The Oakland Zoo is a zoo located in the Grass Valley neighborhood of Oakland, California, United States. Established on June 6, 1922, it is managed by the Conservation Society of California, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wildlife both locally and globally. The zoo is home to more than 850 native and exotic animals and is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
Main entrance
Henry A. Snow, c. 1922
African elephant walking in the elephant exhibit
Aerial gondola at the zoo
The California condor is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah, the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. It is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps, although four extinct members of the genus are also known. The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and similarly considered Critically Imperiled by NatureServe.
California condor
Frederick Polydore Nodder's illustration accompanying George Shaw's 1797 species description
A California condor skull
Fossil of the extinct species Gymnogyps amplus from the La Brea Tar Pits