PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Zoo bird curator Shawn St. Michael is involved in an elaborate game of transporting soon-to-hatch condor eggs. The zoo is involved in a captive breeding operation designed to help restore wild populations of endangered California condors.
St. Michael recently drove seven hours with a fist-size condor egg so close to hatching that he could hear the tiny bird’s beak “tap, tapping” against the shell. He transported the egg to The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, where it hatched early this week in the company of eager condor “foster parents.”
The theory is that it’s easier and less stressful to move eggs than to move enormous birds.
In coming weeks, St. Michael plans to transfer two Oregon-laid eggs to the Los Angeles Zoo. Those birds eventually will be released in Southern California and Baja, Mexico. And he expects to take in a Los Angeles-laid egg for hatching. That bird will stay in Oregon as a captive breeder.