Third Condor Chick Born This Year at Zoo
The Los Angeles Zoo’s third California condor chick of the year was born early Tuesday, raising the total known population of the endangered species to 123, officials said.
Two others chicks were hatched Monday. There were only 27 of the giant birds in 1987.
The Los Angeles Zoo, one of three institutions raising California condors, has eight more fertile eggs.
Four of 11 eggs produced this season at the San Diego Wild Animal Park have hatched so far. Eight more eggs were incubating at the Peregrine Fund facility in Boise, Idaho.
The condors, giant carrion-eaters with 9-foot wingspans, disappeared from the skies as their habitat shrank and human activities killed them off.
The birds were particularly susceptible to poisoning when they ate carcasses of animals that had been killed by hunters using lead shot.
The captive-breeding program is a state and federal effort to bring the species back from the edge of extinction and return birds to the wild.
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