Video: First Oregon Zoo-raised California condor is all grown up — turns 20

The Oregon Zoo is nationally recognized for its work to preserve the California condor population at its Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation in rural Clackamas County.

The work began about 20 years ago — and now the first condor hatched and raised by Oregon Zoo has turned 20 years old.

Kun-Wac-Shun, aka No. 340, was hatched on May 9, 2004 at Jonsson Center and has become a big deal in his permanent home (since 2005) of Pinnacles National Park in Central California.

“It’s a great occasion to celebrate a species that not too long ago was on the very brink of extinction,” said Travis Koons, who oversees the zoo’s condor program. “In the 1980s, fewer than 30 of these birds remained on the planet. No. 340 has played a big role in the condor’s comeback.”

Named Kun-Wac-Shun (“Thunder and Lightning”) by Chief Nelson Wallulutum of the Wasco tribe, the resilient bird has spent the past 19 years in and around the majestic rock formations at Pinnacles, where he’s considered one of the most dominant males in the flock, the zoo said.

Here's video of the big bird in action.

“Condors raised in Oregon have a reputation for toughness,” Koons said. “And that probably started with No. 340. He was the first one out, a true survivor, and he just might be the toughest of them all.”

Ten years ago, he paired up with No. 236, aka “Tiny,” and together, they have brought five wild-hatched chicks into the world, including the first condor to fledge from its nest at Pinnacles in more than a century.

It has not been an easy life though. No. 340 has been treated for elevated lead levels at least 15 times over the years, most recently at the Oakland Zoo in 2021. His first female partner, No. 444, died of lead poisoning in 2014, and his first offspring, the history-making No. 828, also succumbed, in 2022.

Accumulated lead poisoning — a problem that plagues all raptors and scavengers — remains the leading cause of death in free-flying condors. As the birds feed on animal carcasses, they can ingest lead from bullet fragments. This results in paralysis of the digestive tract and a slow death by starvation.

The California condor was one of the original animals included on the 1973 Endangered Species Act and is classified as critically endangered. In 1982, only 22 individuals remained in the wild and by 1987, the last condors were brought into human care in an attempt to save the species from extinction. Thanks to recovery programs like the Oregon Zoo’s, the world’s California condor population now totals more than 500 birds, most of which are flying free.