In what year shown on the graph was the
California condor population the lowest?
The
California condor range in Central California includes the Carmel Highlands on the north, San Simeon on the south, and extends east across the Salinas Valley to Pinnacles National Park in the Gabilan Range of San Benito and Fresno counties.
Right now, that debate is playing out with special urgency in Oregon in anticipation of arrival of
California condors.
The Condor Trail is actually a popular and vital flyway for populations of wild
California condors congregating between Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Fillmore in the Sespe Wilderness and Ventana Wilderness up in Big Sur.
As a nation, we have invested tremendous thought and effort in creating a recovery success story for the
California condor. As they did three decades ago, bold and challenging decisions made today will further secure this unique piece of our shared natural heritage for all succeeding generations.
These lead-containing fragments remain the principal source of lead exposure to endangered
California condors and continue to prevent the successful recovery of these birds in the wild (Church et al.
When you spot a
California condor, you don't just see it--you experience it.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council claim the Forest Service is overstepping the law by allowing hunters to use lead ammunition in
California condor range.
This includes three species that have been re- introduced into nature after their extinction in the wild, such as the
California Condor and the Black- Footed Ferret.
It highlighted 64 mammal, bird and amphibian species that have improved in status, including three species that were extinct in the wild and have been re-introduced: the
California Condor, the black-footed ferret in the United States and Przewalski's horse in Mongolia.
The
California condor, an endangered mega-vulture with a wingspan approaching 10 feet, has had its numbers even further reduced, purportedly, by its buzzardly habit of ingesting lead projectiles from gut piles or lead pellets from unrecovered small-game carcasses.
This puts the giant panda, which numbers 1,000-2,000, and the
California condor, of which there are only 170 living, both deep in the danger zone.