The Los Angeles Zoo has reached a new summit in bird conservation efforts with a record-setting breeding season for the California condor, announcing the hatching of 17 chicks in 2024. This achievement surpasses the previous record set in 1997 when the zoo successfully hatched 15 chicks, a monumental effort to save the nation's largest flying bird from the brink of extinction, as reported by CBS News Los Angeles.

According to KTLA, the milestone chick hatched in June and is said to be "thriving." Showing that the Los Angeles Zoo's animal care team’s efforts and innovative breeding practices are paying off, Rose Legato, Los Angeles Zoo Curator of Birds, stated, "Our condor team has raised the bar once again in the collaborative effort to save America's largest flying bird from extinction." Each newly hatched chick will become a candidate for release into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program (CCRP), a measure that further underscores the significance of this year’s breeding success.

As part of their initiative, the L.A. Zoo has been pioneering new breeding techniques to boost the condor population. In 2017, they introduced a method where animal care staff placed two condor chicks with a surrogate condor. This year they have successfully raised three chicks at a time by a female, which minimizes human interaction and improves the birds’ survival chances in their natural habitat, as per LA Zoo.

The California Condor Recovery Program has seen a significant partnership contribution from the L.A. Zoo since the 1980s when the condor population had plummeted to just 22 birds, creating an urgent need for a captive breeding program which now shows a global condor population of 561, of which 344 live in the wild Denise M. Verret, Los Angeles Zoo CEO/Zoo Director, remarked on the partnership's success, "It is the cornerstone of the Zoo’s mission to save wildlife and an important example of a successful conservation partnership between zoos, government agencies, indigenous peoples, and private organizations. We are proud to be able to make such a significant contribution to the preservation of nature."