Condor Egg Fertile--Chick Due in Less Than Two Months

The first California condor egg produced by a captive breeding pair is fertile, and a chick should emerge from the shell in less than two months, San Diego Wild Animal Park officials said today.

Fertility of the egg, laid last Thursday, was confirmed this morning when condor keepers briefly held it up to a high intensity lamp and detected a preliminary stage of development, park spokesman Tom Hanscom said.

The egg was then returned to an incubator, where it will be kept until the expected hatching between April 28 and May 3.

“Now, we incubate the egg according to the parameters that have worked so well in the past and hope . . . we can hatch a healthy condor chick,” Hanscom said.

All of the 27 remaining California condors are in captivity; 14 at the Wild Animal Park and 13 at the Los Angeles Zoo. Of the 27, 13 were hatched in captivity as part of the effort to build a breeding flock to save the rare birds from extinction.

Meanwhile, the parents of the condor egg were said to be doing well. Condor keepers removed the egg from its nest at the park’s “condorminium” to stimulate more breeding activity by the pair, and that’s what is happening.

“That’s real positive,” Hanscom said. “That would lead us to hope for the production of a second egg, which could come as early as 30 days after the first egg.”

“The parents are doing fine, the egg is doing fine, the keepers are doing fine,” Hanscom added.