The parents of the chick in the Koford’s Ridge nest are female #111 and male #509. Male condor #509 fledged from a wild nest in Hopper Canyon in 2009 and #111 hatched at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 1994 and was released at Lion Canyon in southern California, in 1995. This is their first offspring together and were sighted courting in fall of 2014.
Before this year, condor #111 had been paired with male #125 since 2003. Together, #111 and #125 nested eleven times in the wild and successfully fledged five offspring. Of these five, females #493 and #560 and male #627 are still alive and part of the southern California wild flock. Unfortunately, #125 died in July 2014.
Before she was paired with longtime mate #125, condor #111 was paired with #100 and famously part of a condor trio. In 2001, breeding occurred for the first time in the reintroduced population of California condors. In one of two nests established that year, females #108 and #111 each laid an egg sired by #100 in the same Lion Canyon cavity. While the three condors took turns incubating the eggs, one egg was always left unattended so neither egg received sufficient care. In an effort to save both wild eggs, they were transferred to the Los Angeles Zoo and replaced with first a dummy egg and then a single pipped captive-laid egg. One of the two wild eggs was in poor condition and eventually failed while the other hatched and was assigned the studbook number 262. Male #262, offspring of #111 and #100, was released the next year in 2002 and is raising a chick with his mate #449 this year.
Male #509 had never bred before this year and #111 is his first mate. He fledged from a wild nest in Hopper Canyon in 2009 and is the offspring of female #161 and male #107. Condors #107 and #161 have been a pair since 2004.
The Koford’s Ridge nestling, studbook #793, hatched on April 22 and was tagged on August 20th, at approximately four months of age. We expect this chick to fledge in the next few months.