General
After a 100 year absence, California condors are released back into the Northern Redwoods
“For countless generations, the Yurok people have upheld a sacred responsibility to maintain balance in the natural world. Condor reintroduction is a real life manifestation of our cultural commitment to restore and protect the planet for future generations,” Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said in the statement.
“On behalf of the Yurok Tribe, I would like to thank all of the individuals, agencies and organizations that helped us prepare to welcome prey-go-neesh condor back to our homeland,” he said, using the Yurok name for the California condor.
The four total condors, including one female and three males between the ages of two and four years old, were all born in captivity. But they were raised in large flight pens designed to mimic their natural environment as closely as possible to prepare them for life in the wild. The World Center for Birds of Prey even lent the reintroduction program a seven-year-old condor to teach the youngsters “worldly knowledge they need to survive outside of captivity.” The birds will be closely monitored for “appropriate behavior” after release, the statement said.
The birds are a crucial element of Yurok culture, playing a prominent role in the tribe’s creation story and cultural dances.
“The loss of the condor has limited our capacity to be Yurok because prey-go-neesh is such an important part of our culture and traditions,” Yurok Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams-Claussen said in the tribe’s statement. “In a very real way, restoring condor habitat and returning condor to Yurok skies is a clear restoration of the Yurok people, homeland, ecological systems, culture, and lifeway,”
