Foster Parents
-
by
kimaire
I came across this female: http://www.condorwatch.org/#/condors/630
It says she was hatched in the wild but raised by foster parents. I'm curious what the story behind that is. I'm guessing other condors don't naturally foster others' chicks and there was some human intervention?
Posted
-
by
vjbakker
scientist
Yes, you are right. There is a fair bit of human intervention to maximize the growth and genetic diversity of this small population. In this case, the egg was laid in captivity (World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise) then placed in a wild nest in southern California, where it was accepted by foster parents and successfully reared to fledging. These foster parents, in turn, had their egg removed and it was incubated in captivity.
Posted
-
by
zekazoo
scientist
You are correct! In some cases eggs are incubated in captivity and placed in the wild to hatch and be raised by wild condor parents (a.k.a. fostered). An example of this would be when a wild egg is found to be infertile by condor biologists but the parents are still exhibiting incubation behavior. The biologists will replace the infertile egg with a dummy egg, until there is a suitable captive laid egg to be placed in the nest just before hatching. Egg fostering has been very successful in California condors.
Posted