by John Moir (Author)
"A heart-stopping saga of the rescue from the very brink of extinction of one of the grandest of all birds."--Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Amazon Biodiversity Center.
RETURN OF THE CONDOR is the riveting account of one of the most dramatic attempts to save a species from extinction in the history of modern conservation. Features a new Afterword by the author.
With the condor's population down to only twenty-two birds in the 1980s and their very survival in doubt, the condor recovery team flouted conventional wisdom and pursued a controversial strategy to pull the bird back from the brink of extinction. Thus began the ongoing, decades-long program to reestablish America's largest bird in its ancient home in Western skies.
Award-winning science writer John Moir takes readers into the backcountry to get to know the recovery program scientists as well as some of the individual condors. These are stories of peril, uncertainty, and controversy. Woven throughout these tales of heartbreak and triumph is the extraordinary dedication of the humans who have sometimes risked their lives for this charismatic, intelligent, and social bird.
Despite the program's remarkable successes, the condor's narrative is still unfolding with a number of challenges remaining. This includes the dilemma of lead poisoning among free-flying condors that is a major obstacle to the bird's recovery.
The new Afterword presents a compelling examination of the progress and continuing adversity facing the condor recovery effort since the first edition of the book was published.
Finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize
from the Stanford University Libraries
Honorable Mention from the National Association of Science Writers
Back Jacket
Return of the Condor is a riveting account of one of the most dramatic attempts to save a species from extinction in the history of modern conservation. The California condor, North America's largest bird, lives 50 years or more, is highly intelligent, often mates for life, can fly 150 miles in a day, and was believed by Native Americans to have supernatural powers. But its strength and endurance were not enough to save it from near-extinction. Human greed and ignorance caused the great bird's decline. Human ingenuity and insight became its only hope. Down to only twenty-two individuals in the 1980s, the condor owes its survival and recovery to a remarkable team of scientists who flouted conventional wisdom and pursued the most controversial means to save it. Conservationists and scientists have fought what at times has seemed a quixotic battle to save the species. Theirs is a story of passion, courage, and bitter controversy, one that created a national debate over how to save America's largest bird. Return of the Condor chronicles this epic story. We meet Jan Hamber, the biologist who made the agonizing decision to capture AC9, the young male who was the last living wild condor; Carl Koford, the brilliant scientist whose flawed conclusions delayed a captive-breeding program until it was almost too late; and two of the condors whose survival was critical, including AC9 himself. There is tragedy and triumph in their stories. Today, condors are more numerous and far easier to see than at any time in the past century, and their expanding territory is home to millions of Americans. For America's 52 million birders and anyone who cares about saving our natural heritage, this inspiring story shows what happens when we commit ourselves to working with nature instead of against it."Pulling the California condor back from the brink of extinction has been difficult and expensive. But this fine book by John Moir makes abundantly clear why preserving magnificent beings like our once-more wild condors is one of twenty-first-century society's more important obligations."--Alan Tennant author of On The Wing: To The Edge Of The Earth With The Peregrine Falcon
Author Biography
John Moir is an environmental journalist who has been reporting on the condor's story for more than 20 years. Moir has written for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Washington Post, Audubon, and many other publications. He is the author of two nonfiction books, has contributed to four anthologies, and has received more than two dozen writing awards.