63. California condors attract researchers' interest because they .

63. 加州秃鹰之所以引起研究人员的兴趣，是因为它们.

But, there are only a few hundred California condors left on the entire planet.

但是，整个地球上只剩下几百只加州秃鹰了。

California condors are North America's largest birds, with wing-length of up to 3 meters.

加利福尼亚秃鹫是北美最大的鸟类，它们的翅膀长可达 3 米。

And back in the Pleistocene, the California condor had a whole lot of North America to purify.

回到更新世，加利福尼亚秃鹰有很多北美需要净化。

Scientists know the California condor as Gymnogyps californianus.

科学家将加利福尼亚秃鹰称为 Gymnogyps californianus。

The California condor first appeared back in the Pleistocene, when the world was a very different place.

加利福尼亚秃鹰最早出现在更新世，当时世界是一个非常不同的地方。

Today there are about 290 California condors in the wild and about 170 in captivity, living from the Central Coast to Baja California.

今天， 大约有 290 只野生加州秃鹰和大约 170 只圈养加州秃鹰，生活在从中央海岸到下加利福尼亚州。

In 1987 all remaining wild California condors were captured and put into a captive breeding program, making them extinct in the wild.

1987 年， 所有剩余的野生加州秃鹰都被捕获并投入圈养繁殖计划，使它们在野外灭绝。

The California condor is just one example of an organism that we share the planet with today that seems lost in time, out of place in our world.

加利福尼亚秃鹰只是我们今天与地球共享的一种生物的一个例子， 它似乎在时间中消失了，在我们的世界中格格不入。

It's the California condor, and to make ends meet, it feeds on the carcasses of large animals like elk or marine mammals that wash up on the Pacific coast.

它是加利福尼亚秃鹰， 为了维持生计，它以冲上太平洋沿岸的大型动物（如麋鹿）或海洋哺乳动物的尸体为食。

So, once the megafauna started to disappear from North America, California's condors were able to fall back on their diet of dead marine mammals, while their cousins that lived inland and in the East eventually perished.

因此， 一旦巨型动物开始从北美消失，加利福尼亚州的秃鹰就能够重新开始以死去的海洋哺乳动物为食，而它们生活在内陆和东部的表亲最终也灭绝了。