In 1987, wildlife managers made an agonising call: capture every last wild California condor to prevent extinction. Only 27 condors were left, all in captivity. Chicks were raised with puppet heads so they'd never imprint on humans. By the end of 2025 there were 607 condors, 392 of them flying wild.
The Empty Sky
In 1987, wildlife managers made an agonising decision: capture every last wild California condor to prevent extinction. Only 27 condors were left, all in captivity. The skies over California fell silent.
A Bold Gamble
The captive breeding program that followed is one of conservation's most audacious gambles. Chicks were hand-raised using condor puppets to avoid imprinting on humans. Slow to reproduce, a pair raises just one chick every two years, the birds were painstakingly bred and released.
>> "Raising condor chicks with puppet heads so they'd never imprint on humans, conservation had to get creative to save 27 individuals."
By the end of 2025 there were 607 condors, 392 of them in the wild. Wild condors now fly from Baja California to Utah, and a new flock lives in the Pacific Northwest. Lead poisoning from ammunition remains the primary threat, driving campaigns for lead-free hunting in condor habitat.
_Sources: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Condor Recovery Program, "2025 Annual Population Status", as of 31 December 2025. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "California condor" species profile. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, "California condor" animal fact page. Science Blog, "1987: last California condor AC9 captured, 607 by 2025", 12 September 2026._