BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JANUARY 14, 1992) SUSAN ROOK, CNN ANCHOR: A $25 million program to save a rare bird soared toward success today. This is the first time condors, bred in captivity, have been released into the wild.</s>CHUCK CONDER, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: Well, over a period of about 20 years, the condor population was declining here in California. There was a feeling that the species was going to be extinct very quickly.</s>MIKE WALLACE, L.A. ZOO: They were faced all of a sudden with dealing with being shot at. They were dealing with poisons in their food, running into manmade objects.</s>CONDER: The decision was made to bring in all of the birds that were in the wild, put them in to zoos and other facilities, start a captive breeding program, try to boost the number of birds, and then reintroduce them into the wild, where hopefully they would be able to survive in nature.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we've proven is that you can take a species like the California condor that was on the brink of extinction, down to 27 individuals -- that's the entire population in the entire world -- and bring them back.</s>CONDER: You look at these birds and you wonder why such a heroic effort was spent on trying to save them. They are ugly. They are ungainly. They are big vultures. But when you see one of these birds in the wild, riding the air currents, then they become a magnificent symbol of nature.
CNN 20: Freeing the Condors, January 14, 1992