beauty queen

The California Condor is on the endangered species list, both federally and in California. It is , personally, one of the most unattractive birds and is the most endangered bird in North America. We have been talking about the value that we place upon things and the subsequent care that we give, or do not give, to that object. This article discusses the California Condor and is well written and basically informative (ie. no deep stuff that only biologists understand).
The California Condor is not one of the typical charismatic species that we are trying to save from exctinction. As an adult, it has a compleatly bald head and neck that ranges from yellows and blues to pinks, it is the largest North American bird, and eats carrion. It is not the typical "cute" endangered animal. However, it must have inspired some awe in us, because we have given it an existence value. An example of this is the great care that has been taken to keep this species in existence, as was explained in the article, and even more important, the work that has been done politically. As part of the Endangered Species Act, there must be an approved recovery plan written (a plan created to get the species back to the non-threatened level and what will happen in the future for the species). The article shows that indeed that information has been created, as it has not for over half of the species who are also on the endangered species list. That program appears to be well thought out from the few simplified points in the article. Each point is focused on what end is desired and with specific numbers that can be used as guidelines. Many of the species listed under the Endangered Species Act do not have any program at all, the people who work to get them listed do not take the time to compleate what they are supposed to do and as a consequence those same species are rarely better off. On the other hand, drastic action was taken with the California Condor. It was placed in captive breeding programs, and over time reached sufficient numbers that the administrators and workers of the program were able to begin the reintroduction phase of their plan. The Arizona phase of the reintroduction was also interesting, (and wise to form a second population to protect against "catastrophic" events) and it would have been interesting to have had more said about the "'nonessential experimental' population....[where]the protections for an endangered species are relaxed, providing greater flexibility for management of a reintroduction program."
There were many listed threats that contributed to the reduction of the California Condor and it also appears that as much is being done to work to eliminate the threats as possible. Those things include of course that man is no longer shooting the California Condor, the lead bullet is slowly being replaced, and the birds are being reintroduced in wilderness areas or at least areas less densly populated which will ensure to better protect them.
The Endangered Species Act is under much controversy and at some point in the future will be even more so since it is supposed to be under revision by the government, the actual date was quite a while ago. The Endangered Species Act seems to have been extreamly important in the continuation of this species and with continued knowledgeable support, especially the written plans for species continued existence, it may continue to help to preserve species so that we may enjoy them either for their value to the environment and its systems, or just for the strange values that we place upon them for one odd reason or another.