Egg-sighting news: The Los Angeles Zoo in California hatched a record 17 California condor chicks during this year’s breeding season. That’s a major triumph for the endangered birds. All the chicks will be candidates for release into the wild. They are part of the California Condor Recovery Program.
The 17th and final bird of the season made its debut in June and is thriving. The previous record was set in 1997, when 15 California condor chicks hatched at the zoo.
“Our condor team has raised the bar once again in the collaborative effort to save America’s largest flying bird from extinction,” Rose Legato says. She is the zoo’s Curator of Birds.
When it comes to protecting threatened fowl, you can’t just wing it. Legato attributes the breeding success to new techniques developed at the zoo. It turns out birds of a feather really do flock together. Two or three chicks are matched with a single adult condor that acts as a surrogate parent.
“The result is more condor chicks in the program and ultimately more condors in the wild,” Legato says.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs the California Condor Recovery Program. Its mission is to increase condor numbers. The iconic bird was on the brink of extinction decades ago.
Habitat loss and lead poisoning led to its decline. Condors are scavengers. They often eat the remains of animals left by hunters. Lead bullets shatter when they strike a target. Condors consume these metal pieces when eating carrion. These large New World vultures can die if they eat too much lead.
As of December 2023, there were about 560 California condors in the world. More than 340 were living in the wild.
A California condor usually weighs between 20 and 25 pounds. Its wingspan is about 9.5 feet. The birds are so big that people sometimes mistake them for airplanes in the distance!
Like other vultures, the birds’ heads have almost no feathers. God designed them this way to keep them clean while they eat dead animals. People have observed California condors traveling up to 160 miles in search of carrion. They sometimes soar for miles without flapping their wings. The birds have been recorded flying at speeds of up to 56 miles per hour and reaching heights as high as 15,000 feet.
If you see a California condor up close, don’t expect to hear chirping or songs. These condors make only a few hissing and grunting sounds.
Tweet dreams, little condors. Zoos hope for continued success in coming years as workers labor to help these vultures thrive.
