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Using new breeding techniques, the zoo hatched the most healthy condors it has since 1997.
This year’s California condor breeding season at the Los Angeles Zoo was a record-breaking one: 17 chicks were hatched, all of which will be candidates to be released in the wild through the zoo’s partnership with the California Condor Recovery Program (CCRP). The previous record for healthy condor chicks at the zoo was 15, set in 1997.
This year’s historic season is a result of the zoo developing new breeding and rearing techniques. In 2017, the L.A. Zoo’s animal care staff allowed a surrogate condor mother to raise two chicks simultaneously, a method that has not been used by any other zoo or CCRP partner. This year, the zoo allowed surrogate mothers to raise three chicks at the same time, another first. This process increases the zoo’s ability to raise condors without human interaction and makes the condors’ eventual release into the wild smoother. The zoo also uses artificial incubation, a method that gives breeding pairs the chance to produce more viable eggs in one season.
Thousands of years ago, the California condor thrived across North America and could be found in California, Florida, Western Canada, and Northern Mexico, but human activity drove the condors to critical endangerment. The birds faced overhunting; contamination from lead ammunition fragments, poison bait, and pollutants found in the carcasses they ate; and other environmental hazards. When the global population of the California condor dwindled to an alarming 22 birds in 1983, the L.A. Zoo became a founding partner in CCRP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Fish and Game Commission’s captive breeding program.
The condors have been protected by law from hunting since 1967, and other conservation efforts, including movements to use non-lead ammunition in hunting and captive breeding programs such as CCRP, have brought hope to those working to save the species. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the global population of California condors rose to 561 in 2022, with 347 birds living in the wild and 214 in captivity.
“The L.A. Zoo has been an integral partner in the recovery of the iconic California condor since the inception of the program in the 1980s when the species was at the brink of extinction,” said Denise M. Verret, Los Angeles Zoo CEO/director in a statement released by the zoo in late July. “It is the cornerstone of the Zoo’s mission to save wildlife and an important example of a successful conservation partnership between zoos, government agencies, indigenous peoples, and private organizations. We are proud to be able to make such a significant contribution to the preservation of nature.”
