by John Moir, 2023. Paperback, 272 pages.
Return of the Condor is a riveting account of one of the most dramatic attempts to save a species from extinction in the history of modern conservation. Now available for the first time in paperback, this new edition includes an Afterword bringing the reader up to date on all that has happened in the efforts to save this magnificent bird in recent years since original publication of the book.
Down to only 22 individuals in the 1980s, the condor owes its survival and recovery to a remarkable team of scientists who flouted conventional wisdom and pursued the most controversial means to save it. Conservationists and scientists have fought what at times has seemed a quixotic battle to save the species. Theirs is a story of passion, courage, and bitter controversy, one that created a national debate over how to save America’s largest bird.
Return of the Condor chronicles this epic story. We meet Jan Hamber, the biologist who made the agonizing decision to capture AC9, the young male who was the last living wild condor; Carl Koford, the brilliant scientist whose flawed conclusions delayed a captive-breeding program until it was almost too late; and two of the condors whose survival was critical, including AC9, himself. This poignant and inspiring saga shows what can happen when we commit ourselves to working with nature instead of against it.
Finalist for the 2008 William Saroyan International Writing Prize from Stanford University; selected as one of the five best pieces of science journalism in 2007 by the National Association of Science Writers.
About the Author
John Moir is an award-winning author and environmental journalist who has written for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, Birder’s World, Orion, Audubon, High Country News, Birding, Catamaran Literary Reader, Zocalo, Writer’s Digest, Poets and Writers and elsewhere.
He is the author of two nonfiction books, has contributed to four anthologies, and has won more than two dozen writing awards. Moir is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, National Association of Science Writers, Authors Guild, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and a Fellow in the International League of Conservation Writers. For the past 20 years, Moir has volunteered as a docent naturalist at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve.
