My ecology professor in college a self described tree hugger was against putting time and money into condor conservation. His argument was that condors actually evolved when North American had a lot more megafauna, such as mammoths, which provided them with huge consistent meals. When most of the large animals in America went extinct condor numbers started going down and they would soon be extinct naturally as well. When Europeans started brings large herds of cattle and horses to the area this providing more consistent large meals again. Their numbers rebounded due to this human action before they started dropping again also due to a human action. His argument was a lot of money and time that could be spent on other species was being wasted on an animal that could not sustain itself naturally even without negative or positive human actions. Not sure if I agree with him but interesting theory.