California Condor in Mexico
The First Mexican Egg Laid in About Seventy Years is About to Hatch
A Pair of California Condors are Incubating an Egg in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park on the Baja California Peninsula.
About five years ago, California Condors were reintroduced to Mexico. The birds were born in a captive breeding program created to save the species from extinction and reintroduce it to the wild. California Condors had been extinct in Mexico for decades.
Now the captive-reared birds have matured and one pair has produced an egg, thought to be the first egg in Mexico since sometime in the 1930s. If all goes well and a healthy chick arrives, the Mexican population will have started to grow on its own. The chick will join a worldwide population of about 135 California Condors living in the wild.
So far, scientists think the egg is healthy and they eagerly await the arrival of the chick. They expect it to happen very soon, probably around April 11 to 16.
Source:
Ayres, Chris. “Scientists wait at rare bird’s nest for that condor moment.” TimesOnline April 4, 2007
