According to a study released on Thursday, endangered California condoms can “give birth to a virgin.”
Researchers at the San Diego Zoo Alliance have confirmed that in 2001 and 2009, two male chicks were hatched from unborn eggs. Neither had sex.
The study was published in Thursday Journal of Inheritance. Sexual reproduction is the first report in California condoms, although parthenogenesis can occur in other species, from sharks to bees to comedos.
But in birds, it usually occurs only when females cannot find males. In this case, each mother Kondor gave birth to males with 34 males, and each of them sat with the male during the fertilization process.
It’s amazing! California condor chicks without male sex contribution = parthenogenesis! Https: //t.co/Q3vxD7BotM @sandiegozoo @USFWS
– Oliver Rider (@frozenzoo) October 28, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Researchers believe that the female reproductive system is the first of its kind in the world.
“These findings now raise the question of whether this could happen in other species,” said Oliver Rider, co-author of the study and director of the San Diego Wildlife Conservation Society.
The nonprofit coalition manages the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park and participated in the California Condor Breeding Program, which helped keep the giant carcasses from extinction.
The 10-foot (3 m) winged California condos are the largest flying birds in North America. They once lived all over the West Coast. But in the 1980s, only 22 survived when the US government seized them and kept them in captivity. About 160 were born at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
There are currently more than 300 California condoms released in the wild in California, Arizona, Utah, and Mexico.
Homosexual reproduction was discovered a few years ago by experimenting with condoms, both living and dead, breeding programs, and genetic material collected over the past decade.
“Of the 467 male California condoms tested by parental analysis, none were suitable for both birds as potential males,” the study said.
California condoms can live up to 60 years, but both men are sick. One died when he was less than two years old, and the other lived less than eight years.
.