Biologists believe three pairs of California condors have laid eggs with a fourth pair expected to lay soon. Biologists have had visual confirmation of one egg, while the other two nest caves are in remote locations with no visibility into the nests. The one egg that biologists had a visual confirmation of belongs to a 24 year old original wild condor known as AC9, and his mate. AC9 was the last wild condor brought in from the wild in 1987 and after fifteen years in the captive breeding program he was released back into the wild 01 May 2002.
In the nests with no visibility, the presence of an egg is based solely on behavior. Each parent spends time incubating the egg while the other forages for food and then they trade off. While one of the pair is at the feeding site the other will be noticeably absent, which alerts the biologists observing them, to nesting activity. If successful, the eggs should hatch in early April. Last year only one chick was produced in southern California and the chick died after 4 months. The first wild chick to survive past fledging (first flight) was hatched last year in Arizona, that chick at 9 months is doing fine.
"The condors in the wild continue to follow their biological urge to reproduce, and with the slow steady progress we are experiencing, we get closer each year to reaching our goal of recovering this species from the brink of extinction," statedSteve Thompson, Manager of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
