PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Zoo’s second hatching condor of the season almost didn’t make it, but a zookeeper’s quick thinking saved the endangered chick.
The ordeal began Tuesday, when the chick began to hatch. The hatching confused the condor’s father — which the zoo has named Willie — who began to roll the egg in front of him.
Willie also wasn’t sitting atop the egg, which is what it needs to hatch.
Zookeeper Kelli Walker retrieved the egg, coated it in a sterile solution and put it in an incubator. Early Thursday morning, the chick tried again to hatch.
The zookeeper returned the egg to Willie, who did better. He stayed on the egg while it hatched, then helped scoop the chick out of the remaining egg shell.
