The Nez Perce Tribe has partnered with a biotechnology foundation to bring California condors back to their traditional homeland along the Idaho-Oregon border, the Idaho Statesman reported.
The Colossal Foundation granted the tribe $500,000 to reintroduce the massive birds to Hells Canyon and the surrounding Wallowa region. The grant will be distributed throughout the next decade as the project moves forward.
The funding comes from Colossal Biosciences, a company focused on "de-extinction" that gained attention this year for creating wolves that carry dire-wolf DNA. The company's work inspired an impassioned debate about whether truly extinct species can be revived.
@zekedarwinscience Rewilding the Sky. How @colossal is working with the Nez Perce Wildlife Division to help bring the California Condor back home. #animals #learnontiktok #conservation #biology #science ♬ original sound - Zeke Darwin
As also covered by TikToker and middle school teacher Zeke Darwin, condors once soared over this rugged terrain in great numbers but disappeared from the area centuries ago, with scientists at one point calculating just 27 existed anywhere in the wild. Today, in part through intervention efforts, these birds survive in limited numbers in Arizona, California, Utah, and Mexico's Baja region. Federal law lists them as critically endangered.
For the Nez Perce, this project is about more than wildlife conservation. In the tribe's language, condors are called "qú'nes," and their return is seen as restoring balance to the land.
The tribe has a strong track record with species recovery, having brought gray wolves back to Idaho in the 1990s. Hells Canyon, North America's deepest river canyon, has everything that condors need to thrive: plenty of food sources, wide open spaces for flight, and sparse human activity. The birds themselves will be sourced from a federally managed breeding program.
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"Our traditional knowledge told us this was a home for qú'nes, and our scientific assessments have confirmed it," said Aaron Miles, the tribe's natural resources director, per the Statesman. "Hells Canyon is ready to welcome them back."
Eric Kash Kash, who heads wildlife programs for the tribe, spoke to the deeper meaning of this notable effort. "Its return represents both ecological restoration and spiritual renewal for our people and the land," he said, per the Statesman.
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