Los Angeles Zoo sets record with 17 California condor chicks hatched in 2024

LOS ANGELES — A record 17 California condor chicks hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo during this year’s breeding season. the endangered birdsofficials announced Wednesday.

All of the chicks are eligible for release into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program, the Los Angeles Zoo said in a statement.

The 17th and final bird of the season hatched in June and is thriving, zookeepers said. The previous record was set in 1997, when 15 California condor chicks hatched at the zoo.

“Our condor team has once again raised the bar in the collective effort to save America’s largest flying bird from extinction,” Rose Legato, the zoo’s curator of birds, said in the statement.

Legato said the recent record was the result of new breeding and rearing techniques developed at the zoo, which involve pairing two or three chicks together and raising them with a single adult condor that acts as a foster parent.

“The result is more condor chicks in the program and ultimately more condors in the wild,” Legato said.

The California Condor Recovery Program is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its mission is to restore the iconic bird that was brought to the brink of extinction decades ago due to habitat loss and lead poisoning.

According to the zoo, there were about 560 California condors in the world as of December 2023, with more than 340 living in the wild.

It is the largest land bird in North America, with a wingspan of up to 2.9 meters.