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Condor, February 2006
Hardcover
To the Brink and Back--The Life and Times of One Giant Bird
HarperCollins
February 2006
272 pages ISBN: 0060088621 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The California condor has been described as a
bird "with one wing in the grave."
Flying on wings nearly ten feet wide from tip to tip, these
birds thrived on the carcasses of animals like woolly
mammoths. Then, as humans began dramatically reshaping North
America, the continent's largest flying land bird started
disappearing. By the beginning of the twentieth century,
extinction seemed inevitable. But small groups of
passionate individuals refused to allow the condor to fade
away, even as they fought over how and why the bird was to
be saved. Scientists, farmers, developers, bird lovers, and
government bureaucrats argued bitterly and often, in the
process injuring one another and the species they were
trying to save. In the late 1980s, the federal government
made a wrenching decision -- the last remaining wild condors
would be caught and taken to a pair of zoos, where they
would be encouraged to breed with other captive condors.
Livid critics called the plan a recipe for
extinction. After the zoo-based populations soared, the
condors were released in the mountains of south-central
California, and then into the Grand Canyon, Big Sur, and
Baja California. Today the giant birds are nowhere near
extinct. The giant bird with "one wing in the
grave" appears to be recovering, even as the wildlands it
needs keep disappearing. But the story of this bird is more
than the story of a vulture with a giant wingspan -- it is
also the story of a wild and giant state that has become
crowded and small, and of the behind-the-scenes dramas that
have shaped the environmental movement. As told by John
Nielsen, an environmental journalist and a native
Californian, this is a fascinating tale of survival.
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