Contacts
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Bronwyn Davey, Greg Austin, or Marc Weitzel, (805) 644-5185
Los Angeles Zoo: Judy Shay (323) 644-4272
For images or video: Zoological Society of San Diego: Christina Simmons or Paul Garcia, (619) 685-3291
For the first time in 18 years, a condor egg laid in the wild has hatched in the wild. The egg hatched on Thursday April 11, in a nest in the rugged back country of California’s Ventura County. The chick’s parents were captive-reared at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, then released into the wild at the age of one by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) in 1995.
Dr. Allen Mee of the Zoological Society of San Diego watched the historic event. "The female, R8, went into the cave at around midday" he said. The male, W0, was sitting on the already cracked egg. She stared at her mate for a while, waiting for him to leave, but he just stared back. Then she nudged him off the egg, pushing her head under his tail. In attempting to incubate the egg, she inadvertently crushed the egg shell, exposing the chick. For several hours she was restless and appeared confused, trying to incubate both the chick and the egg pieces. Eventually she settled down on the new born chick. It was just incredible."
"Since the hatching W0 and R8 have been excellent parents feeding and caring for the chick in text-book fashion. However, we’ll remain cautiously optimistic while this chick develops." said Mike Barth, the Service’s Supervisory Wildlife biologist for condor recovery efforts in southern California. "It’s very exciting, the significance of this hatching for the condor program is so much greater than the event itself."
Dr Mee found the nest site February 18 after several weeks of monitoring a pair of condors as he and U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists investigated nest caves in a remote canyon. Concerned that the male of the pair was initially not sharing egg incubation duties with the female, biologists planned to remove the egg from the nest and substitute it for an artificial egg that would then be cared for at the Los Angeles Zoo until hatching was imminent. Biologists would then repeat the egg swap. However, those plans changed after the male, which had finally begun incubating the egg, refused to leave the egg when biologists approached the nest, an action that was viewed as a positive commitment by the male parent to care for his offspring. Biologists decided to let the pair incubate the egg on their own.
For the past two months the pair have been attentive parents and have shared in the incubation duties, spending up to a week on the egg at one time. "They have continued to be attentive during the incubation and hatching stage of parenthood," said Marc Weitzel, manager of the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, which supervises condor recovery in Southern California. "This gives us confidence that they will continue nurturing the chick."
In May 2001, these parents were part of a condor trio--one male and two females--that successfully hatched a Los Angeles Zoo egg in the wild. Unfortunately, that chick died within a few days.
Four other condor nest sites have been observed this year, two more in California and two in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, according to Bruce Palmer, the Service’s Condor Program Coordinator. The numbers of breeding pairs are increasing every year and with every attempt at breeding the condor pairs gain valuable experience.
Zoo Director for Los Angeles Zoo, Manuel Mollinedo said, "The Los Angeles Zoo has been involved with captive breeding California condors for almost twenty years and it’s wonderful to see those captive birds now breeding in the wild."
"We now know that these captive bred birds are capable of living and breeding in the wild," said Steve Thompson, Manager of the Service’s California-Nevada Operations Office, "and now with this hatching and four other active condor nests, we eagerly anticipate the successful rearing of a chick this season."
"A condor chick hatched in the wild for the first time in 18 years is a major success because it shows captive-bred adults can reproduce successfully in the natural habitat," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who as an associate solicitor with the department in the 1980s, played a role in removing the last remaining condors from the wild so they could reproduce in captivity and be reintroduced later. "Hand-in-hand with many partners, we are pulling this majestic bird back from the brink of extinction."
There are 63 condors now living in the wild in California and Arizona, 18 in field pens ready for release and 104 in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. Seven more captive-bred juveniles will be released in the Sespe Wilderness Area in Ventura County, California this spring.
The goal of the California Condor Recovery Plan is to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs.
The largest bird in North America, condors are scavengers that have soared over mountainous areas of California since prehistoric times, but their numbers plummeted in the 20th Century. Condor numbers declined in part due to loss of habitat and food and from shooting, lead poisoning and toxic substances used to poison predators. Condors were listed as an endangered species in 1967, under a law that pre-dated the existing Endangered Species Act. In 1982, the condor population reached its lowest level of 22 birds, prompting Service biologists to start collecting chicks and eggs for a captive breeding program. By late 1984, only 15 condors remained in the wild. After seven condors died in rapid succession, it was decided to bring the remaining birds in from the wild for the captive breeding program. In 1992, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing California condor back into the wild.
The California Condor Recovery Program is built upon a foundation of private and public partnerships. The focus of the condor recovery effort is the release of captive reared condors to the wild to ultimately establish self-sustaining populations. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for coordinating the conservation of the California condor, working with the Los Padres National Forest, California Department of Fish and game, and several private partners. Private organizations and institutions are not just interested observers, but are active and essential participants in the implementation of the recovery program, contributing personnel, expertise, institutional support, and funding. California condor captive breeding programs are operated at San Diego Wild Animal Park, Los Angeles Zoo, and The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey. To date, 218 condor chicks have been raised in captive propagation facilities. Release programs in California are managed by Ventana Wilderness Society and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge; the Arizona release is managed by The Peregrine Fund.
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