Gymnogyps californianus

This species was transferred to Ciconiiformes (AOU 1998) but subsequently was tentatively returned to the order Falconiformes after re-evaluation of the reasons for the earlier change. Further, some genetic studies (Cracraft et al. 2004, Fain and Houde 2004, Ericson et al. 2006) indicate that New World vultures are not closely related to storks, although their precise phylogenetic relationship to the Falconiformes is yet undetermined (AOU 2007).

Historically widespread in California, Oregon, Arizona, and Mexico, declined to extirpation in the wild by the 1980s; captive breeding increased the number of individuals and allowed releases; reintroduction efforts are in progress in California, Arizona, and Baja California, with limited breeding and fledging success; reestablishment of self-sustaining wild breeding populations is uncertain, in part because of environmental perils such as lead poisoning and trash ingestion that are difficult to manage.

California condors were widely distributed in North America during the late Pleistocene era (approximately 50,000-10,000 years before present), with records from Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, New York, and Mexico. At the time of the arrival of Russian and Euro-American explorers, condors occurred only in western North America from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California, Mexico, and inland to the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, with occasional observations farther east. California condors were observed in the Pacific Northwest until the early 1900s, and in Baja California until the 1930s. Source: USFWS (2013, which see for original literature citations).

By about 1950, the species was restricted to southern California prior to extirpation from wild in 1987, when the last remaining wild condors were removed from the wild for captive breeding. Reintroductions in California, northern Arizona, and the Sierra San Pedro Martir in northern Baja California have led to very limited renewed nesting in each area. Some of the birds released in northern Arizona range into southern Utah and rarely as far north as southern Wyoming and Colorado.

Range extent (extent of occurrence) is roughly based on the regularly used nesting and foraging areas as of 2012 (see map in USFWS 2013).

The only extant occurrences are the few areas where the species has been reintroduced in California, Arizona, and Baja California.

Decline in wild population prior to 1987 was due to lead and cyanide poisoning (lead poisoning from ingestion of bullets in hunter-killed carcasses); shooting; removal from wild of eggs, young, and adults for captive breeding; and unknown causes.

Recovery of the California condor is constrained by the current anthropogenic causes of mortality, primarily lead contamination from prey shot with lead ammunition (Finkelstein et al. 2012, Rideout et al. 2012). Further, reproductive success has been hampered by the presence of microtrash in the environment and the effects of DDT/DDE in coastal populations, and exposure to lead in breeding adults may cause nest failure (USFWS 2013).

A large proportion of reintroduced condors and condor nestling have died from anthropogenic causes (e.g., collisions with power lines, ingestion of toxins). As of 2012, mortality from lead poisoning continued to be a significant threat. In California, chick mortality resulting from ingestion of anthropogenic material (trash) is a serious concern. In fact, Mee et al. (2007) concluded that junk ingestion has been the primary cause of nest failure in the reintroduced condor population and threatens the reestablishment of a viable breeding population in southern California.