165: California Condor: Saving One of the World's Rarest Birds from Extinction | Christian Flores

But, but we should, we, we should keep, we should talk a little bit about the background of all this because this was a bird that, that, to be honest with you, when I was a kid, I was absolutely convinced was gonna go extinct.

Mm.

Hmm.

And they, the Fish and Wildlife Service made a decision that they were gonna catch, they were down to, like, 27 birds, and they were gonna catch the ones that were still in the, in the wild.

And I actually went out to California and sat on some hill two miles away from, uh, the place where they were trying to catch the last six.

Oh, wow.

And there for, I don't know, it seemed like half a day watching golden eagles and other things come over, and then suddenly at one point, this giant bird sails over with these, you know, white primaries and it just, like, it's amazing to think that...

But, but I also, but my thought was they would catch these birds and-

Hmm

...

they lay one egg at a time.

Um, i- it makes no sense that, that bringing it into captivity, a bird like this would necessarily result in the kind of success they've had.

It turns out-

Mm

... that basically every leg, egg that's laid these days is hatchable by, by what they know in terms of the rearing for them.

And so, yeah, the population I think is up over 250 birds now, I think.

Is that, is that right?

Yeah.

In total-

Is it?

...

in total, we have around 600 birds now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

But, but we should, we, we should keep, we should talk a little bit about the background of all this because this was a bird that, that, to be honest with you, when I was a kid, I was absolutely convinced was gonna go extinct.

Mm.

Hmm.

And they, the Fish and Wildlife Service made a decision that they were gonna catch, they were down to, like, 27 birds, and they were gonna catch the ones that were still in the, in the wild.

And I actually went out to California and sat on some hill two miles away from, uh, the place where they were trying to catch the last six.

Oh, wow.

And there for, I don't know, it seemed like half a day watching golden eagles and other things come over, and then suddenly at one point, this giant bird sails over with these, you know, white primaries and it just, like, it's amazing to think that...

But, but I also, but my thought was they would catch these birds and-

Hmm

...

they lay one egg at a time.

Um, i- it makes no sense that, that bringing it into captivity, a bird like this would necessarily result in the kind of success they've had.

It turns out-

Mm

... that basically every leg, egg that's laid these days is hatchable by, by what they know in terms of the rearing for them.

And so, yeah, the population I think is up over 250 birds now, I think.

Is that, is that right?

Yeah.

In total-

Is it?

...

in total, we have around 600 birds now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.