Zookeepers at London Zoo are celebrating the hatching of a Critically Endangered Ruppell’s griffon vulture. It’s the primary vulture to hatch on the conservation zoo in additional than 40 years. The fluffy gray chick, which weighed simply 115g at hatch – the identical as a bar of cleaning soap – had a dramatic begin to life, as extraordinary footage from the zoo’s new vulture nursery reveals. Zookeepers have been excited when mum Philomena laid an an in mid-January however as she left her earlier egg for lengthy intervals it by no means hatched. This time, to offer the teenager the perfect probability of survival the staff moved Philomena’s new egg, which they nicknamed ‘Egbert’, to a particular vulture incubator whereas a picket dummy egg was swiftly positioned into the nest by keepers for Philomena to patiently sit on. Egbert hatched in early March, with keepers hand-feeding the teenager 4 instances day by day, and offering a surrogate cuddly toy owl in his cosy incubator. Once the chick has fledged, the zoo vet staff will ship a feather off for DNA testing to find out the fowl’s intercourse – male or feminine. Ruppell’s griffon vultures are the world’s highest-flying birds, documented to have reached hovering heights of 10,973 meters above sea degree – the identical top as most aeroplanes. However, for the second Egbert isn’t going wherever close to that prime – although the teenager’s cute antics are set to make it a really blissful Easter on the Zoo.
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
