PRAGUE — Zookeepers in Prague generally need to turn out to be puppeteers to save lots of new child birds rejected by their mother and father. This was the case for a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick hatched three weeks in the past.
Chook keeper Antonín Vaidl mentioned Thursday that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signaled to keepers that the mother and father weren’t able to care for his or her two infants, regardless of doing so in 2022 and 2023.
The primary-born is being saved in a field and fed utilizing a puppet designed to imitate a mum or dad hen, whereas one other is anticipated to hatch within the subsequent few days.
Vaidl mentioned the puppet is required to verify the hen can be able to breeding, which it received’t if it will get used to human interplay.
He defined that the puppet doesn’t need to be an ideal reproduction of an grownup hen as a result of the chick responds to sure alerts, 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 one in all solely three zoos in Europe that breed them.
Prior to now, the park efficiently utilized this therapy to save lots of the critically endangered Javan green magpie and two rhinoceros hornbill chicks. The puppet-feeding approach is relevant for birds that reside in pairs.
“The tactic has been working properly,” Vaidl mentioned. “We’ll see what occurs with the vultures.”