California Condor by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy
California Condor - Air
This is a success story for conservation as numbers have been in decline for over a century thanks to persecution, poisoning, shooting and collision with power cables. By 1982 only 22 wild birds remained and by 1987 all wild birds were taken into captivity and a breeding programme began to attempt to save the bird from extinction. The California Condor Recovery Program, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, was born, as were a goodly number of condor chicks over the coming years and by the mid-1990’s flocks of condors began to be released back into the wild and are surviving to this day in areas of California and around the Grand Canyon. There are now estimated to be over 300 birds out there and in 2004, the first chick was born in the wild. The program continues.
