| Book Review | Environmental History, 12.3

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| Book Review | Environmental History, 12.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Condor: To the Brink and Back—The Life and Times of One Giant Bird. By John Nielsen. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. x + 275 pp. Illustrations and notes. Cloth $25.95.
At first glance, the California condor seems an unlikely poster bird for endangered species: it is not only ugly but also makes a living by consuming dead animals. But with a nine-and-a-half foot wingspan, an ability to soar gracefully for miles at a stretch, and a close association with its wilderness habitat, this charismatic species has captured the hearts and minds of many Americans. Indeed, on the eve of World War II, the condor became one of the first vanishing species to be extensively studied by scientists, and the federal government eventually spent more than $20 million trying to nurse it back from the brink of extinction. As NPR environment reporter John Nielsen explains in this passionate, highly readable, and wide-ranging account, "once you see the condor soaring, it owns you" (p. 8).	1
For eons the bird ranged across the North American continent, until the late-Pleistocene large mammal extinctions dried up its major food supply, forcing a retreat to the southwest. Native Americans, who not only venerated the species but also ritually killed it, may have further reduced its population, as did the predations of Euro-American settlers. By the end of the nineteenth century, its numbers had become dangerously thinned even in its final California strongholds, while skin and egg collectors scrambled for specimens of the increasingly rare bird.	. . .

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