Zion National Park’s first wild California condor was not only a marquee tourist attraction but also hailed as a symbol of success in the fight to recover the species listed as endangered by the federal government.
Sadly, he didn’t last.
The nearly 5-year-old male condor — dubbed “1K” because he was the 1,000th to be hatched since the founding of the California Condor Recovery Program in 1982 — was recently found dead in a juniper tree near Pipe Spring National Monument in northern Arizona.
“1K’s death is a tragedy because it was premature and preventable,” Shawn Farry, program manager for The Peregrine Fund’s California condor program, said in a news release announcing the death. “He was still in his awkward teenage years, with his head color starting to change from black to orange. He was only a year or two away from finding a lifelong mate and becoming a breeder.”
The majestic bird hatched in May 2019, becoming Zion National Park’s first wild-fledged California condor. He grew up and learned to fly in the park and attained a fan following in the process. Then, when 1K’s radio tag revealed he had quit moving in March, biologists hiked several miles through a rugged and remote canyon and located the bird. The results of a necropsy — an examination of the dead animal — revealed that lead poisoning led to the bird’s demise.
A long and painful death
(National Park Service) A condor rests on a ledge at Zion National Park in May 2021.
Janice Stroud-Settles, Zion’s wildlife program manager, said 1K likely suffered a long and painful death, possibly falling from a perch on a cliff and into the tree before eventually succumbing to lead poisoning, which can cause paralysis of the digestive tract that renders a condor unable to process food and water.
“It’s a horrible death,” she said in an interview. “They are essentially dying of starvation or dehydration, and he probably became really weak and unable to fly, and fell into the tree from above.”
Unpleasant as it is, 1K’s demise typifies the fate of many condors across their range in the American Southwest.
Nearly half the condor fatalities in California since the recovery program began have been attributed to lead poisoning, according to the release. In Utah and Arizona, 53 condors have died from lead poisoning, and 90% of the birds that have been trapped have tested positive for lead in their blood since the birds were reintroduced to the region in 1996.
Because they are scavengers that feed off the remains of dead deer, elk and other game animals, California condors are particularly vulnerable.
“If condors eat an animal killed with lead ammunition,” Stroud-Settles explained, “they will likely pick up lead from that carcass, and it does not take much to give them lead poisoning. Bald and golden eagles are often hit hard by lead poisoning as well. But they produce multiple chicks in one year and can offset that mortality better than condors that produce one chick every other year.”
As grim as those numbers are, progress is being made in preserving the Utah-Arizona condor population, which currently tallies 83, about 79 of which are roaming the skies free from captivity. In partnership with The Peregrine Fund, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources operates a program that offers hunters incentives to use copper ammunition.
The Hunters Helping Condors program offers hunters who get a tag to hunt in the areas surrounding Zion National Park a coupon valued at $50 that they can redeem at select retailers to get a free box of non-lead bullets.
Danielle Finlayson, a conservation biologist in DWR’s southern region, said 79% of the 2,400 hunters who secured tags last fall for the Zion unit, the area most frequented by the birds, participated in the program.
“That’s huge and is definitely helping the condors,” said Finlayson, while lamenting the fact that 21% are not redeeming the vouchers. “We are trying to raise that number, but we are super grateful to the hunters who do participate.”
Besides receiving vouchers, hunters using lead-free ammo are eligible to enter a drawing to win $800 in outdoor merchandise. Their counterparts who use lead can participate if they remove the gut pile from the animal they shot from the field and bring it to one of DWR’s check stations, according to Finlayson.
Sibling survival
(Abi Farish | National Park Service) Condors rest on a branch at Zion National Park.
Still, that does not assuage the grief many feel at the loss of 1K, including those who frequented Zion each year for the chance to catch a fleeting glimpse of the majestic bird, with his 9½-foot wingspan, that was celebrated on merchandise and signs and emerged as an iconic symbol of hope for the species.
Stroud-Settles said visitors often gathered at Zion’s Big Bend pullout to view the nest site and watch 1K as he learned to fly.
“He was not a good lander,” she recalled. “When he tried to land in a tree, he would always crash, and it looked horrible. But he eventually figured things out and became a really good flyer.”
For those working with the birds, the popular condor’s demise gives pause for reflection.
“1K’s death is a reminder that there is still work that needs to be done before we can take a step back and call this a conservation success story,” Tim Hauck, director of The Peregrine Fund’s condor program, said in a statement.
Fortunately, 1K has a younger sister to carry on his legacy. In 2021, two years after 1K’s historic emergence, California condor 1111 became the second wild-fledged condor in Zion. She, too, had a brush with lead poisoning.
Last January, a team that trapped and tested her found she had the highest lead levels ever recorded in a live bird in the recovery program’s history. She was immediately transferred to Liberty Wildlife, an Arizona wildlife rehabilitation center, nursed back to health and released back into the wild May 17.
The California condor, North America’s largest wild bird, has been declared an endangered species and protected under federal law since 1967.