First Condor Chick of Season Hatched at San Diego Zoo

Officials at the San Diego Zoo Safari park welcomed the season's first condor chick Feb. 24, 2013, the zoo authorities announced yesterday.

The 2-week-old California condor chick 'Wesa' is a part of the San Diego Zoo Safari park breeding program to help save the endangered species.

According to the authorities, Wesa has a good appetite and has maintained a healthy weight. The 2-week-old chick is seen feeding on at least 15 mice daily.

Wesa is being closely monitored by a senior condor keeper Ron Webb at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. He has been puppet rearing the chick so as to prepare to release it in the wild.

"The puppet is like a fancy glove," said Webb in a press statement. "It covers our hands so the chick does not get any beneficial experiences from people. We do not want it imprinting on people or getting used to us when it goes out into the wild.  We want it to be a nice, wild animal, not relying on people for food."

Reports according to LiveScience suggest that, Webb carefully observes the other condor eggs that are set to hatch this season in order to guess how long it takes to breaks through the egg shell. With the help of a technique known as candling that focuses a bright, warm light on the eggs, he can see the development of the chick.

When the California Condor Recovery program kick-started in the 1980s there were just 22 condors in the world, but the Safari park has hatched more than 173 chicks and have successfully released 80 birds in to the wild. Presently, there are more than 400 condors.

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