Healthy Condor Chick Moved to Bigger Home

The first California condor conceived in captivity was moved to larger quarters Saturday to grow up in contact with other members of the nearly extinct species, a San Diego Wild Animal Park spokesman said.

The chick, named Molloko, weighed 6 3/4 ounces when it hatched April 29. It weighed in at 3 pounds, 12 ounces when it was moved about 9:45 a.m. from an “infant isolette” to a sand-floor pen in the park’s “condorminium,” spokesman Tom Hanscom said.

The chick “has become very active, performing a behavior called hop-flapping, which causes it to bounce around in the isolette a bit,” Hanscom said.

Chick Can See Other Condors

In its new pen, the chick can see two of the 14 California condors housed at the park. The other 13 condors that make up the rest of the species’ population are housed at the Los Angeles Zoo. No condors are known left in the wild.

Hanscom said the chick is in excellent health.

“We’re seeing behavioral development which would indicate a perfectly healthy bird both mentally and physically. We’re very happy with its condition. It continues to eat voraciously, 50 skinned mice per day,” he said.

The bird’s new pen is enclosed on three sides. The fourth side has a wire mesh that allows the condor to see the adult pair in an adjacent pen.

“That exposure will help facilitate its socialization with its own species,” he said.

Keepers will continue to use a hand puppet shaped like a condor to feed the chick and will observe its behavior by a remote

television system to minimize its exposure to humans.

Hanscom said it will be three or four more weeks before the chick’s sex can be determined.

Egg Removed From Parents

Molloko was hatched from an egg that was removed from its parents in hopes that the pair would produce another egg, which often happens in the wild when a breeding pair loses an egg. The scheme has apparently not worked, Hanscom said.

“They continue to court one another, but we’re not seeing any breeding activity,” he said.

Other condor chicks have hatched in captivity, but they came from eggs that were laid by birds in the wild.

The goal of the captive breeding program is to rebuild the condor population and reintroduce the birds, which have wingspans up to 10 feet, to the wild.