Endangered Condors Make Stunning Return to Zion National Park, Leaving Hikers Amazed
Hiking is one of the most enjoyable activities, offering not only breathtaking views but also fresh air and a chance to disconnect from everyday life. However, if you are lucky enough, you will also get to witness something very special. This is exactly what happened to one hiker who came across something so rare that it will be one of the fondest memories of her life. While making the challenging climb up Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, the visitor came face-to-face with two enormous California condors resting nearby. Known for their massive wingspans and critically endangered status, these birds are hardly seen in the wild. It is one of those rare moments that are truly extraordinary and unexpected.
The hiker @stephsoutside shared a clip on TikTok saying, “Made it to the top of Angels Landing and TWO condors were waiting… Nature really said, ‘you earned this.'” Another user, @hottakestina, mentioned how they saw condors years back, “When I was a kid, they were all in zoos, and there were only 22 of them, and my parents took us to the San Diego Zoo and were like, take a look because you’ll probably never see one as an adult. What a comeback story! Conservation success!”
Although extremely endangered, there are still very few California condors living in the Southwestern United States. However, conservation teams keep each of them under close watch. Every condor is fitted with a special identification tag, allowing researchers to track its movements, behavior, and the population’s recovery progress. Moreover, people can look up individual condors online through The Peregrine Fund’s website and learn about their backgrounds. The two birds spotted in Zion also have their own stories. One of them, X2, is a 7-year-old female born and raised in the wild, while Z0 is a 5-year-old male hatched at the San Diego Wild Animal Park before being released into nature.
California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) became endangered mainly due to human activity over many years. The biggest threat came from lead poisoning, which happened when the birds fed on animal carcasses left behind by hunters using lead bullets. Since condors are scavengers, they often consume tiny fragments of lead, leading to serious illness or death. Additionally, habitat loss caused by growing cities, farming, and development reduced safe nesting and feeding areas. Power line collisions and electrocution also killed many birds because of their huge wingspans. All these factors combined pushed the species dangerously close to extinction by the late 1980s.
The species was officially added to the Endangered Species List back in 1967, according to the National Park Service (NPS), per PetHelpful. However, in the 1980s, the population dropped to dangerously low numbers. The threat to their extinction became so high that major breeding and conservation programs were launched to save the species. The San Diego Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo were at the forefront of these early efforts. They started with captive breeding programs to rebuild the population. Over time, conservation work expanded across the western United States. Currently, California condors can be seen flying in parts of California, Arizona, and Utah.
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