=Gifford, E.W.| author2=Kroeber, A.L.| url=https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/82939?ln=en&v=pdf| journal=University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology| quote=Whole condor (sul) skin worn by male dancer.| volume=37| issue=4| pages=170, 130| date=July 1, 1937| access-date=April 20, 2024}}</ref> Using available information, Wilbur writes that "a pre-European loss of condors to Indians might not have exceeded a dozen [12] or so annually."<ref name=C&I_1>{{cite web| title=Condors and Indians| author=Wilbur, S.| url=http://www.condortales.com/california-condor/condors-and-indians.html| publisher=Symbios Books| date=2012| access-date=April 21, 2024}}</ref> Wilbur concludes that Indians might have contributed to the decline of California condors, "but their impact was minor except in highly localized situations."<ref name=C&I_1/>
 ==See also==
-* ''[[Colpocephalum californici]]'', an extinct species of louse that exclusively parasitized the California condor
+* ''[[Colpocephalum californici]]'', a species of louse that exclusively parasitized the California condor until pesticide treatment of the entire remaining condor population under the California Condor Recovery Program resulted in [[conservation-induced extinction]] of the species
 ==References==
@@ Line 200: / Line 217: @@
 <ref name=j1>{{cite journal|author=Gibb, G. C. |author2=Kardailsky, O. |author3=Kimball, R. T. |author4=Braun, E. L. |author5=Penny, D.  |name-list-style=amp |year=2007|title= Mitochondrial genomes and avian phylogeny: complex characters and resolvability without explosive radiations|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|volume=24|pages= 269–280|doi=10.1093/molbev/msl158|pmid=17062634|issue=1|citeseerx=10.1.1.106.1680 }}</ref>
-<ref name=j2>{{cite journal|author=Thacker, Paul D. |year=2006|title=Condors are shot full of lead|journal=Environmental Science & Technology|volume=40|issue=19|pages=5826–5831|doi=10.1021/es063001l|last2=Lubick|first2=Naomi|last3=Renner|first3=Rebecca|last4=Christen|first4=Kris|last5=Pelley|first5=Janet|pmid=17051760|doi-access=}}</ref>
+<ref name=j2>{{cite journal|author=Thacker, Paul D. |year=2006|title=Condors are shot full of lead|journal=Environmental Science & Technology|volume=40|issue=19|pages=5826–5831|doi=10.1021/es063001l|last2=Lubick|first2=Naomi|last3=Renner|first3=Rebecca|last4=Christen|first4=Kris|last5=Pelley|first5=Janet|pmid=17051760|doi-access=free}}</ref>
 <ref name=j3>{{cite journal | title = Impact of the California Lead Ammunition Ban of Reducing Lead Exposures in Golden Eagles and Turkey Vultures | journal = PLOS ONE | year = 2011 | first = Terra R. | last = Kelly |author2=Peter H. Bloom |author3=Stever G. Torres |author4=Yvette Z. Hernandez |author5=Robert H. Poppenga |author6=Walter M. Boyce |author7=Christine K. Johnson  | volume = 6 | issue = 4|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0017656 | pages = e17656 | pmid = 21494329 | pmc = 3071804 | bibcode = 2011PLoSO...617656K | editor1-last = Iwaniuk | editor1-first = Andrew| doi-access = free }}</ref>
-<ref name=j4>{{cite journal|pmid=22247378 |year=2012 |last1=Rideout |first1=BA |last2=Stalis |first2=I |last3=Papendick |first3=R |last4=Pessier |first4=A |last5=Puschner |first5=B |last6=Finkelstein |first6=ME |last7=Smith |first7=DR |last8=Johnson |first8=M |last9=Mace |first9=M |title=Patterns of mortality in free-ranging California Condors (''Gymnogyps californianus'') |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=95–112 |journal=Journal of Wildlife Diseases |doi=10.7589/0090-3558-48.1.95 |last10=Stroud |first10=R |last11=Brandt |first11=J |last12=Burnett |first12=J |last13=Parish |first13=C |last14=Petterson |first14=J |last15=Witte |first15=C |last16=Stringfield |first16=C |last17=Orr |first17=K |last18=Zuba |first18=J |last19=Wallace |first19=M |last20=Grantham |first20=J |s2cid=9680916 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
+<ref name=j4>{{cite journal|pmid=22247378 |year=2012 |last1=Rideout |first1=BA |last2=Stalis |first2=I |last3=Papendick |first3=R |last4=Pessier |first4=A |last5=Puschner |first5=B |last6=Finkelstein |first6=ME |last7=Smith |first7=DR |last8=Johnson |first8=M |last9=Mace |first9=M |title=Patterns of mortality in free-ranging California Condors (''Gymnogyps californianus'') |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=95–112 |journal=Journal of Wildlife Diseases |doi=10.7589/0090-3558-48.1.95 |last10=Stroud |first10=R |last11=Brandt |first11=J |last12=Burnett |first12=J |last13=Parish |first13=C |last14=Petterson |first14=J |last15=Witte |first15=C |last16=Stringfield |first16=C |last17=Orr |first17=K |last18=Zuba |first18=J |last19=Wallace |first19=M |last20=Grantham |first20=J |s2cid=9680916 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2012JWDis..48...95R }}</ref>
