GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist has written a blog about science since 4 August 2004 (the early years are archived 
This image taken by Mike Wallace and released by the Zoological Society of San Diego, shows a California condor egg produced by 7-year-old female No. 217 and 6-year-old male No. 261, in their cliff side nest inside the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park in Baja California, Mexico, in March 2007. This condor egg in Mexico is the first time since at least the 1930s a California condor has produced offspring, biologists at the Zoological Society of San Diego announced Monday April 2, 2007. This is the first egg laid in Baja California since the California Condor Recovery Program reintroduced this species in 2002. (AP Photo/Zoological Society of San Diego, Mike Wallace)
Good news everyone; it appears that the endangered California Condors are breeding in Mexico for the first time in 75 years. Recently, a Condor egg was found in an abandoned eagle nest in Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park in Baja California, Mexico.
"This is a momentous occasion," said Mike Wallace of the Zoological Society of San Diego's center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. "We're all excited."
Mike Wallace climbed up to the nest to take photographs and measurements of the egg, and he candled it by shining a bright light through the shell, and determined that the egg was between 45 and 50 days old. Condors incubate their eggs for 57 days, so their chick is ready to hatch soon. While it is possible that the egg was dead, Wallace said he did not smell any sulfur and he noted that the parent condors were still tending to it.
"We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to see where the situation is going," said Wallace.
The California Condor is a species of vulture, that relies on vision to find carrion on which it feeds. The bird's numbers dwindled in response to the decline of wild animal populations, the use of poison to kill California's grizzly bears in the 1800s, and the use of lead shot by hunters. Hunting, egg collecting and power cables were also blamed for devastating the bird's population.By the 1980s, only 22 California condors remained on the west coast, and the last documented sighting in Mexico was in the 1930s.
Several organizations have been captive-breeding the condor as part of the Condor Recovery Program, which was founded in 1982 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Among them are several Mexican groups, the San Diego, Los Angeles and Oregon Zoos, and the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey. The condor has recovered to a worldwide total of about 280 birds. More than 100 birds have been released in California, Nevada and Utah. Additionally, in conjunction with the Mexican government, biologists reintroduced captive-bred birds to Mexico in 2002.
Condors don't reproduce until they are several years old, Wallace said. The 7-year-old female that laid the egg in Mexico, known as Condor 217, was born at the Los Angeles Zoo.
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Comments
This is great news! I just attended a very depressing lecture tonight on the effects of pesticide use and the looming crisis with the food supply and population. It was nice to hear something cheery for a change.
Posted by: Library Diva | April 3, 2007 10:47 PM
Good news! And very interesting. For some reason I thought the andean condor was unique. Now I know it has an equally rare and beautiful brother.
Posted by: Miguel Vera | April 3, 2007 10:54 PM