All About Birds

Parthenogenesis In California Condors Stuns

Scientists
By Hugh Powell
December 21, 2021

From the Winter 2022 issue of Living Bird magazine.

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In a surprise finding, researchers reported in

October that two female California Condors
had reproduced asexually. Hailed in news
reports as “virgin births” (the technical term is
“parthenogenesis”), the discovery was made
possible only because of meticulous records
kept during intensive recovery efforts for this
federally endangered species. The report California Condor by Patrick Sysiong/Macaulay Library.

appeared in the Journal of Heredity.

Parthenogenesis—or animal reproduction via MORE FROM LIVING BIRD

eggs that aren’t fertilized by sperm—is Living Bird Winter 2022—
common in some insects and other Table Of Contents

invertebrates, but much rarer in vertebrates. A

few fish, amphibian, and reptile species
produce young parthenogenetically, but in
Living Bird Magazine—Latest
birds it is known only from a domestic breed of
Issue
turkey and in a few cases with captive
lovebirds.

Researchers from a team led by the San Diego

Living Bird Magazine Archives
Zoo Wildlife Alliance stumbled across the
finding while analyzing genetic data for more
than 900 California Condors—virtually every
young condor that has hatched since a captive
breeding program was launched in the late
1980s to save the species from extinction. During their analysis, the researchers were puzzled to find
that two condors, both male, showed multiple DNA mismatches with their putative fathers. Instead,
they carried two identical copies of their mothers’ DNA at all 21 genetic locations the researchers
examined.

Fascinating as the discovery is, it seems

unlikely that parthenogenesis will play a role in
building up the endangered California Condor’s
population numbers. Both young condors lived
relatively short lives of about 2 and 8 years,
compared to a typical condor lifespan of more
than 40 years. Neither bird produced any
offspring.

Parthenogenesis is virtually unknown in wild birds, but that could be because it’s so hard to detect
out in the field, says Irby Lovette, director of the Center for Biodiversity Studies at the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology.

Scientists don’t have deep DNA databases of

REFERENCE
most wild bird populations for the kind of
Ryder, O.A., et al. 2021. Facultative
genetic analysis that yielded this find. Condors Parthenogenesis in California Condors. Journal
were perfectly positioned for such a discovery, of Heredity.

Lovette says, because scientists had an https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esab052

exhaustive record of condor parentage for

comparisons and complete DNA samples to clinch the result. And the global population of California
Condors had already survived a severe population crash (hitting a low of just 22 condors in the
1980s), so the kinds of genetic defects that normally make inbreeding a problem might already have
been purged from the population by the time the two parthenogenetic males hatched.

The finding reshapes biologists’ view of parthenogenesis, says Lovette, even if it remains a hard-to-
detect curiosity in wild birds. “When you have these anomalous biological phenomena, sometimes
they can be used to study parts of the birds’ biology that you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise,” he
says. “As scientists we love these little natural experiments.”

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