the ancient ones

Perched on their lofty throne of thousand-year-old Bristlecone pine branches, this mother California Condor and her fledgling watch the sunrise over the Sierra Nevada range in eastern California. The wing tag on the mother signifies that she was raised in captivity, as most of the wild Condor population has been.

The California Condor, Gymnogyps californianus, was down to just 22 individuals in the wild. Since 1982, extensive conservation work has helped boost their population. Today, around 350 Condors fly free and 215 are being raised in captivity. Their story is both a warning to the effects of habitat loss and overhunting, as well as a testament to how successful–and vital–conservation efforts can be.

When the Oregon Zoo acquired a small group of Condors, I made a special trip to see them specifically. I know it would be an awe-inspiring experience, but I didn’t expect the raw emotions it would bring forth. My eyes filled with tears as I stood before these massive birds, perched high and proud with wings stretched toward the sunshine, majestic and real. No longer just a story in books, but a true living creature I was sharing space and time with. And oh how very close that experience was to never getting to happen at all, for me and everybody else in my generation and ones to come after me.

To rob the future of the delights of the present is the biggest mistake humanity could ever make.

More about the piece:

The number 42 on the mother’s wing tag  is a direct nod to the great Douglas Adams’ book, Hitchiker’s Guice to the Galaxy, in which one of the running jokes is that “42 is the meaning of Life, The Universe, and Everything.” I may be romanticizing things a bit, but what meaning does this life have if we neglect the very world we depend on for survival?

FUN FACT: Juvenile condors have black plumage and sport a dramatic neck fringe for the first couple years of their lives. As they grow they develop the striking rosy facial coloration.

22″ x 30″. Watercolor on cotton paper.