![]() ![]() SB517 was unusually small and remained in captivity until he died of a foot infection at nearly eight years old in 2017, reports Wired. SB260 only lived for two years before dying in 2003 in the wild, likely from malnourishment. "We only confirmed it because of the normal genetic studies we do to prove parentage."īoth condor chicks died before reaching sexual maturity, but other parthenotes-like domesticated turkeys, pigeons and chickens-usually die before hatching. We were not exactly looking for evidence of parthenogenesis, it just hit us in the face," co-author Oliver Ryder, a geneticist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, says in a press release. They published their findings this week in the Journal of Heredity. When scientists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance were reviewing the birds' genetic data, they found something puzzling: Two male chicks, known as SB260 and SB517, didn't have genetic contribution from any males in the program, reports Jason Bittel for National Geographic. With such a small genetic pool and a fragile population, their breeding has to be meticulously planned and documented, reports Sarah Zhang for the Atlantic. In a race to save the critically endangered species, scientists captured the remaining condors and began a captive breeding program that is still running. ![]() The California condor's population stooped dangerously low to 22 individuals in the 1980s. Even water dragons do it. In a surprising twist, scientists found that California condors are also able to reproduce this way, reports Sara Harrison for Wired. Parthenogenesis-also known as virgin birth-is a type of asexual reproduction in which a female's egg can develop into an embryo without sperm. ![]()
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