![]() Unfortunately, by the time scientists realized the birds were genetically unique, both of the condors had died, so they weren’t able to study how SB260’s and SB517’s unusual parentage might have affected them. That’s when the oddity in SB260’s and SB517’s paternity showed up. ![]() A few years ago, they decided to analyze the DNA from all of them. The biologists ultimately accumulated samples of blood, eggshell membrane, feathers, and tissue from more than 900 condors over the course of the condor-management program. After captive-bred birds were released into the wild, the team even rappelled down cliff faces to study the parentage of their chicks. It helped them minimize inbreeding and develop a test for chondrodystrophy, an inherited bone disorder common in condors. In the case of the condors, Ryder and his colleagues had used DNA markers to help manage the breeding program for years. Read: The mystery of the ‘immaculately conceived’ baby anteater Many of these discoveries were accidental, and all of these accidents have scientists wondering if parthenogenesis is not as rare as once thought. It’s also been documented in snakes, lizards, sharks, rays, and bony fish- both in captivity and more recently in the wild. ![]() As I said, not much sexual privacy when you’re a California condor.) Parthenogenesis has been studied in other birds, like turkeys and chickens. The phenomenon is known as parthenogenesis or, colloquially, “virgin birth.” (The two mothers in this case weren’t technically virgins they had previously produced normal chicks with the male they were housed with. The only possible explanation was a strange one: The eggs that produced these two condors must have essentially fertilized themselves without any sperm. “We were confronted with this inexplicable data set,” says Oliver Ryder, a conservation geneticist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. A full 100 percent of their DNA had come from their respective mothers. These two birds-known by their studbook numbers as SB260 and SB517-were not related to the fathers recorded in the studbook. So it was quite a shock when, a few years ago, scientists conducting DNA tests as part of routine research found two condors with unexpected paternity. All of this is logged in the official California-condor “ studbook.” They kept track of who mated with whom, how many offspring they had, and when those offspring were released into the wild. Since 1983, when the number of California condors in existence was a mere 22, biologists have been carefully breeding the birds in captivity. When you get to be as endangered as the California condor, your sex life becomes a highly public affair.
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