Condor 98

He was hatched on March 11, 1994, at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and was released to the wild on February 8, 1995.  

 

Those of you who are familiar with the condor reproductive cycle might assume that a 30+ year old condor would have 10 or more offspring.  Sadly, for Condor 98, this is not the case, and his story is a good reminder of why the work of the Condor Recovery Program is so vital to recovery of the species. 

Shortly after reaching maturity, he paired up with Condor 155 and nested in the Hopper Mountain Refuge area.  They hatched chick 285 in 2002, but she died shortly before fledging, at the age of just 155 days. He tried again a few years later in 2005 with Condor 216, and again in 2006 with a third partner, Condor 112, but both times the egg never made it to hatching.   

 

In 2008, he paired up condor 289 and finally had success.  Condor 482 was hatched on April 30, 2008, and survived to just into adulthood, but sadly passed away on Christmas Day 2015.

Although Condor 98 attempted to nest with 289 again in 2009, that year they lost little condor 533 at just under a month old.  

 

Condor 98 has not successfully hatched a chick since.