LA Zoo welcomes 10 condor chicks, increasing California condor wild population
By Julie Sharp
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Moving towards an “ultimate goal of recovery” in California’s condor population, the LA Zoo announced that 10 healthy chicks hatched during the zoo’s 2025 California condor breeding season.
All of the chicks will be candidates for release into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program, under the leadership of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
“The L.A. Zoo is dedicated to helping our partners increase the California condor’s wild population to not only save them from extinction, but to also continue the hard work towards the ultimate goal of recovery,” said Misha Body, Deputy Director of Animal Programs, Los Angeles Zoo.
With a wingspan of nearly 10 feet, the California condor is one of the largest flying birds in North America. According to Fish and Wildlife, the bird has been protected as an endangered species by federal law since 1967 and by California state law since 1971. In the 1970s, only a few dozen condors remained in the wild.
In the mid-1980s, all of the remaining condors were captured and taken to zoos to stop their population decline in the wild.
Four of the chicks at the LA Zoo are being raised under a double brooding method, with two chicks being reared at one time by a pair of surrogate California condors. The zoo pioneered this breeding technique in 2017.
“The care and well-being that our animal care team provides continues to be innovative and advances the success of the condor program every year,” Body said.
California condors are not on exhibit at the zoo, but guests can participate in California Condor Talk, held daily.
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