San Diego

The California Condor Recovery Team snatched the second egg of the year from the Santa Barbara County mountains Tuesday, but according to San Diego Wild Animal Park spokesman Tom Hanscom, park biologists will not know until today whether the egg is fertile. The egg taken from its nest near noon Tuesday was flown by helicopter to the park, where it was weighed and “candled” to check for fertility. During candling, a bright light is placed against the egg to see its interior. Hanscom said the egg is either too young or too fresh for biologists to detect fertilization, or the egg is not fertilized. Biologists will candle the egg again today at 3:30 p.m. If the vulture egg is fertile, it should hatch in 55 to 57 days. The egg harvested Feb. 17 is expected to hatch in mid-April. Hanscom said the recovery team plans to take one or two more of the rare bird eggs from the wild this year. The egg transported Tuesday was the 14th harvested since the program began in 1983. Ten condors hatched in captivity now live at the Wild Animal Park and at the Los Angeles Zoo, where six are being readied for release into the wild.