passage b condors (秃鹰) are coming back! not long ago, the future looked grim (黑暗的) for the california condor. today, because of conservation(保育) efforts, the huge bird can be seen flying over its old territories(地盘) once again. condors eat carrion(腐肉), usually the bodies of other small animals. they can spot their food from the air, or watch for other carrion-eating birds circling over a carcass(尸体). ranchers(牧场主), fearing that the condors were preying(捕食) on their cattle, used to shoot them and poison carcasses they knew the condors would eat. these techniques worked too well, and for a while condors teetered(濒于) on the brink(边缘) of extinction. to help re-population the area with california condors, scientists and researchers are now breeding(繁育) them in captivity(囚禁) and then reintroducing them into the wild. it’s been working well, and in december 1996, the first california condors were released(释放) outside of calinornia, into the vermillion cliffs of northwestern arizona. they had been kept in a pen(围栏) on a 1,000-foot cliff(悬崖) in preparation for their freedon. from the moment they flew away, the condors have been watched carefully by a team of scientists. five of the six birds released as part of the project survived on their own. the sixth condor was killed in fight with a golden eagle. the effort to save condors takes a lot of planning and hard work. the goal of the condor-recovery(恢复) program is to put two populations of california condors back in the wild, one in california and one in arizona.
