During the 1930s-1950s, Cyril S Robinson made important contributions toward protecting the California condor. He left an invaluable record of the condor and publicly advocated on behalf of the species. This post presents an overview of Robinson and the condor.
Note sul Condor, by the Swiss-Italian Franco Beltrametti, was published in 1975 (Caos). The title translates from Italian as Condor Notes. This little book is an amalgamation of material concerned with or apparently inspired by the California condor, which Beltrametti saw while travelling in California in the 1960s.
This is the 1st of 3 posts about a Swiss-Italian artist’s interest in the California condor during the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1967, an emaciated young condor was taken to the Los Angeles Zoo for rehabilitation. After receiving expert care, the condor was released into the wild but watched closely. The young bird did not thrive and the decision was made to recapture and provide a permanent home for the bird at the zoo.
The bird in question is, according to the studbook that lists every individual California condor on Earth, California condor #1.
But #1 is hardly a suitable name for “one of the most, if not the most, genetically valuable California condor in the world” – that’s according to Los Angeles Zoo Curator of Birds Mike Maxey, as quoted in the Fall 2016 issue of Zoo View magazine. That 3-year-old article also reported that #1 had so far fathered 34 chicks!
Condor #1 does have a “real” name but there is some ambiguity surrounding that name. Here’s the story.
In my search for information about the California condor, I never expected Johnny Cash’s name to appear. What is the connection between the country singer often called “the man in black” and the endangered species?
