California chicks finally hatch in LA

What about my babies?! Who in their right mind still puts lead and DDT into the environment?

Cute California chick hatches at L.A. Zoo, a boost to endangered species (KTLA)

This hideous turducken-like chick is a beautiful endangered species just born in LA (KTLA)

Endangered California Condor Chicks Hatch At LA Zoo | Los Angeles, CA Patch

.

The California condor is a Mexican immigrant

Those bald eagles are totally unreliable, possibly due to DDT contamination of the environment by humans that reaches LA's neighboring forest and waterways at Big Bear Lake, next to Mt. Baldy, which is not named after its nesting eagles.

There are legends of this great bird.

Eaglets are cute and beautiful but, as stated, unreliable. Everyone had their eyes trained on the Eagle Cam. And for what? Nothing but disappointment. Thanks for nothing, corporate polluters, who hurl heavy metals and other contaminants into the atmosphere, landing on bodies of water to poison the fish and selling pellets that kill rodents and poison the birds and mountain lions.

Imagine taking van into the woods to see nature

But good news: the Los Angeles Zoo has succeeded in birthing five critically endangered condors, the majestic vultures of California and other parts of Mexico. (California is, after all, part of Mexico, now divided in two parts, Alta and Baja, but no one has told the birds, who are illegally crossing over into American airspace all the time). There are only approximately 350 condors left in the wild. There are soon to be five more.

Alas, these chicks are not nearly as cute as their hoary cousins of the north. But their mothers and many others may love them all the more for it.

In other cute baby animals born today news: Adorable but deadly fluff balls, better known as pygmy slow lorises, born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo

• Endangered California condors born at Los Angeles Zoo (KTLA)
• 5 California condor chicks hatched at Los Angeles Zoo (NBC Los Angeles)
• VIDEO: LA Zoo celebrates 5 California condor hatchlings, with more to come (ABC7 Los Angeles)
• 5 endangered California condors born at L.A. Zoo (Yahoo)
• Want to see a California 'superbloom'? Go to LAX airport

Condors

California Condor - Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens (lazoo.org)

.

I understand you've been exterminating us

(LA Zoo) California condors have soared in the skies of North America (mostly in Mexico) for some 11,000 years, since the Pleistocene era. Their range once extended across the southern half of North America and along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

With a nine-and-a-half-foot wingspan, these ancient birds can fly more than 100 miles each day in search of carcasses to feed on.

Condors roost on rocky ledges and in treetops, where they can easily launch into the warm air rising in morning thermals.

These vultures are highly intelligent, inquisitive, and social birds. By 1982, the wild population had dwindled down to 22 birds due to human contamination of the environment.

Humans did this largely through lead poisoning from bullets aimed at murdering and injuring living beings, which were left in the carrion (dead beings) the birds consume to survive as they clean up the environment.

In 1987, the last condor was removed from the wild. With a population of just 27 captive birds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in collaboration with Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo began an intensive breeding and reintroduction program.

It eventually increased the population to more than 500 birds. The release of condors bred in captivity with human care began in 1992. So far about 300 California condors have been re-introduced into the wild. More