California condor spotted on Angels Landing Trail

Stretching 10 feet from wingtip to wingtip, California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) are the largest land birds in North America, and once ranged from British Columbia to Baja California and inland to the Rocky Mountains. Photo: Oregon Zoo

SPRINGDALE, Utah — Shane Wayment saw a California condor when he hiked the Angels Landing Trail at Zion National Park recently.

The birds are a critically endangered species.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:

By the mid-20th century, condor populations had dropped dramatically, and by 1967 the California condor was listed as “endangered” by the federal government. In 1982, only 23 condors survived worldwide. By 1987, all remaining wild condors were placed into a captive breeding program. Thus began an intensive recovery program to save the California condor from extinction.

Since 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild, the USFWS and its public and private partners have grown the population to 410 birds.

In 2008, the Recovery Program reached an important milestone, with more California condors flying free in the wild than in captivity for the first time since the program began.

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