Image of a condor flying in sky above tall trees

The flapping of their giant wings earned condors the nickname “thunderbirds.”

powerofforever/Getty Images (background); Jeff Foott/Minden Pictures (condor)

STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.2, WHST.6-8.4, WHST.6-8.9, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.2, W.6-8.4, W.6-8.9, SL.6-8.1

NCSS: Culture • Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Individuals, Groups, and Institutions • Production, Distribution, and Consumption • Science, Technology, and Society

GEOGRAPHY

Bringing the California Condor Home

Endangered condors are flying high in the skies of Northern California once again. This is the incredible story of how a Native American community helped make that happen.

April 2024

By Brooke Ross

Question: What are some ways that the Yurok Tribe and the California condor are connected?

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

Members of the Yurok Tribe of Northern California have long believed that when they pray, their prayers are carried to the heavens by a mighty messenger: the California condor. With an average wingspan of 9.5 feet, the massive bird can soar 15,000 feet into the air. It is one of the highest-flying creatures in California.

Hundreds of condors once filled the California skies. But decades ago, the birds all but vanished. The species had been driven nearly extinct by a number of threats, including lead poisoning and habitat loss.

Courtesy of the Yurok Tribe

Tiana Williams-Claussen

The condor’s disappearance from Northern California, in particular, brought great sorrow to the Yurok Tribe. In the early 2000s, the Indigenous group hatched a plan to bring the sacred bird home: They would build a facility where they could care for California condors born in captivity, then release them into the wild.

The Yurok Tribe partnered with wildlife groups and federal agencies to form the Northern California Condor Restoration Program. So far, the program has released 11 condors into the area’s Redwood National Park, says Tiana Williams-Claussen. She is a wildlife biologist who helps run the program and is one of about 5,000 Yurok Tribe members.

“By bringing species like this back, it’s like bringing a piece of our family back,” she says. “We’re healing ourselves as well as the world.”

Conservation Connect

Watch a video about the California condor and efforts to protect the species.

Dramatic Decline

California condors are the largest flying birds in North America. They once soared across Western North America, from Canada to Mexico (see "Condors: Then and Now" map, below). But their population started to decline in the mid-1800s when many settlers moved to the Western United States. Some condors were hunted for sport, while logging wiped out many of the trees in their habitat. But their biggest threat was—and still is—lead poisoning.

Condors are scavengers, meaning that they don’t kill other animals—they feed on those that are already dead. But if a condor feeds on the remains of a creature that was killed with lead bullets, the bird could die. Why? Lead is a soft metal, and bullets made out of it can fragment into hundreds of pieces upon impact. If a condor consumes even a tiny piece of the poisonous metal, that is enough to kill it.

By the early 1980s, just 22 condors were left in the wild. In an effort to save the species, the U.S. government approved a program to capture all remaining condors and breed them in wildlife facilities. Within a few years, scientists were able to start releasing some condors into their natural habitat.

Today the number of condors in the wild has risen to about 350. But those birds mainly live in the central and southern parts of what was once their natural habitat. Inspired by the growing population, the Yurok Tribe was determined to do something similar farther north.

BY THE NUMBERS

California Condors

ZSSD/Minden Pictures

22: Number of condors in the wild in 1982

350: Estimated number of condors in the wild today

11: Number of condors released by the Yurok Tribe since 2022

^{SOURCES: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Yurok Tribe}

Into the Wild

Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, the Yurok Tribe built a condor management and release facility on a hilltop in Redwood National Park. The park is an ideal location, experts say. Its towering redwood trees provide ample space for the giant birds to rest and build nests when they’re not searching for food.

The facility receives condors from zoos and wildlife breeding facilities. It pairs birds being prepared for release with older ones. Condors are social animals that learn from one another. The older birds show the younger ones how to forage for food and to nest.

After the condors master those skills—usually in a few months—they are ready for release. Their wings are tagged with identification numbers and location transmitters so scientists can monitor them.

Once the birds are set free, Yurok members set out food for them near the release facility. This ensures that the condors will return to the area, which allows wildlife experts to give them occasional health checkups.

The Condor’s Job

The released condors are already benefiting Redwood National Park’s ecosystem, experts say. The birds use their powerful beaks to tear through the tough hides of deer, elk, and even whales. This gives smaller, weaker scavengers access to food as well.

And by quickly consuming animal carcasses, condors help prevent the spread of disease to humans and other animals. For this reason, the Yurok Tribe holds great respect for the species. Members honor the birds’ contribution to the environment by using their fallen feathers in cultural ceremonies.

“[The California condor’s] job is to keep our prayers going and to keep our [environment] clean,” Susie Long, a Yurok Tribe elder, told reporters. “It’s not just to be a bird.”

Next Steps

The Yurok Tribe plans to release four to six condors into Redwood National Park each year for the next two decades. Their next release is planned for this fall.

In the meantime, the Yurok Tribe and others are working to protect the condors that are already flying free. They educate people about the dangers of lead. They encourage hunters to switch to other types of bullets, such as copper, which are safer for scavengers.

“Condors take a lot of work [to protect] right now because everything that hurts the planet eventually trickles up to them,” says Williams-Claussen. “Our goal is to get the world back in shape so we don’t have to manage condors anymore. Because that means that the world is healthy—not only for condors, but for everybody.”