SCIENTISTS at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance say two California condors have hatched from unfertilized eggs, the first two instances of asexual reproduction confirmed in the species.

Two California condor chicks that were part of the 30-year breeding program at the zoo were confirmed to be genetically related to a respective female condor, or dam, that laid the egg from which it hatched, but were determined to not be genetically related to a male – both chicks are biologically fatherless, zoo officials said. The extraordinary findings were reported in the “Journal of Heredity,” the official journal of the American Genetic Association.

This is believed to be the first confirmed instance of parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction, in the species — despite the fact that the two female mother condors were continuously housed with fertile male partners.

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

(SD-Agencies)