The illustrations of the California condor below are all from magazines that are not specifically about animals.
This is an elegant illustration of a condor in flight:
Artist: Uncredited. Publication: Salamacha, Gary. The California condor. Canyon Legacy. Summer 2000.
The head and ruff of the bird below don’t say California condor to me – and the left foot has 4 toes facing forward (it should be 3).
Artist: Daniel Owen Stolpe. Publication: Atkinson, Brooks. ‘40 dirty birds’ hold their own but are never safe. Smithsonian. March 1972.
The next image illustrates a piece of short fiction:
Artist: Carl Burger. Publication: Loomis, J Paul. Greatwing. Boys’ Life. November 1956.
The humorous image below accompanies a short piece about condors being reintroduced to Arizona. The author quotes Shawn Ferry of the Peregrine Fund, who’s words explain the image: “Condors like to play with colorful things like tents.”
Artist: Kevin Rechin. Publication: Maxa, Christine. ‘Honey, there’s a condor in your pack’. Backpacker. August 2000.
This illustration beautifully conveys the idea of the condor being protected from, not held captive by, people:
Artist: Braldt Bralds. Publication: Brower, Kenneth. The naked vulture and the thinking ape. Atlantic Monthly. October 1983.
Finally, here is the California condor in the same pose chosen by James John Audubon for his 1838 painting of the condor. The title includes the text “Pl[ate]. I”, further recalling a 19th-century book. But additional text on the illustration conveys a 20th-century idea: that a species might have a “right to die!”
Artist: Alan E. Cober. Publication: Gilbert, Bil. Why don’t we pull the plug on the condor and ferret? Discover. July 1986.
The last 2 illustrations, both from the mid-1980s when the debate over the California condor’s future was at its height, convey powerful messages. And because these images appeared in widely-read magazines, they brought the condor controversy to a large, diverse audience.
Pseudogryps 