Return of the Condor: The Race to Save Our Largest Bird from Extinction

by John Moir

A gripping account of the dramatic race to preserve one of America's most imperiled birds.

Genres: Birds, Conservation, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dhartridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written true story about the incredible, many years long efforts to bring the California Condor back from the brink of distinction. The patience and perseverance of this particular quest is inspiring. I hope to see some condors soaring in our local skies, thanks to the collaboration of the Yurok Tribe with agencies and groups dedicated to this cause.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the sake of brevity, I have combined my thoughts here with my reading of “Condor To The Brink And Back -- The Life And Times Of One Giant Bird” by John Nielsen. Both books are enjoyable and complement each other effectively but Moir’s book was more detailed and better written so I would give it the nod over Nielsen’s. However, Nielsen gave greater coverage to the recovery effort in Northern Arizona; Moir hardly mentions Arizona and concentrates instead on California.

The California Condor fortunately does not occupy the rarefied strata of a grail bird but it almost reached that nadir when the population plummeted to 22 birds in 1982. From a long gone era Condors once roamed across large portions of the United States where available food sources and suitable nesting sites could be located. Faced with their inevitable extinction, all wild Condors were trapped and placed in captivity in 1987, bringing to a sorrowful end a relic of the Pleistocene epoch perhaps now not quite suited to the modern world. An intense, long and controversial recovery program was initiated but no one really knew where this would eventually lead. Could Condors breed in captivity? Could poisons and lead bullets from hunter killed game be eliminated? Lead being a significant cause of excruciating pain and death of carcass feeding condors. The lead and poison battles still rage today. Could the meme of the Condor be successfully learned by captive raised and then freed birds? All these questions and hundreds more required appropriate resolutions that could be safely and readily integrated into the program. The effort was a daunting, staggering challenge among contentious interests and reduced to its most basic argument came down to “Captive or Forever Free” versus “Temporarily Captive or Forever Dead!!!!”

Last year I visited the Grand Canyon and learned that 60 wild California Condors now inhabit Northern Arizona; I was fortunate to see 12. From imagining free ranging Condors over inland evanescent seas of the Pleistocene era to magnificent wild birds now soaring over the mosaic rocks of the Grand Canyon was to me, a close encounter of the grail kind!!! Today the total Condor population numbers approximately 280 with the wild population about 135 birds.
I would encourage everyone to make the effort to see these magnificent creatures and both books go a long way in providing the reasons why.

[Tippy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The parts about the condor researchers and the condors themselves were very good-5 stars. However the author wrote a lot about his experience doing the research for the book, which isn't an interesting story at all. He spends a lot of timing describing study skins of various endangered species at a museum, for example. Also, I didn't walk away with a sense that he was invested in or passionate about this particular conservation effort. For example, he goes to see a very special individual condor flying in the wild. He isn't able to identify his bird, but he just leaves and says he's okay with that. If someone was really passionate about this bird, they would be back outside the next day and the next until they found their bird. Observed its behaviors. Watched it all day. He just gave up. He wasn't involved. And I don't care that he was sad while he stared at endangered/extinct species in a museum. Get back to the condors! What's happening with them?!

Outside of the condors, he also has many conservation rants that are only tangentially related to the condors at all. Frankly, someone has chosen to read this book, so he's really just preaching to the choir. Nothing in depth, nothing new, nothing inspiring. Just George W. Bush weakened the ESA blah, blah, blah. Oil companies, blah, blah, blah.

So that's why 3 stars. I found the troubles the conservation effort faced, both biological and political, to be interesting. I enjoyed reading about people giving their everything for this bird and loved hearing their stories. I was crushed when they hit a major road block, often involving the death of a bird. I was ecstatic when they reached a milestone, had a small victory. I wished this was the entire book, without being interrupted with scattered thoughts from the author.

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science journalism at its finest! Admittedly, the story of the California condors is in and of itself captivating, but Moir has taken that story and crafted a book both accessible and riveting. Definitely a great resource to learn about the people and their tireless efforts, highs and lows, in the quest to keep the condor from extinction.

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride! I love true stories that pull me in just like fiction, but where I get to learn about the world around me in the process. This made our trip to the Grand Canyon (where we got to see one of these amazing birds) all the more personal.