Experts shocked to find baby California condor in the wild

Although 116 birds live in the California wilderness, it is extremely rare for a mating to happen that is not being monitored by biologists, causing scientists to be surprised at the unannounced arrival of the bird.

A pair of ultra-endangered California condors have given birth to a baby, surprising — and delighting — experts who were not expecting the pair to mate outside of their monitoring.

Biologists first noticed a “mystery” juvenile condor in Big Sur, California, at a wildlife sanctuary. It was seen with two adult condors that were presumed to be its parents. Scientists estimate that it was 9 months old and raised without the knowledge of biologists monitoring the region, according to the Ventana Wildlife Society, a group that aims to protect the birds, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor.

The condors were believed to be nesting in a remote portion of the wilderness in the Arroyo Seco drainage, and biologists never entered the nest because of how inaccessible the areas is.

It is only the third unobserved mating between condors in the wild since 1997.

The names of the parents are “Shadow” and “Wild 1,” according to the conservation group. Shadow has been an active bird in the population and produced two other chicks.

Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, said she was excited to witness the event as it “offers another example of condors surviving on their own,” according to the report.

Condors are the largest birds in North America and once spanned from Canada to Mexico, but poaching, lead poisoning, and loss of habitat caused the species to nearly become extinct in the 1980s.

There are now a total of 425 birds both captive and in the wild, of which 116 live in the California wilderness.

There are also condor populations in nearby Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

The California condor is a New World vulture, and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987, with all remaining wild individuals capture, but it was reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah, including in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, as well as the coastal mountains in central and southern California, and Baja California. The bird is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps.