Impossible Life: Bird Species Reproduced Asexually In Nature, Shocking Scientists

Scientists from San Diego Zoo have discovered that endangered California condors can have virgin births, confirming hatching of two chicks in the year 2001 and 2009 was from unfertilized eggs.

San Diego Zoo

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The two chicks named SB517 (born in 2009) and SB260 (born in 2001) possessed 100 percent DNA of their mothers, which meant the birds were capable of fertilizing eggs themselves.

While the phenomenon dubbed parthenogenesis isn¡¯t uncommon, researchers were unaware about the asexual nature of the chicks until after they died due to health complications.

According to the researchers, the female condors, or dams, had access to fertile male partners, and despite that the birds chose to reproduce asexually, indicating that not only is this the first to be documented in condors, it is also first discovered through the use of molecular genetic testing, and the first in any avian species where female birds had access to a mate.

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To the uninitiated, California condors are the largest land animal in North America with a 9.5 foot wingspan, weighing around 15 kilograms. The population of condors thrived from California to Florida and even Northern Mexico and Western Canada.

However, their population has been dwindling ever since European settlers started spreading across North America. The birds have been on the US endangered species list since 1967 while being on the brink of extinction just sometime after.

Oliver Ryder, the study's co-author and director of conservation genetics for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a statement, This is truly an amazing discovery. We were not exactly looking for evidence of parthenogenesis, it just hit us in the face.¡±

Ryder added, ¡°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 their dams, verifying our findings.¡±

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Researchers highlighted that the chick SB260, which died in 2003 (which was released into the wild too) was smaller than the average size while often also showing difficulty in bonding and mixing with other condors.

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SB517, that died in 2017 due to health complications, had a curved spine from birth and couldn¡¯t walk properly. It wasn¡¯t released into the wild.

Researches can¡¯t say surely if the health issues were due to the asexual birth, but this wasn¡¯t uncommon in asexual births in other species.

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