Animal Directory Featured species in the planned Conservation Center habitat
California Condor
Gymnogyps californianus
CR
Fun facts
- North America's largest land bird — wingspan up to 3 metres, weight up to 12 kg, and a soaring range that can cover 250 km in a single day.
- In 1987 every remaining wild bird was captured — a global population of just 27 individuals — for an emergency captive-breeding programme that has since released over 500 condors back to the wild.
- Each released bird carries a numbered wing tag visible from the ground; the entire wild population is tracked individually by field crews in California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja California.
- Lead poisoning from spent-ammunition carcasses remains the single largest cause of death — driving California's 2013 lead-ammo ban for hunting on public lands.
- IUCN still lists the species as Critically Endangered despite the recovery, because the wild population would collapse again within years if releases stopped.
From the master plan
The California Condor is the headline recovery story of the Conservation Center — the species displayed under the open sky of the flight-aviary terminal, where guests can see the wingspan against open air rather than glass. The keeper-led talk near the exhibit is the planned emotional peak of the park’s full-day journey.
IUCN status sourced from the California Condor assessment (BirdLife International, 2020) on the IUCN Red List — listed as Critically Endangered with intensive ongoing conservation management.