Condor Females Don’t Need a Male to Hatch Chicks

For the first time, researchers have observed two cases of asexual reproduction in condors. And it also turns out that whales are much hungrier than we thought.

Hosted by: Hank Green

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[AM-qcqt]

The female condor took a look at the potential mates and simply said 'Id rather do it myself'.

[ExtremeMadnessX]

Dr. Henry Wu: You are implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No. I'm, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

[sepantajafarijozani]

The fact that I remember watching your videos to practice for exams compared to now that I am actually working with california condors and watching you cover what we descovered makes me happy. Thank you Hank and all your team.

[glcol]

There was a bonnethead shark that did this in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE. No male available so she took it into her own fins! There was a lot of confusion amongst the zoo keepers that day.

[derpmanaveragegamer]

quoting the wise words of jeff goldblum
"life, uh, finds a way"

[injunsun]

Here's another observation: Studying these living ecosystems helps us understand past ones. There was a giant Cambrian filter feeder, a form of anomalocaris. Knowing what we know from whales now, we might get an idea of how this ancient creature may have affected our world's atmosphere, when almost all life was aquatic. That would be a fascinating study: Archeo-Ecology.

[Redcole]

The potential benefits to the species of parthenogenesis, in that individuals with two bad alleles will die off while individuals with good alleles will survive more and that parthenotes get two bad alleles more often, is called Kondrashov's hatchet.

[scottnichols]

Vultures and Condors are my favorite animals. I would love to see more Vulture content, help spread love and understanding for the family.

[chickenTDP]

A lot of animals in the reptile and bird family can do this. It is super cool!

[charadreemurr]

Honestly I'm not even so much shocked that condors can do this, so much as this is *possible* within dinosaurs, given birds close relation to dinosaurs they could be absolute proof that this type of reproduction is at minimum POSSIBLE in dinosaurs. This can absolutely have huge implications for classifying and identifying fossil dinosaurs

[Real]

"Life, uh, finds a way" - Ian Malcolm

[samanthatroi]

Over 1000? There's about 500 Condors living. There have been over 1000 born since the program started, hence the tag 1k for the condor chick born in Zion in 2019. I teach about the Condors at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

[IceHibiscus]

This is pretty great to have an episode published the week after researchers made the finding.

[OlivioSarikas]

When your Tinder game so bad, she not only ignores you, but manages to preg herself. Damn!

[gregoirepetit]

Seen how it was assumed that whales eat more, it doesn't exclude that they carefully don't eat all they can in a given reservoir of food to preserve the future source of feeding. Maybe they go to another spot sooner than having emptied the place!

[PotatoTrain]

This is truly awe inspiring. I love how much scientific enquiry and investigation can show us.

[dubsar]

"Have no fear, Mrs. Condor. God has chosen you".

[swedmiroswedmiro]

Alex Jones just spontaneously combusted.

[nosotrosloslobosestamosreg]

The big issue is the lack of genetic variation in parthenogenic species.

[zaubermaus]

like a famous chaos-theorist once said: life finds a way ^^