Successful CA Condor Breeding Takes Scientists By Surprise; Remote Area Prevented Observation
(Reuters) - A pair of California condors have produced a baby, surprising wildlife experts who said on Friday the endangered raptors had managed to secretly mate outside their careful monitoring.
Late last month, biologists noticed a "mystery" juvenile condor at a wildlife sanctuary in Big Sur, California, according to the Ventana Wildlife Society, a group that helps protect and observe the birds in their natural habitat.
The young bird was seen with two adult condors presumed to be its parents - and the bundle of joy, about 9-months-old, had been hatched and raised without the knowledge of biologists monitoring the region, the group said.
"This pair of condors is suspected of nesting in a remote portion of the Ventana Wilderness in the Arroyo Seco drainage," the group said in a statement. "Biologists have never entered the nest because of the area's inaccessibility." This was only the third unobserved pairing of condors in the wild since 1997, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
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