ENDANGERED SPECIES -- The number 13 is lucky and worth celebrating in Arizona, where a California condor chick has hatched in the wild at a new nest site near Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, northeast of the Grand Canyon.

This is the 13^th chick hatched in the wild since condors were first released in Arizona in 1996. Nine remain a part of the wild population. The new chick is expected to take its first flight and join the rest of the wild flock in six months. It will remain dependent on its parents for approximately 18 months.

Wildlife biologists began monitoring the site several months ago after discovering the parents engaged in courtship and nesting behaviors.

The newest member of the species brings the total number of California Condors in the world to 375. Of those, 194 are in the wild, with 74 in the Arizona-Utah population.

In the 1980s, the population had plunged to just 22. 

Read on for more details.

“Each wild hatchling gives us confidence that condors are well on their way to recovery,” said Chris Parish, condor project director for The Peregrine Fund in Arizona. The Peregrine Fund produces additional condor chicks in captivity in Boise, Idaho, and transfers the chicks to Arizona as part of a cooperative program by federal, state, and private partners.

One female and two males shared incubation duties and are now brooding and feeding the new chick, Parish said. Three adults involved in courtship behavior is not particularly unusual, he said, but this is the first time a trio has produced a chick in the history of the recovery program.

The adult condors all hatched at the World Center for Birds of Prey, located in Boise, Idaho. One of the males is 13 years old. The other male and the female are 10 years old.