L.A. Zoo boasts record year for California condor births
A historic number of California condor chicks hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo during this year’s breeding season, officials said.
“The Los Angeles Zoo is capping off its 2024 California condor breeding season with a record-breaking 17 chicks hatched,” the zoo stated in a news release Wednesday.
The 17th and final chick, which broke the zoo’s previous record of 15 chicks in 1997, hatched in June and was said to be “thriving.”
“This is a historic moment for the California Condor Recovery Program and the Los Angeles Zoo’s animal care team,” Los Angeles Zoo Curator of Birds Rose Legato said. “Our condor team has raised the bar once again in the collaborative effort to save America’s largest flying bird from extinction.”
All of the newborn condors will be candidates for release into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program (CCRP), the news release stated.
The L.A. Zoo has housed California condors since 1967.
As of December 2023, there were 561 California condors in the world, of which 344 were living in the wild, the news release stated.
The California condor is the largest land bird in North America with a wing span of 9 feet, 6 inches.
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