California Condor, Gymnogyps californianus, is the largest North American land bird. It was nearly driven to extinction by DDT use, resulting in fragile egg shells that seldom survived to hatch. Since then, the ban on DDT and captive breeding programs have resulted going from 22 birds in 1987 to a little more than 400 birds today. The wild population still remain under threat from lead poisoning caused by eating carion left by hunters, that carion sadly laced with the same lead buckshot that killed it.
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