Scientists in the United States have found that two female California condors gave birth to chicks without any genetic material from the male in their genes, BBC News reported. Oliver Ryder, director of conservation genetics at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) and a co-author of the study, said in a press release that this is an amazing discovery. ‘We only confirmed it because of the normal genetic studies we do to prove parentage. Our results showed that both eggs possessed the expected male ZZ sex chromosomes, but all markers were only inherited from [female condors], verifying our findings’, it added.
The discovery was made as a result of routine lab analysis of samples taken from 900 condors collected over the past three decades as part of a collaborative project between the zoo and the California Condor Program. Scientists had previously only observed virgin births in certain species of birds – such as domestic turkeys and chickens – that had been separated from males, as reported in the Journal of Heredity. This is the first time that asexual reproduction has been documented in an avian species where the female bird had access to a mate.
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The SDZWA press release states that both female condors regularly paired with fertile males and produced numerous offspring over the years. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California condor is a critically endangered species that has recovered from borderline extinction due to major conservation efforts. California condors have been released throughout the Southwest and Mexico, raising the species’ population to approximately 500.
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