The Quest To Save The California Condor
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 β’ 6.5K Ratings
ποΈ 11 October 2022
β±οΈ 14 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
This past May, a large partnership led by the Yurok Tribe re-introduced the birds to Northern California. Today, host Aaron Scott talks to Yurok biologist Tiana Williams-Claussen about the years-long quest to return the birds to their ancestral skies, and the importance of condor β who the Yurok call Prey-go-neesh β to the Yurok people and the natural world. (encore)
Check out the Yurok Tribe's condor live stream.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from Ted Talks Daily, a podcast from TED. Ted Talks Daily brings you an inspiring idea every day. |
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| 0:17.2 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:21.8 | On the morning of May 3rd, Tiana Williams-Claussing got up before dawn, drove to a hilltop in Redwood National Park, and tiptoed into a small box of a building connected to a giant metal cage. |
| 0:34.7 | She put on a headset and started live streaming. |
| 0:37.6 | Good morning, everyone. Tiana Williams-Kalison, and I am currently sitting up at the Northern California |
| 0:44.4 | Condor Restoration Program's releasing management facility overlooking both our four juvenile birds. |
| 0:51.5 | Tiana's a wildlife biologist and the director of the Urak tribe wildlife department, |
| 0:56.0 | and the California Condor is central to her people. |
| 0:58.9 | They call the birds Preganese, and the tribe has spent years working to bring them back to Northern California. |
| 1:04.2 | The birds are waking up this morning. |
| 1:06.4 | They've already had a little bit of a snack. |
| 1:08.3 | They look like big vultures, except their bareheads are black, at least when they're young. |
| 1:13.1 | And they have these collars of fluffy black feathers. |
| 1:16.8 | When we talked with Tiana recently, she's had these birds eustacea from Baja to British Columbia, |
| 1:22.8 | feeding on the carcasses of big, dead animals. |
| 1:25.8 | They're kind of like the boss bird of decomposition. They will |
| 1:29.0 | open up these carcasses that otherwise will just sit there and bloat, not only feeding themselves, |
| 1:34.1 | but also making the food bioavailable to the other vultures and scavenging community within the |
| 1:39.6 | region. So it's actually producing more food by having the condors come here to eat this food. |
| 1:44.2 | Then European settlers arrived. |
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