Los Angeles Zoo Reports Record 17 California Condors Born In Captivity
Nearly 20 new California condors will fly across the western sky after a record-setting hatching of baby birds this summer at the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo marked a record of 17 California condor chicks hatched during this year’s breeding season, with staff members preparing to set the birds into the harsh wild as they are currently protected as an endangered species.
“Our condor team has raised the bar once again in the collaborative effort to save America’s largest flying bird from extinction,” said Rose Legato, curator of birds at the LA Zoo. Legato said the record number of birds was thanks, in part, to new breeding and rearing techniques developed and implemented by the team. The process places two or three condor chicks together with a single adult surrogate condor to be raised. Usually, the 4in-long eggs are laid in late winter or spring, and take two months to hatch.
The final chick of the season hatched in June, breaking the zoo’s previous record of 15 California condor chicks hatched in one season in 1997. The new chicks will remain under the care of the LA Zoo for about a year and a half before they are sent into the wild.
The condors will be released as part of the recovery program for the California condor, led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1967, the California condor was listed as endangered by the federal government under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, which came before the Endangered Species Act.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/25/condor-chicks-record-los-angeles-zoo
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