Population of Species at 20-Year High : Hatching of Condor Chick Marks Milestone

A California condor chick emerged from its shell Thursday afternoon in the second of a series of hatchings this year that brings the bird’s population to its highest level in more than 20 years, an official said.

The chick was the second to hatch at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido in the past month, raising the number of the endangered birds to 30 for the first time in two decades, said park spokesman Tom Hanscom.

A third hatching is expected sometime Sunday from an egg laid at the Los Angeles Zoo and transferred to the park, Hanscom said. That chick pecked the first hole in its bluish-white shell Thursday afternoon, just three hours after the birth of the latest chick. A fourth egg is due to hatch next month.

Out of Its Shell

Hanscom said the hatching took 13 minutes. The chick, which weighed 6.2 ounces, was placed in an incubator, where it will remain for up to six weeks because it is most likely to show signs of infection or exhaustion from the hatching during that period, Hanscom said. The chick’s sex has not yet been determined.

The chick was named Towasinah), which means “friend” in the language of the Karok Indians. It was the product of a mating between condors at the park, Hanscom said, and the egg had been incubated since it was laid March 23.

The latest birth is part of a captive breeding program designed to save the condor, North America’s largest land bird, from extinction. Seven eggs were laid this year, four of them fertile.

All of the 30 condors known to exist are in captivity. Sixteen are at the park and 14 are at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Hanscom said the program’s aim is to reintroduce the birds into the wild. The last known wild condor was brought into captivity in 1987.