In what they're calling an "extraordinary discovery," scientists with the San Diego Zoo have found that condors can reproduce without having sex...
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
The discovery, detailed in Thursday's edition of the "Journal of Heredity," was made by a team studying genetics while they were examining biological samples from two condors, the researchers say.
“Scientists confirmed that each condor chick was genetically related to the respective female condor that laid the egg,” reads a statement released by the zoo. “However, in a surprising twist, they found that neither bird was genetically related to a male — meaning both chicks were biologically fatherless; and accounted for the first two instances of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, to be confirmed in the California condor species.”
Scientists are now looking more closely at other types of birds to see how many can also reproduce without sex, the zoo reports.
Read the full report on The San Diego Union-Tribune.