the California condor why have they become endangered well habitat loss an awful lot of that area surrounding the Central Valley of California has been converted to Farmland but quite a bit of is still left what is left is mostly used for ranching now ranchers especially in climate like California don't keep their animals indoors the animals live out there so in the breeding season the cattle and sheep are dropping their Cales lams naturally out in the open not every birth is a success there are some Cs and Lambs that are born dead and the Condors would see those come down and clean up to your typical Rancher seeing this huge bird ripping at a dead lamb their reaction was that bird killed my animal these guys aren't exactly biologists Condors don't eat live animals they're working on dead meat didn't stop the ranchers some ranchers actually took to putting out poisoned carcasses as bait to kill the comp and something else in our modern world what's the reason for dead animals lying around in the bushes Urban weekend Hunters people who got themselves gun from a sporting goods store and like to head out there and shoot Critters some of those people aren't very professional so they've shot an animal they wounded is it runs away they should track it down and finish it off now they leave it it runs away a mile or so and dies a lot of those carcasses contain lead shot the Condors eat them and get lead poison so all of these things conspired together the number of condors was going down and down and down at what point did The Endangered Species Act step in to save them how many survivors were there less than 20 less than 20 Birds Al together for the species the reason you haven't seen condoms those last few birds were rounded up and put into zoos they're not on display to to the public they're hidden away people don't see them they don't see people there's hope that one day they can be reintroduced to the Wild and we don't want them thinking that you come to people for food in those zoos we embarked on a captive breeding program we've been collecting their eggs incubating them hatching them the chicks the babies grow up never seeing people in their cages their needs are attended to by apparently adult Condors rubber glove puppets of the front end of condors manipulated by the keepers from behind the scenes well the numbers are up there are over 200 Condors in existence today but what do you think their genetic diversity is like less than 20 ancestors pretty pathetic what's the importance of genetic diversity it makes the species adaptable so that it can respond to environmental changes you've all heard of so that it'll be resistant to disease yeah with variability when a when a disease hits some members of the species are more susceptible some are less we're hoping that the less susceptible Ones Will Survive and become the basis of the ongoing species with scarcely any genetic diversity we lose all those advantages but we have over 200 birds and today we are starting to reintroduce them to the while here's one of them look how big that thing is that wingspan is huge the first California Condors were set free in Arizona which may not make much sense but actually it does they were set free in Grand Canyon National Park huge area with no people no ranchers no guns no poison carcasses giving them the best start we possibly could the releases did not go very well a lot of the birds just sat around by the cages waiting for the food bowl a lot of those that flew [Music] away crashed into Cliff faces and trees and things and kill themselves they hadn't had much Flight Training how do you provide Flight Training in captivity for a bird with a 10 foot wingspan at least the Grand Canyon National Park didn't have power lines for them to fly into more recently there have been releases in other places one that I know of is Pinnacles National Monument which is in the coast ranges um up towards San Francisco and some of the released birds have survived some of them have actually paired up and one pair at least has built a nest and laid an egg so heck maybe it'll work out but did we have to wait until it was almost too late it is too late for many of the species that The Endangered Species Act is supposed to protect another important issue The Endangered Species Act says that once the species is shown to be imminent danger of extinction it the species is protected by law the law protects the species what did we say was the main cause the biggest cause of endangerment and Extinction of species it was loss of what loss of habitat the problem is habitat the law protects the species kind of off Target isn't it it's not addressing the problem it's a Band-Aid not a solution now I'm perhaps being a little cynical here there is a lot of detail in the endanger Species Act it requires that the government agency us fish and wildlife the federal law be proactive when a species goes onto the endangered species list us fish and wildlife service is required to prepare a recovery plan yes the goal of the ACT is excellent a species is not supposed to go on the endanger species list and stay there once it's on the list we're supposed to take action figure out how to bring the numbers back up get it off the list get it send it on its merry way the law says that the recovery plan must contain a whole list of information factors and it says that the recovery plan should when appropriate include and there's along second list Along on that second list it says that the recovery plan should include if appropriate the designation of critical habitat hey so it can protect habitat okay yes how does this work here's a big area all the same habitat in this area here there are a few of the endangered species living in that area over there there aren't any if AG VES act says we can protect this area we can't protect that area but wait a minute wasn't the whole idea here to increase the numbers if we're going to increase the numbers don't we have to have somewhere for them to live well you know that and I know that the indang Species Act doesn't take that into account so those are some major reasons why to my mind The Endangered Species Act cannot really be successful but don't take my word for it let's look at the facts what successes have they had what species have been repopulated and come off the list because they no longer need special protection well bold Eagles bald eagle is a national bird so we care bald eagles were taken off the list some years ago they're doing fine you won't see them around here but this isn't their habitat if you go up to Big Bear you'll see them in fact there's a webcam constantly recording a BAL eagle nest overlooking Big Bear Lake if you go north up the sieras you'll get you'll see more and more of them and by the time you get to like Alaska they're everywhere they need tall forest trees to hang out in and nest in and they need water lake river to fish in they fly along above the water when they see a fish they dive and grab the fish out of the water in their claws and take it back to their tree to eat do you know how bald eagles came to be endangered it was back in the 19 50s 60s DDT don't ask me what the three letters stand for DDT was an amazingly successful insecticide invented in the 19 30s it is totally lethal to all insects and completely harmless to animals including people DDT has revolutionized the world we used to spray whole states whole countries Florida became a much more pleasant place after we sprayed the whole of it several times a year with DDT to keep the mosquitoes down you could go outside anytime without getting eaten alive parts of Africa where insect born diseases like sleeping sickness made a whole region basically uninhabitable you were guaranteed to die within a few years if you moved there they eliminated those threats during the second world war we sprayed the troops troops in battle situations didn't have the conveniences of our modern hygiene available they could wind up with all sorts of unwanted Critters nibbling on them this took care of the problem have you heard of a lady called Rachel Carson probably not it's amazing how soon we forget Rachel Carson is one of the major environmental Heroes of 20th century America she identified the problem with DDT there is one problem with DDT it disrupts the process of eggshell formation in birds as the amount of DDT in the environment went up the thickness of eggshells went down to the point that when a bird was trying to push the egg out of its body the shell would break or got it out got the egg into the nest successfully the bird sits on the nest to keep the eggs warm Splat the eggs broke no eggs no birds Rachel Carson became a lobbyist she wrote a famous book not for technical people for the public the book title was Silent Spring magnificent title you get the picture Springtime no bird song No Birds yeah all birds were affected not just B legals anyway she was instrumental in getting DDT completely banned and over the years as the amount of DDT in the environment has gone down the thickness of eggshells has gone back up B Eagles are doing fine today did the endanger Species Act have anything to do with that n they just counted the numbers and finally said yep we got plenty