Condors were once on the verge of extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts, they\u2019ve made a bit of a return. The problem is that it usually happens in captivity. <\/p>\n
For instance, just a few days ago, the Oregon Zoo welcomed seven new California condor babies<\/a> into the world. It\u2019s even bigger news if it happens in the wild. After a brief scare, a couple of condor conservationists monitoring might be doing exactly that, becoming the first wild condor egg seen in Northern California in 130 years.<\/p>\n As reported by the CBC<\/a>, Northern California conservationists had been tracking a male California condor when they received a signal that is usually a harbinger of grim news: the bird hadn\u2019t moved for several hours. When a representative went to check on the bird\u2019s status, they were relieved to find that it wasn\u2019t dead; it was actually incubating an egg<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Yurok Tribe is California\u2019s largest native tribe. The tribe\u2019s biologists, who have been tracking the condor, believe a wild condor pair nesting in Redwood National and State Parks may produce the first chick born and raised in the region in around 130 years.<\/p>\n A Wild Condor Egg May Have Appeared in California for the First Time in 130 Years<\/p>\n To be clear, they haven\u2019t seen the egg with their own eyes just yet, but all the behavior exhibited by the condor fits the pattern of nesting. The male and female take turns staying in a nest far away from the reach of predators while the other leaves to feed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s thrilling news because it\u2019s the result of decades\u2019 worth of conservation efforts finally coming to fruition. Once found all over the West Coast, California condors were pushed to the brink of extinction thanks to poaching, habitat destruction, and lead poisoning. By the 1980s, only about 20 remained in the wild. That\u2019s when the conservation efforts kicked in, which included captive breeding and a slow reintroduction into the wild. Since then, the wild population of condors has exploded to nearly 400 birds. There\u2019s still a long way to go before they could reach their once mighty numbers, but it\u2019s a vast improvement from nearly being wiped from the face of the earth.<\/p>\n Only a few dozen live in Northern California, which makes sense given that reintroduction efforts began in 2022. That makes the first hint of nesting behavior an encouraging sight. There is a bit of caution to be exercised here, as condors were slow to reproduce, laying just one egg a year. On top of that, these particular condors would be first-time parents, so the lack of experience could lead to a mishap. Early observations suggest that the male had spent too much time away from the nest, which could endanger the egg. Though recent observations show him sitting in place for longer stretches. It seems like he\u2019s finally adjusted to the long, boring work of condor fatherhood.<\/p>\n Only time will tell if anything comes of it, but it\u2019s an encouraging first step in the right direction. For decades, conservationists have been working to bring back the condor. And now, finally, they\u2019re learning how to come back on their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Condors were once on the verge of extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts, they\u2019ve made a bit of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,256210,271,3,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-585320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-condor-egg","10":"tag-life","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}