The California condor was declared extinct in the wild in 1987.
That year, the last free-flying California condors were captured for a conservation breeding program. The decision was controversial because it ended the species’ existence in nature temporarily, but managers believed captive breeding offered the best chance of preventing total extinction.
The program used carefully managed breeding, veterinary care, and eventual releases. The first captive-bred condors returned to the wild in California in 1992, and later releases also took place in Arizona. Lead poisoning from fragments of ammunition remains a major threat because condors often feed on carcasses containing bullet fragments.
The California condor was not declared biologically extinct: individuals survived in captivity. This distinction matters because “extinct in the wild” means a species no longer maintained a naturally living population, even though it continued to exist under human care.