The Peregrine Fund’s California condor recovery program, northern Arizona and southern Utah, USA

Summary

The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), Critically Endangered and reduced to 27 birds, all in captivity, by the mid-1980s, has been the focus of a Peregrine Fund reintroduction into northern Arizona and southern Utah since 1996 under a non-essential experimental population designation, part of a broader effort spanning five captive-breeding institutions that has built a regional sub-population of over 70 free-ranging birds. Release candidates are assessed in a flight pen at Vermilion Cliffs, fitted with radio transmitters, then moved to a hack box near free-flying condors, with mock electrified power poles discouraging dangerous perching before a soft release supervised from a nearby blind. As of winter 2014, staff tracked over 70 condors ranging from the Grand Canyon to Zion National Park, with flights exceeding 480 km recorded though the core population stays within about 113 km of the release site; when a radio signal goes stationary, staff recover the bird for necropsy, and blood-lead testing and treatment are conducted on returning condors. Lead poisoning from ammunition in scavenged carcasses remains the dominant threat, accounting for over half of diagnosed deaths, compounded by the species' slow maturation and low reproductive rate, meaning growth requires decades of sustained management. The project reports meaningful but incomplete success, crediting condors' tolerance of intensive hands-on management, sustained multi-agency cooperation, and continued public support, while acknowledging true recovery, a fully self-sustaining wild population, remains the outstanding goal.