体重超过20磅，翼展近10英尺，雄壮无比 California condor 是北美最大的陆生鸟吗. These carrion fowl once ranged across North America before becoming limited to an area from British Columbia to Baja California. 加州秃鹰几乎灭绝, 但由于密集的人口普查，人口正在缓慢回升 圈养繁殖计划 这始于20世纪80年代末. 1977年只有45只, 现在有近350只秃鹰生活在野外, 还有大约200人被囚禁.
In Yurok Country along the North Coast, the Yurok Tribe 是在帮助秃鹰恢复吗. 部落发动了 Yurok秃鹰恢复计划 并于2022年在部落土地上放飞了第一批鸟类.
除了它们的环境意义, California condors play an essential spiritual role for the Yurok and other tribes around the state. 瓦伦丁·洛佩兹，部落主席 Amah Mutsun部落乐队该机构与国家公园管理局合作，研究秃鹰(wasaka 在木孙语中)项目在 尖峰国家公园 in Monterey 和圣贝尼托县的人说:“对bbin游戏官网部落来说，秃鹰是一种非常神圣的鸟. The condor, because of its size and strength, can fly higher and farther than any other bird. 在bbin游戏官网的信仰里，当bbin游戏官网过去了，bbin游戏官网就过去了. 对bbin游戏官网来说，“the other side”是指海洋的另一边.
秃鹰是唯一一种强壮到可以飞到对岸的鸟. To our ancestors. The condor would carry our messages and our prayers to our ancestors who had passed and bring their messages back to us. 所以秃鹰是bbin游戏官网祖先之间非常重要的信使, the spiritual world, and our people.”
A Sacred Bird
秃鹰确实是一种非凡的鸟类, 不仅因为它们的大小和稀有, 而是因为他们的飞行技能. 根据国家公园管理局的说法, 秃鹰可以达到每小时55英里的速度，在高达15英里的高度翱翔,000 feet. Much of their time in the air is comparatively effortless as the condors gracefully glide on thermal updrafts for hours at a time. 它们的寿命可以超过50年, assuming they’re able to survive the host of modern-day threats that nearly drove them to extinction: poisoning by lead shot, pesticides, 与电线碰撞, and poaching. Now, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza poses a new danger for the condors.
The prominence of condors to Indigenous peoples is evident at sites throughout California, according to 精神之翼:加州秃鹰在加州州立公园网站上发表的一项研究中，约翰. 福斯特说，他曾是国家高级考古学家.
描述了几个世纪前秃鹰的文化意义, Foster writes, “It is apparent that California condors held a special place in the lives and ceremonies of California natives. 它是一种受人尊敬的生物, 精神的主人, 是谁为了各种各样的世界更新和宇宙的目的赋予了人类力量. 它与死亡和哀悼以及重生和更新有关.”
In the Yokut 图拉雷县的领土 Central Valley, 花岗岩洞穴的天花板上有一幅巨大的象形文字，描绘了一只秃鹰, 而秃鹰也出现在祖先的岩画上 Chumash lands in Santa Barbara County. Tribes, including the Wiyot in Humboldt County and the Maidu 该州的沙斯塔喀斯喀特地区, 用秃鹰羽毛精心制作的斗篷用于仪式. Foster also describes condor ceremonies conducted by such Southern California tribes as the Tongva， Cahuilla, Kumeyaay和Cupeño.
尤洛克人叫秃鹰 prey-go-neesh, 部落主席约瑟夫·詹姆斯说, 今天，这些鸟仍然是传统文化的重要组成部分. “The condor provides our prayers and we use condors to carry our prayers into the high country,” he says. “它们是bbin游戏官网生命循环的一部分，也是自然界平衡的一部分. 对bbin游戏官网来说，一切都是为了保持平衡.”
秃鹰回到红木之乡
Yurok部落与美国等机构合作.S. Fish and Wildlife and 红木国家公园和州立公园 as part of the 加州秃鹰恢复计划. 资深野生生物学家克里斯·韦斯特说, the tribe’s effort to bring back condors dates to the late 1990s and early 2000s when a group of elders identified the birds’ return to Yurok territory as a top priority.
“那时，问题就变成了，‘我怎么才能让这样的事情发生?’ There was effort put into fundraising and the first actual funding was received in 2008. 事情就是从那时开始的. But it has been a long slog considering that we only released our first condors last year,” says West.
Bringing condors back to Yurok lands wasn’t as simple as getting a few birds and letting them fly out on their own. 韦斯特说，虽然部落致力于将秃鹰放回野外, the Yurok know better than anyone just how much the landscape has been altered since the beginnings of Euro-American settlement and the advent of federal management of so much of the surrounding lands. “There was really a strong interest in making sure whether this heavily altered landscape was still going to be a good home for condors. 因为秃鹰在某个时候消失了，”韦斯特说. “bbin游戏官网不得不问是什么导致了它的消失? And whether we can make sure that this is still a good place for condors to come back to.”
The tribe conducted analyses to determine whether condors would have sufficient roosting and foraging habitat, 同时也研究了环境中的潜在污染物. It was determined that the habitat was still suitable for the birds and that what wiped them out was likely lead poisoning, which results when condors feed on carcasses of animals killed by hunters using lead shot. West says a major component of the Yurok program has been to work with the hunting and ranching communities to reduce the use of lead shot to reduce the risk to condors and other animals in the area.
It wasn’t until March 2021 that a finding was issued allowing the Yurok to move ahead with their condor reintroduction program. West says the tribe then broke ground for a reintroduction facility on national parkland and finally received its first condors for release after finishing construction.
Yurok的四英亩释放设施, with its flight pen, observation structure, 供洗澡和饮用的水池, 还有一支更小的释放笔, is at about 2,海拔1000英尺，距离海岸10-15英里. 它被栅栏包围，以防止美洲狮和熊等掠食者进入. There are shock-wired power poles to condition condors not to perch on poles and near electrical lines after they’re released.
“秃鹰的记忆力真的很好，”韦斯特说. “And at one point, power line collisions were the leading cause of mortality in released condors. 自从有了电击线厌恶训练电线杆之后, 它已经下降到几乎为零.”
While you might expect a bird that relies on scavenging to be relatively uncomplicated, condors are actually highly curious creatures and have complex social structures in which young birds learn about territories and foraging areas both from their parents and the larger flock. Condor pairs only breed every other year and put considerable investment into their offspring, says West, before the younger birds gradually begin to flock with other juveniles—all of whom bring knowledge they have gained from their own parents to the other members of the group.
韦斯特说:“秃鹰世界的人把它称为秃鹰文化。. “And if there’s a condor culture established at a site, it makes things easier on the released birds. 但如果没有秃鹰文化，它们基本上就得自己发展.”
West says the Yurok plan to conduct two releases of captive-bred condors per year. The program clearly has faced challenges over the years but there’s no minimizing its significance, 对尤洛克人和该地区加州秃鹰的未来都是如此.
“bbin游戏官网真的很自豪，”Yurok部落主席詹姆斯说. “因为加利福尼亚秃鹰已经在这里生活了100多年了.”