This is bird note.

California condors are critically endangered.

In 1982, there were only 22 left.

Fortunately, a captive breeding program set the species on the path to recovery,

and hundreds of wild condors now soar throughout the Southwest U.S.

But when biologists reviewed the family tree of the condor breeding program,

they uncovered a big surprise. The scientists found two chicks with DNA that linked them

perfectly to their mothers but didn't match a single male in the system. The

chicks had two identical copies for every gene tested.

Normally a chick has one gene copy from the mother and one from the father.

This means the chicks arose from egg cells never fertilized by

sperm from a male, even though their mothers were housed with fertile mates.

You could say it's an immaculate condorception.

This phenomenon is called Parthenogenesis.

It's typical in some reptiles and occasionally seen in domesticated chickens and turkeys when they lack access to mates.

But these condors are the first case of Parthenogenesis in a wild bird species where the females had access to fertile males.

For condors, which nearly went extinct, the ability to have chicks without a mate could be a handy survival skill.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein. You're going to be.