Fragile Condor Egg Snatched From Nest

An egg laid Sunday by the last female California condor in the wild was snatched Tuesday from a nest near Ventura and airlifted to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in the continuing effort to rescue the acutely endangered species.

But condor specialists were not optimistic about the egg’s prospects, since recent laboratory tests on fragments of the mother’s previous egg showed that it contained the highest levels of pesticide ever found in a condor egg.

The pesticide is believed to have made that egg extraordinarily fragile. It shattered last month under the weight of the parents, and was the only other condor egg believed to have been laid in the wild during the 1986 breeding season.

“The egg is being handled very gingerly,” Jeff Jouett, a spokesman for the San Diego Zoo, said Tuesday. “We’re not sure how thin the shell is or how that might affect its chances of surviving until hatching.”

Early Tuesday, members of the California condor recovery team took the egg from the Sespe condor sanctuary near Ventura. They placed it in a heavily padded and temperature-controlled suitcase and took it by helicopter to the Wild Animal Park near Escondido.

There, condor specialists determined that it was intact and apparently fertile, and that the shell did not appear dangerously thin. The egg will be kept in an incubator heated to 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit, in the hope that it will hatch in about 54 days.

16th Received at Park

The egg, which is blue and weighs 211 grams, or about 7 1/2 ounces, is the 16th received since 1983 by the Wild Animal Park, which is working with the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos to preserve the species. Condors from 12 of those eggs are now at the zoos. Two others died upon hatching; a third never hatched.

Last month, the recovery team discovered that a new breeding pair had established itself amongthe five remaining birds in the wild. But the team also found that the pair’s first egg had cracked before team members could get it.

Laboratory tests on egg fragments showed that it contained 180 parts per million of DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, authorities said Tuesday. DDT, now banned, is known to cause thinning of eggshells among birds.

Martha Baker, a Wild Animal Park spokesman, said the adult female condor might lay another egg this breeding season, since she has laid three in past seasons. “It’s fairly late for her to lay another one, but there’s always a possibility,” Baker said.

California condors at one time ranged over most of western North America and as far east as Florida. But loss of habitat and the proliferation of pesticides, poisons and lead shot have left only five in the wild and 21 in the Wild Animal Park and zoos.