Fate Uncertain for First Pacific Northwest Condor Egg
- The Yurok Tribe
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
NCCRP Will Continue to Monitor Behavior of Condors A0 and A1
The first egg produced by the free-flying Pacific Northwest condor population appears to be unsuccessful based on an analysis of the birds’ behaviors and flight patterns. However, the data are not conclusive and may remain so for several weeks. Due to the inaccessibility of the nesting area, observation of the parents’ behavior will continue for confirmation.
The reason biologists with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) suspect the nest has failed is because the prospective parents, condors A0 and A1, have spent an extended period together far from the nest site, at a time when parental care of a potential hatchling would be necessary for the chick to survive. Many things may have gone wrong, ranging from an infertile egg to inadequate incubation chilling the egg, to hatching failure. If the egg failed to hatch, the pair could attempt to reproduce again this spring, a process biologists refer to as recycling, or more likely, they will try again next year.
“While it is unlikely that a chick will fledge from the initial egg, we remain pleased to have taken this first step towards successful reproduction. We continue to hold a sliver of hope that it happens this year and look forward to future attempts knowing that the time will yet come when we have our first wild-fledged chick flying free in our homeland,” said Yurok Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams-Claussen.
New condor parents frequently face challenges sustaining their first egg because of limited experience with the complex incubation process. Even if the egg has failed there is reason for optimism, as condor parents are far more likely to produce viable offspring the older and more experienced they become.
“Compared to their first breeding season, the probability of successful incubation is substantially higher during condors’ second season because they learn from their mistakes,” said Chris West, the Northern California Condor Restoration Program Manager and a Yurok Wildlife Department Senior Biologist.
Some condors may initiate nesting at five or six years of age, but first attempts at seven are far more common. It is promising that A0 and A1, two seven-year-old condors, made a solid attempt at breeding. As the oldest birds in the flock, they are leading the way for this most recent addition to the roster of condor release sites.
Program staff first noticed nesting behavior by condors A0 (Ney-gem' 'Ne-chween-kah) and A1 (Hlow Hoo-let) in early February, although actual confirmation of an egg was impossible due to the remoteness of the nesting site. A0 would have deposited the egg within a cavity of an old-growth redwood in the Redwood Creek drainage after months of searching for the ideal location.
Free flying since 2022, A0 (studbook 973) and A1 (studbook 969) were among the first condors reintroduced to Northern California. Currently, 23 condors reside in the wild within Yurok ancestral territory. With a goal of establishing a self-sustaining condor flock, NCCRP plans to release at least one group of birds every summer for at least 20 years.
A0 or Ney-gem’ ‘Ne-chween-kah’, which translates to “She carries our prayers”, was the only female in the first released NCCRP cohort. Having hatched at the Oregon Zoo on March 31st of 2019, she is the oldest condor in the flock and was released at the NCCRP site in 2022.
A1, nicknamed ‘Hlow Hoo-let’, which means “At last I (or we) fly!”, is 10 days younger than A0, and hatched on April 10th of 2019 at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.
Condors are slow to reproduce, with females laying only one egg at a time, and usually nesting only every other year. Young condors take months to learn to fly and rely on their parents for more than a year. They do not reach sexual maturity until at least age five.
Most commonly, condors stay paired with mates for successive years, although a new partner will be sought if one dies.
In general, condors begin breeding between six and eight years of age and can live more than 60 years. The next oldest male and female condors under NCCRP management are six-year and one-month-old male A2 (studbook 1010) Nes-kwe-chokw, and four-year and ten-month-old female A7 (studbook 1109) Hey-we-chek'.
Northern California Condor Restoration Program
The Northern California Condor Restoration Program is a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks (NPS). The program has received funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Administration for Native Americans, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Global Conservation Fund, Redwood National Park Foundation, and many small donations from the public. The Yurok Tribe initiated the condor reintroduction project in 2008 as part of a long-term effort to heal the landscape within Yurok ancestral territory, a landscape to which the health and wellbeing of the Yurok people is inextricably connected. The restoration of California condor, prey-go-neesh in the Yurok language, is a vital part of this environmental and cultural revitalization effort. Alongside condor recovery, the Tribe is also undertaking several other wildlife conservation projects as well as implementing large-scale fish habitat restoration throughout the Klamath River, its tributaries, and the surrounding region.
The NCCRP is part of the California Condor Recovery Program, which is an international multi-entity effort, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to recover the endangered California condor by establishing robust self-sustaining populations of condors within the historical distribution.
If you’d like to support the Yurok Tribe’s condor restoration work, please visit - https://www.yuroktribe.org/yurok-condor-restoration-program
YUROK TRIBE
190 Klamath Boulevard • Post Office Box 1027 • Klamath, CA 95548
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Yurok Tribe - Matt Mais
(707) 954-0976
