ZooBorns

Narragansett Turkey Poult is Ready for Her Close Up

Meet Barley, Knoxville Zoo's two-week-old Narragansett Turkey poult (the technical term for a new hatchling). Barley is a pretty important little bird, because Narragansett Turkeys are globally endangered; they are a heritage breed that fell out of fashion years ago, and now there are fewer than 1000 breeding birds in the U.S. Soon, Barley will be big enough to go on exhibit at the zoo.

Photo credits: Knoxville Zoo

Baby Owls Grow Better in Groups

Thirteen is turning out to be a lucky number for a group of baby Owls at The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona, Calif. Since wild Owls are always raised in groups, having 13 babies together at the center ensures that they have plenty of company while they grow strong enough to be returned to the wild.

Spring always brings an influx of baby critters at the Wildlife Center. The baby Owls’ story is a familiar one: they were brought to the center after they fell from their nests. It is usually best to leave babies on the ground and watch to see if their parents are standing guard nearby. But sometimes well-intentioned people pick the babies up thinking they are in distress, and then they bring them to rescue and rehabilitation groups like the Wildlife Center. In some cases, it is clear that the birds need to be relocated for their own safety; one of the baby Owls at the Wildlife Center came from a nest located in a busy shopping plaza.

“These are perfectly healthy babies that were just in unfortunate circumstances,” says Wildlife Center Director Ali Crumpacker. The crowd of fluffy baby great Horned Owls and Barn Owls all enthusiastically eat a steady diet of specially prepared food at the Wildlife Center. But in the wild, great Horned Owls often prey on the smaller barn owls. That presented a brief dilemma for rehabilitation. “If the barn owls are constantly hearing great Horned Owls, they are constantly in a state of fear,”  Crumpacker said.

Crumpacker reached out to colleagues at a raptor rescue group in Lakeside, Calif. called Sky Hunters. Sky Hunters agreed to take the Barn Owls, and the Wildlife Center, in turn, agreed to take in some of Sky Hunters’ baby great Horned Owls for rehabilitation.

The center has also been raising a trio of baby Red-tailed Hawks (above). All the babies will likely stay at the Wildlife Center for about three months. They’ll grow their all-important wing feathers, then develop their flying muscles in an outdoor flight cage.

“We will make sure that they can maneuver properly,” Crumpacker says, “and then they will be released back into the wild where they belong.”

Photo credits: The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center

Checking in on Linton Zoo's Turkmenian Eagle Owlets

Linton Zoo’s Turkmenian Eagle Owlets are growing up fast. Igor, Yelena and Misha the Turkmenian Eagle Owlets weighed just 50g at hatching, they are now tipping the scales at over 1200g each, quite a difference in just 4 weeks! These 3 bundles of fluff hatched in mid March but were rejected by their inexperienced mother and so were removed for hand-rearing.

Photo credits: Linton Zoo

Who says Easter Chicks have to be yellow?

April is a great month in San Antonio, Texas.  Spring is in the air, the temperatures aren’t boiling yet, and the promise of a fun-filled summer lies ahead.  But what Aviculture team members at SeaWorld San Antonio’s Penguin Encounter are most excited about is the abundance of the biggest babies around – King Penguin chicks! While most Penguin species lay two eggs, King Penguins only lay one.  They carefully balance their egg on the top of their feet, and completely cover it with a protective fold of feathered skin known as a “brood pouch.”  SeaWorld San Antonio’s king Penguins start laying their single egg in late December, and as they take approximately 55 days to hatch, the first chicks typically begin hatching in early March.  The newly hatched chicks remain in the brood pouch as long as they fit, but quickly outgrow it and instead stand huddled against their parents.

Photo credits: SeaWorld San Antonio

SeaWorld San Antonio’s king chicks will likely be large enough to be easily seen by mid to late April.  They’ll spend the entire summer decked out in a full coat of brown, fluffy chick down, even when they are as large as their parents!

Linton Zoo's Newest Hatchlings Are a Hoot!

The UK's Linton Zoo has hatched its first Easter chicks, three adorable Turkmenian Eagle Owlets. The fluffy trio weighing just 50 grams at hatching, hatched in mid March but were rejected by their inexperienced mother and so were removed for hand-rearing. They will rapidly grow, weighing in at around a kilo each by the time they are three weeks old. The Turkmenian Eagle Owl is one of the largest and most spectacular Owl in the world and is closely related to the large European Eagle Owl. Sadly though, it is believed to now be extinct in its original wild range around Turkmenistan, there are also very few in captivity so these three Easter chicks are very important individuals, although they may not realise it! Both parents of these special birds were also hatched at Linton and their dad “Pip” is 22 years old this year.

