At the height of the last ice age, California condors could be found all across North America, and since time immemorial, these birds have held special cultural and spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous groups.

But by the late 1980's, the last wild condor had been captured and brought into a captive breeding program. They were extinct in the wild.

So what happened to these enormous scavengers to diminish their range so dramatically? How much progress has been made by the captive breeding programs? How is their cultural significance being honored today?

Join me and Tiana Williams-Claussen, Director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, as we discuss what makes condors unique, their cultural and spiritual significance to the Yurok People, and the incredible program that's brought the largest flying birds in North America back to their home in the redwoods for the first time in over a century.

Links!

Yurok Condor Program (learn, donate, and watch the condor cam!)

Yurok Ancestral Territory

Map of Yurok Lands

My website is: goldenstatenaturalist.com (find show merch and blog there!)

You can find me on Instagram or Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.