Condor Eggs’ Fertility Unclear in Initial Tests

Three California condor eggs laid earlier this week are now being watched by wildlife officials as carefully as the Soviets guard their bejeweled Faberge eggs.

Hoping that the eggs will soon boost the endangered species numbers, caretakers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park examined the eggs Saturday to determine whether the eggs are fertile, said Tom Hanscom, a park spokesman.

“This was the first time we checked them specifically to see if they were fertile,” Hanscom said. “We looked at all three of them, but unfortunately, the tests were inconclusive.”

The fertility test is conducted by placing a high-intensity lamp behind the egg and looking for signs of embryo development.

“Within 4 to 10 days, if the egg is fertile, we will be able to note a dark, opaque spot toward one edge of the yolk,” Hanscom said. “That’s a sign of cell division . . . that an embryo is growing. We couldn’t see anything today.”

On Tuesday, an egg born to a captive pair of condors at the Los Angeles Zoo was moved to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido because of its expertise in handling condor eggs. Of the 28 California condors now in captivity, 14 were born either at the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park. No condors are believed to exist in the wild.

Two other egg layings quickly followed. Also on Tuesday, two condors at the Wild Animal Park that produced a chick last March laid their second egg, and on Friday, a 6-year-old park condor, named Almiyi, produced an egg as well, Hanscom said.

There is some concern that the eggs laid by Almiyi and the Los Angeles condors, also about 6 years old, will not hatch because condors normally do not reach sexually maturity until age 7, Hanscom said.

“If we don’t see any signs by the end of the 10-day mark, we’ll have to say they’re infertile. But we have every reason to believe that the other egg will be fertile because it came from the same pair that was successful the last time.”

The breeding pair, known as UN1 and AC4, produced the female chick Molloko from the first egg laid in captivity last March.