Condor Pair Produces, but Is It a Good Egg?

A day after Los Angeles Zoo officials discovered that one of their captive pairs of endangered California condors had produced an egg, zoo officials Tuesday shipped it to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, where over the next 10 days experts hope to determine whether it is fertile.

The two birds--Cuyama and Cachuma--were paired one year ago as part of a captive breeding program begun in 1980 to try to replenish the species for release into the wild sometime in the early 1990s, said Lora LaMarca, public information director for the zoo. There are currently 28 California condors in captivity, divided between the Los Angeles Zoo and the Wild Animal Park.

“The birds (Cuyama and Cachuma) are still relatively young, about 6 years old, and they’re just reaching sexual maturity,” LaMarca said. For that reason, she said, there is a chance the egg may not be fertile.

“The birds haven’t been old enough in the past to reproduce,” said Cathleen Cox, director of research at the Los Angeles Zoo. “They just turned 6 this year. There are only three pairs mature enough to be productive, and one of those pairs was brought in from the wild.”

Nevertheless, Cox said, zoo officials are optimistic that the birds will begin to produce more rapidly.

Officials at the Wild Animal Park, where the first California condor egg was hatched in captivity in March, 1988, said they will determine in four to 10 days whether the egg is fertile. The white egg, 3 1/2 inches long, has a faint blue-green tint and weighs 8 1/2 ounces, said Tom Hanscom, spokesman for the park.

“We’ve had--in hand--18 eggs and this one is on the small side, but we’ve seen healthy birds hatch from smaller eggs,” he said. If it is fertile, the egg will hatch in 57 to 60 days, he said.

Zoo officials do not know whether the new chick, if hatched, will remain in San Diego. “We switch birds and pair them up for 101 different reasons, so I don’t know whether it will stay in San Diego,” LaMarca said.