Los Angeles Zoo has record-breaking 2024 California condor breeding season

The Los Angeles Zoo is making strides in saving the California condor, America's largest flying bird, from extinction.  

The zoo capped off its 2024 condor breeding season with a record-breaking 17 chicks hatched, breaking the record of 15 set in 1997.  

The large bird has a wingspan of nine-and-a-half feet, stands around three feet, and weighs between 17 to 25 pounds. Like vultures and other scavengers, condors feed on carcasses of large animals including deer, cattle, and marine mammals such as whales and seals. 

According to the L.A. Zoo, the condors' high mortality rate is mostly due to lead poisoning from eating lead bullet fragments or shot pellets found in animal carcasses. In recent years, the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has become another growing threat to the species' survival. 

In 1983, there were only 22 California condors remaining on the planet. This was when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Fish and Game Commission decided to create a captive breeding program for the species, which the L.A. Zoo entered as a founding partner. 

"The L.A. Zoo has been an integral partner in the recovery of the iconic California condor since the inception of the program in the 1980s when the species was at the brink of extinction," Denise M. Verret, Los Angeles Zoo CEO/Zoo Director said. 

In 2017, the L.A. Zoo pioneered a new breeding technique where animal care staff placed two condor chicks with a surrogate condor to raise the chicks.  

This year, the L.A. Zoo's condor team implemented another first for the program, allowing three chicks to be raised at the same time by a female. This method also prevents human involvement, which leads to better survival rates for the birds once released in the wild.  

All the chicks bred at the L.A. Zoo are candidates for release into the wild.  

As of December 2023, there are 561 California condors in the world, of which 344 are living in the wild, according to the L.A. Zoo.  

While California condors are not on exhibit at the zoo, guests can participate in Condor Spotting, held daily (except Tuesdays) from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. Guests can also see Hope, a non-releasable California condor, at the Angela Collier World of Birds Show 12:00 p.m., daily, except Tuesday, weather permitting.