Two new Condor chicks, just hatched in San Diego, are surviving without the human touch.
In video released by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly known as the Wild Animal Park), the parents can be seen helping the chicks.
In the past, zookeepers would help the process using a Condor hand puppet.
The chicks hatched on March 14 and 16 are being parent-reared.
It takes about five months for the chicks to leave the nest.
The California Condor Recovery Program is shipping eggs to other partner sites in Arizona, California or Baja.
“We’re doing that to help the genetic variability from site to site,” said Ron Webb, San Diego Zoo Safari Park senior keeper.
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Four other eggs are in the incubator. Of those, one will be parent-reared. The other three will be hatched by hand, raised with a puppet and released in Baja California Webb said.
When the program was launched in the 1980s, there were only about 22 condors left. Since then, the zoo reports that the program has hatched 165 chicks and released 80 birds into the wild.
