Environment: Love Among the Condors

Feathers fly in the fight over how to save the big, ugly birds

The male lets out a cry that sounds like a rake being scraped over cement. He flaps his wings—which span 9 ft.—at a bird only another condor could love: an ungainly, 20-lb. female, with lugubrious black feathers, yellow eyes and a bald, orange head. She coyly nibbles at his neck, and off they fly, monogamous partners for life. They will produce a single 4½-in. egg every two years, and their ugly infant will be dependent upon them for a year—or until he...