PRAGUE — Zookeepers in Prague generally should change into puppeteers to avoid wasting new child birds rejected by their dad and mom. This was the case for a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick hatched three weeks in the past.
Hen keeper Antonín Vaidl mentioned Thursday that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signaled to keepers that the dad and mom weren’t able to care for his or her two infants, regardless of doing so in 2022 and 2023.
The primary-born is being stored in a field and fed utilizing a puppet designed to imitate a mother or father hen, whereas one other is predicted to hatch within the subsequent few days.
Vaidl mentioned the puppet is required to verify the hen might be able to breeding, which it gained’t if it will get used to human interplay.
He defined that the puppet doesn’t should be an ideal reproduction of an grownup hen as a result of the chick responds to sure indicators, such because the pale orange coloration on its featherless head and neck.
Lesser yellow-headed vultures reside within the wild in Latin America and Mexico. Prague Zoo is certainly one of solely three zoos in Europe that breed them.
Previously, the park efficiently utilized this remedy to avoid wasting the critically endangered Javan inexperienced magpie and two rhinoceros hornbill chicks. The puppet-feeding method is relevant for birds that reside in pairs.
“The strategy has been working nicely,” Vaidl mentioned. “We’ll see what occurs with the vultures.”
