Monterey: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea
Located on California’s central coast, Monterey is where the mountains meet the sea in a magnificent display of natural beauty. With pristine forests, sandy beaches, rocky tide pools and a thriving ocean ecosystem, Monterey is a paradise for animals. A variety of marine mammal species live in or pass through Monterey, such as California gray whales, orcas, dolphins, porpoises and sea lions. Monterey is also home to hundreds of different birds, including the bald eagle and California condor.

California Condor: Icon of the American Wilderness
Of all the animals that make their home in Monterey, the most famous is probably the California condor. In the first half of the 20th century, the California condor population plummeted due to unbridled hunting and environmental poisons. By the 1980s, there were only a few birds left in the wild. Desperate to save this icon of the American wilderness, conservationists took these remaining wild birds into captivity to breed. The breeding program worked and since then more than 100 California condors have been successfully reintroduced into the wilderness in and around Monterey.

The California condor weighs up to 22 pounds and has an average wingspan of more than 9 feet, making it North America’s largest land bird. Like other birds of the vulture family, California condors are carrion feeders, meaning they eat carcasses of dead animals, including deer, cattle, rabbits and rodents. Indeed, California condors are so adept at finding and eating carrion that they are sometimes called nature’s janitors.

Despite the success of the captive breeding and wilderness reintroduction program, the California condor is still one of the most endangered species in the world. Although no longer a hunted species, they are still threatened by toxins in their environment. As scavengers, they feed on the remains of dead game animals left behind by hunters. By doing so, they also ingest lead bullets, which poison and kill them.

Bald Eagles
Monterey is also home to the bald eagle, America’s national symbol. They have dark bodies and white heads – they’re not actually bald, as the name suggests - and an average wingspan of about 7 feet. After nearly going extinct in the 1970s due to exposure to DDT and other contaminants, bald eagles have made a comeback in California and throughout the United States. In wintertime, hundreds of bald eagles migrate south from the Pacific Northwest to Monterey and other parts of California for the abundant supply of food. There are also resident breeding populations in Monterey and other parts of central California as a result of successful restoration efforts.

The Marine Environment: A Complex Web of Life
Just off the coast of Monterey is the Monterey Canyon, an underwater gorge about as large as the Grand Canyon. The Monterey Canyon creates a current upwelling system in the middle of the bay, which brings nutrient-rich seawater from the colder depths up to the surface. This upwelling supports a bounty of marine life, including fish, dolphins, porpoises, and whales, as well as an assortment of migratory and resident sea birds.

California Gray Whales
The waters off the coast of Monterey are part of the migratory routes for many marine species, including California gray whales. Each year, California gray whales pass through Monterey Bay, traveling between their calving lagoons in Mexico’s Baja California and their feeding grounds in the Bering Sea. Because of the dangers involved in passing directly over the Monterey Canyon – adult whales are safe but their calves are vulnerable to attack by orcas – they usually hug the shoreline. Since they pass so close to land, Monterey is one of the best places to watch California gray whales.

California gray whales are medium-sized whales with dark skin that is encrusted with barnacles. California gray whales are famous for their tendency to make "friends" with people on whale-watching boats. They have been known to swim up to the boats and allow themselves to be touched and photographed.

California gray whales were hunted to the brink of extinction by the middle of the 20th century. They have since made a remarkable recovery and populations now number between 25,000 and 30,000. But even without the threat of being hunted, they remain vulnerable to the perils of human activities. Like other large whales, gray whales are threatened by injury and death caused by entanglements in fishing equipment or being struck by ships along their migratory routes. Oceanic oil and gas fields also disturb and pollute their habitat, and their calving grounds in Baja California are threatened by industrial operations.

Orcas
Orcas, also known as "killer whales," are the largest members of the dolphin family. They are found in coastal oceans worldwide and can be seen year-round off the coast of Monterey. Orcas are called killer whales because they are fierce predators, preying on a variety of marine animals, including fish, sea lions, walruses, birds, sea turtles, penguins, polar bears, gray whales and even other orcas. Orcas are highly social animals, usually traveling in pods ranging in size from a few individuals to 30 or more. Like other dolphins, orcas use echolocation to communicate with each other. They are not currently endangered but they are among the most contaminated marine mammals on the planet due to pollution in their environment and food.

Conservation in Monterey
Like most animals that live with or alongside large human populations, Monterey’s animals have suffered some degree of habitat loss and environmental contamination over the years. However, the efforts of dedicated conservationists have helped restore habitat and protect animals in Monterey in recent decades.

Get Involved!
The California condor is still one of the most critically endangered species in the world. The Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS) is working to re-establish wild populations of California condor in Monterey County. Find out how you can help VWS save the condors of Monterey, and to learn cool condor facts.