 <ref name=j5>{{cite journal | title = Ammunition is the Principal Source of Lead Accumulated by California Condors Re-Introduced to the Wild | journal = Environmental Science & Technology | pmid = 17051813 | year = 2006 | last1 = Church | first1 = ME | last2 = Gwiazda | first2 = R | last3 = Risebrough | first3 = RW | last4 = Sorenson | first4 = K | last5 = Chamberlain | first5 = CP | last6 = Farry | first6 = S | last7 = Heinrich | first7 = W | last8 = Rideout | first8 = BA | last9 = Smith | first9 = DR | volume = 40 | issue = 19 | pages = 6143–50 | doi = 10.1021/es060765s | bibcode = 2006EnST...40.6143C | url = http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8t6239j0 | access-date = June 29, 2019 | archive-date = August 23, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200823185118/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8t6239j0 | url-status = live }}</ref>
@@ Line 212: / Line 229: @@
 <ref name="Ridgway, 1874">{{cite book|last1=Baird|first1=S. F.|last2=Brewer|first2=T. M.|last3=Ridgway|first3=R.|title=A History of North American Birds|date=1874|publisher=Little, Brown, and Company|location=Boston|pages=338–343|chapter-url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13183532|chapter=Genus ''Pseudogryphus'', Ridgway|volume=3|access-date=October 31, 2017|archive-date=November 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107173717/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13183532|url-status=live}}</ref>
-<ref name="CNN 2019/07/22">{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/us/1000-california-condor-chick-hatched-trnd/index.html|title=The 1,000th California condor has hatched in a victory for the species that nearly went extinct|last1=Andrew|first1=Scottie|last2=Ries|first2=Brian|date=July 22, 2019|work=CNN|language=en|access-date=2019-07-28|df=mdy-all|archive-date=July 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728041424/https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/us/1000-california-condor-chick-hatched-trnd/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
+<ref name="CNN 2019/07/22">{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/us/1000-california-condor-chick-hatched-trnd/index.html|title=The 1,000th California condor has hatched in a victory for the species that nearly went extinct|last1=Andrew|first1=Scottie|last2=Ries|first2=Brian|date=July 22, 2019|work=CNN|language=en|access-date=July 28, 2019|archive-date=July 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728041424/https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/us/1000-california-condor-chick-hatched-trnd/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
-<ref name="DDT 2013">{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/banned-pesticide-ddt-is-still-killing-california-condors/|title=Banned Pesticide DDT Is Still Killing California Condors|last1=Platt|first1=John|last2=|first2=|date=Sep 20, 2013|work=Scientific American|language=en|access-date=2013-09-20|df=mdy-all|archive-date=August 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821065305/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/banned-pesticide-ddt-is-still-killing-california-condors/|url-status=live}}</ref>
+<ref name="DDT 2013">{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/banned-pesticide-ddt-is-still-killing-california-condors/|title=Banned Pesticide DDT Is Still Killing California Condors|last1=Platt|first1=John|last2=|first2=|date=September 20, 2013|work=Scientific American|language=en|access-date=September 20, 2013|archive-date=August 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821065305/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/banned-pesticide-ddt-is-still-killing-california-condors/|url-status=live}}</ref>
 }}
@@ Line 254: / Line 271: @@
 [[Category:ESA endangered species]]
 [[Category:Taxa named by George Shaw]]
-[[Category:Species endangered by pollution]]
+[[Category:Species that are or were threatened by pollution]]
-[[Category:Species endangered by habitat loss]]
+[[Category:Species that are or were threatened by habitat loss]]

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