Photo credits: Linton Zoo

Meet Mom and see the hatchlings in their first moment below the fold...

Rare Crane Chick "Wattles" Onto the Scene

On the heels of spring’s arrival, a Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus) chick hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo March 20, the third of its kind in the park’s history. National Zoo veterinarians examined the chick and took a blood sample when it was 4 days old, which they will use to determine its sex. Visitors can see the chick and its parents at the Crane Run, part of the Bird House’s outdoor exhibits.

Photo credits: Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Birds? Reptiles? Endangered Ground Hornbill Chicks!

Southern Ground Hornbills are charismatic and highly intelligent birds but they are also endangered. Their main threats are the loss of suitable habitat and trees for nesting as well as secondary poisoning. To make matters worse, they breed at a mature age of 8 years and older and on average they only raise one chick to fledgling every 9 years. They lay 2 eggs but raise only one. The Johannesburg Zoo has formed a partnership with the Mabula Ground Hornbill conservation project to make a difference. Kate Meares, Project Manager, explains that they carefully observe nests of these very private birds and only collect the second chick for hand-rearing but only if the first chick appears healthy. Chicks are collected form Kruger National Park and the Association of Private Nature reserves in Mpumalanga. These chicks (transported in a polystyrene traveling box) are driven to Johannesburg Zoo on the same day and into the safe and caring hands of Lara Jordan, Curator of birds at the Johannesburg Zoo.

Photo credits: The Johannesburg Zoo

Once hatched, they are fed every 2 hours. The time in between is spent preparing their diet, cleaning the chicks and doing necessary health checks. Food preparation includes skinning, mice, rats, day old chicks and rabbits and chopping up meat, as these birds are carnivorous.  This intensive period lasts for approximately 1 month. To ensure consistent care (as if you were the parent bird) Lara says it is better to have one person taking care of these precious chicks, hence the lack of sleep. She has been successful with all four chicks and they are now at a stage where they have daily visits to the adult pair of Southern Ground Hornbills housed at the Zoo. The chicks can be viewed at the Ground Hornbill enclosure at the Zoo in the mornings and afternoons depending on the weather. They are in a smaller separate holding space carefully looked after by keepers. They will be at the Zoo for some time and the hope is that they shall be released back into the wild.

King Vulture Chick - Just 70 Hours Old!

France's Mulhouse Zoo has welcomed a male King Vulture chick.  The hatchling posed two days ago for these glamour shots by Life On White only 70 hours after its birth. Keepers must feed the chick with a lifelike puppet, or surrogate, so that the young bird does not associate human hands with food. Eventually, he will move to another zoo to live with a female King Vulture. King Vultures live predominently in the lowland tropical forests of Central and South America. New evidence that wild populations of King Vultures are in decline points to habitat destruction and poaching as the primary threats to this unique bird species.

Photo credits: Life on White

Little Phoenixes at the Taipei Zoo

ZooBorns has been working hard to encourage more submissions from zoos in Asia and we are thrilled to share our first submission from Taiwan's Taipei Zoo - two recently hatched Great Argus chicks! Taipei Zoo keepers were concerned because the eggs were hatched February 7, just before Chinese New Year when visitorship to the Zoo is especially high and could prove disruptive to the new family. However after 26 days, two healthy Great Argus chicks were hatched and have quickly followed mom's lead, foraging for food, hopping up to perch next to mom in branches, and otherwise sticking close to mom's feet. This rare pheasant species, also called a phoenix throughout much of Asia, is known for elaborate courtship displays and monogamous relationships but struggles with habitat destruction and over-hunting throughout most of its range. 

Photo credits: Taipei Zoo

Denver Zoo Raises Palm Cockatoo Count by Two!

Denver Zoo recently welcomed two Palm Cockatoos from two different breeding pairs. The chicks hatched on January 18 and February 10 and their genders are still unknown. Though the hatchlings will eventually be on display at the zoo's Nurture Trail exhibit, they are currently growing and developing under the watchful eye of bird keepers in the zoo's Bird Propagation Center. These are the second and third Palm Cockatoo chicks to be hatched at North American Zoos in the last year.

Photo credits: Denver Zoo / Dave Parsons