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Conservation scientists with the San Diego Zoo made a startling discovery about California condors this week, FOX 5 reports.
These endangered creatures can reportedly lay eggs and even produce chicks without having sex! It's the first instance of asexual reproduction "in any avian species where the female bird had access to a mate," according to the zoo.
A team with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance made the "extraordinary" discovery during a routine analysis of biological samples from two California condors, who were part of a breeding program.
“Scientists confirmed that each condor chick was genetically related to the respective female condor (dam) that laid the egg,” the organization says in a press release. “However, in a surprising twist, they found that neither bird was genetically related to a male—meaning both chicks were biologically fatherless; and accounted for the first two instances of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, to be confirmed in the California condor species.”
Dr. Oliver Ryder, a study co-author, told reporters the team wasn't "exactly looking for evidence of parthenogenesis, it just hit us in the face.”
Now, scientists are beginning to question if other avian species are capable of this type of reproduction.
California condors, the largest land bird in North America, nearly went extinct. What remained of the species were taken into captivity for breeding programs in 1987. Experts say many factors contributed to their devastating population decline, including poaching, habitat destruction, and poisonous chemicals in their environments.
Conservationists later reintroduced them back into the wild, but they're still considered critically endangered, according to ICUN.