Condor egg hatched for first time in a century

A pair of proud condor parents hatched the first egg in more than a century at the Pinnacles National Monument in Central California.

The now hatched egg was placed in the nest of the pair of adult condors as part of an extensive breeding program aimed at bringing the largest North American bird back from near extinction. It is not uncommon to place eggs in nests of new parents to encourage successful breeding. Condors are in the same family as vultures and pray largely on dead animals. In 1982 there were only about 22 wild condors left in the region which was placed in San Diego Zoo to help save them from extinction. Unfortunately, hunting and lead poisoning contracted from eating carcasses containing lead bullets have slowed the recovery efforts to a crawl. There are now about 350 condors in North America today.


This event is a big achievement and biologists are hopeful the newborn condor will survive to become the start of a new generation of wild condors.