Late Start on Condor

Few people are in a better position to comment on the capture and transfer to the San Diego Wild Animal Park of California condor AC-9 than Greg Sanders (“Hope for Condor Springs From Silence,” May 3). It is a poignant moment when the last individual of a species is removed from its wild habitat. This sense of sadness and loss can only be mitigated by the success of the intensive effort at captive breeding that now offers the only real hope for preventing the loss of the species.

One other point emerges from careful reflection concerning the recent efforts to protect the California condor from passing into the abyss of extinction. The efforts to fully research the natural history of the species and establish a captive population occurred all too late. Had the efforts been undertaken 10 or even 5 years earlier, we might not today have to endure the silence in the foothills of the San Joaquin Valley that Sanders so vividly describes as deafening.

OLIVER A. RYDER

Geneticist

San Diego Zoo