'Overwhelming joy': birth of California condor chicks marks soaring comeback

The birds, whose numbers once dropped to just 22 in the wild in the early 1980s, have two new chicks: Nos 1,000 and 1,001Nestled among the red-rock cliffs of Zion national park and the Grand Canyon, California condor chicks No 1,000 and 1,001 blinked into this world. Their birth signalled success for a decades-long program to bring North America's largest bird back from the brink of extinction.As a result of hunting, diminishing food and dwindling territory, the number of birds in the wild numbered just 22 in the early 1980s. Lead poisoning was also a major killer, caused by inadvertently ingesting bullets that hunters left inside dead animals that the enormous birds, which have a wingspan of 9.5ft and weigh up to 25lb, scavenged for food. Continue reading...