By: Leonardo Saldaña

Type: Bird Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: Up to 60 Years Size: Body, 3.5 to 4.5 ft (1.1 to 1.4 m); Wingspan, 9 to 10 ft (2.7 to 3 m) Weight: 18 to 31 lbs (8 to 14 kg) Protection status: Endangered Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America. Their wings may stretch nearly 10 feet (3 meters) from tip to tip. When in flight, these huge birds glide on air currents to soar as high as a dizzying 15,000 feet (4,600 meters). Like other vultures, condors are scavengers that feast on the carcasses of large mammals, such as cattle and deer. When a big meal is available, the birds may gorge themselves so much that they must rest for several hours before flying again.

 Due to the diligent efforts by staff at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo as part of the California Condor Recovery Plan, the condor population grew, and they began to be released back into the wild in Currently, there are around 400 California condors alive in total, with a little over 200 living in the wild. But the California condor is still considered critically endangered by the IUCN Redlist.  Their population continues to be threatened by poison ingestion, most notably by lead poison from hunters’ bullets left in carcasses. Other threats include illegal egg collection, habitat loss, and power lines.

 Write to your senator or congressperson encouraging a nationwide ban on lead bullets. Hunters can use copper bullets for ammunition instead which do not harm California condors if they ingest them. You can also help condors by donating to the Friends of the California Condor, Wild & Free nonprofit group, which focuses on outreach events, education programs, and advocacy for the endangered animal.

 When the weather becomes too hot, however, condors have a very different tactic for staying cool. When we get hot, we sweat. As the sweat evaporates, it helps keep us cool. Condors don’t sweat. Instead, they poop on their own legs! Though this might sound gross or strange to us, this is actually a very effective way for them to stay comfortable when temperatures get too high. When the poop begins to evaporate from their legs, it has a cooling effect, just like our sweat does for us.

 Condors are carrion eaters. Carrion isn’t the bag you take with you on a plane – it means any animal that is already dead. Since condors don’t hunt their food, they must travel far and wide in search of dead animals. They may make a meal out of an animal as small as a ground squirrel or as big as a cow. Some common animals on their menu include sheep, deer, elk, and horses. In their lifetimes, condors may range over millions of acres in search of food.

 While cliff caves are their preferred nesting sites, condors may also nest among boulders or in cavities of large trees, like redwoods. There are no twigs, branches, or other materials at the nest. The female lays her eggs directly on the floor of the cave or other surface.  The parents incubate, or sit on, the eggs for almost two months before the chick hatches. Once it does, the chick grows quickly. The parents must work hard to bring it enough food so it will grow into a healthy bird. Condors can’t carry food in their feet like most raptors do. Instead, the adults store food for their young in their crop, a special pouch inside their throats where food sits before it travels to the stomach to be digested. When the adult returns to the nest, it regurgitates, or throws up, this food, which the young chick happily eats.

 California condors are curious and attracted to human activity. They are frequently seen in Zion perched on or soaring above Angels Landing, and on the Kolob Terrace Road near Lava Point. If a bird is perched, do not approach it or offer food. If a condor is within reach of people, please report the situation - including the bird's tag number - to park staff.