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2 rare birds hatched on same day at center
March 27, 1998
The harpy eagle is the ninth to hatch and survive in North America
Web posted at: 7:27 p.m. EST (0027 GMT)By Environmental News Network staff
The Peregrine Fund World Center for Birds of Prey recorded a first with the hatching of a harpy eagle egg and a California condor egg on the same day, March 19.
"We've done a lot over the past 28 years, but this is the first time we have hatched a harpy eagle and California condor on the same day," said Dr. William Burnham, president of The Peregrine Fund. "We look forward to returning these rare birds to the wild later this year."
The harpy eagle is the fifth to hatch and survive at the facility in Boise, Idaho, and only the ninth to hatch and survive in North America. The other four harpy eagles were hatched at the San Diego Zoo. All nine birds were produced over the last four years.
The harpy eagle hatched after a 54-day incubation period. The chick is being kept in seclusion in a brooder at the center. Biologists will send it to the center's release site in Panama when it is about five months old . The Peregrine Fund is currently releasing two eagles at the site. They are the first captive-produced harpy eagles to be released back to the wild.
The California condor egg that hatched represents the third egg of this endangered species to hatch outside of the State of California since the 1930s when a small population of condors still existed in Baja California, Mexico.
The California condor egg that hatched is the third to hatch outside of California in 60 years California condors are also being propagated at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
The young condor at the world center is expected to join other young from the two zoos and be released to the wild in Arizona as part of an overall recovery program for the species being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The release program on the Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona passed an important milestone with the last release. There are now more California condors in the wild then there were when the last free-flying condor was captured in 1987.
Copyright 1998, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved
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