Last of the Wild Condors

April 19, 1987 - It was on this day that a male California Condor swooped down to feast on a calf carcass. As he started eating, a cannon net fired over him and AC9 (the designation given him by the condor tracking team) was taken into captivity. The last of the wild California Condors was captured in a desperate attempt to save the species from extinction.

At the time of his capture there were only 27 of the birds left. The prospects were bleak as the recovery team tasked with breeding the birds had never successfully hatched a single egg. But AC9 proved to be a highly productive breeder. Over the next twenty years he would father 15 eggs with a single mate.

In May of 2002 he was released back into the wild and has since fathered 2 more chicks. In 2017 he went missing and is presumed dead.

It’s estimated that there are now over 560 California Condors in existence and almost half of those are in the wild.