NEWS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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March 23, 2011
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| Cheryl Piropato, Education Director 260-427-6803 Click to E-mail Cheryl |
Rare Vulture Chick Hatches at Zoo
Despite a rocky entrance into the world, a rare Ruppell’s griffon
vulture chick is now thriving at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.
This is the first vulture ever to hatch at the zoo.
“This chick is growing fast and eating well,” says Zoo Veterinarian
Joe Smith. “We’re very pleased with its progress.”
The chick’s parents, Wednesday and Igor, live in the African Journey
at the zoo and spent the entire winter carefully building a nest and
incubating their single egg. But in their zeal to care for
their egg, the pair often got into squabbles over whose turn it was
to incubate. “A few times, the egg actually rolled out of the nest
as the vultures were arguing,” says Amber Eagleson, manager of the
African Journey. Keepers returned the egg to the nest each
time, and they set up a remote camera system to keep an eye on the
overeager pair from afar.
On February 28, just one day before the egg was set to hatch,
Wednesday and Igor couldn’t seem to agree on who should be on the
nest. During their quarrel, one of the vultures stepped on the
egg, cracking it open.
“We watched the vultures closely for about an hour,” Eagleson says.
“Just as with their egg, they were both so eager to help the chick
that they stepped on it. We decided that to protect the chick
from further injury, we needed to pull the chick from the nest and
hand rear it.”
After moving the chick to an incubator, the zoo staff fed the tiny
chick five times a day, tucking raw meat into the chick’s mouth with
forceps. Once the chick’s eyes opened on the third day, the
staff began covering their head and body with a sheet to prevent the
chick from associating its food with humans. “We want the
chick to know that it is a vulture, not a human,” says Dr. Smith.
“By covering up and not talking to the chick, we can avoid having
the chick imprint on humans.”
At just three weeks old, the chick is growing stronger and larger
every day. “The chick now eats about one-quarter of its body
weight in food a day,” says Dr. Smith. “Its weight has
increased six-fold in just three weeks.”
Keepers named the chick “Tuck,” although the chick’s sex is not yet
known.
Ruppell’s griffon vultures are native to eastern Africa, where they
nest on rocky cliffs. They usually lay just one egg each year.
Though often depicted as sinister and opportunistic in the media,
vultures play an important role as scavengers in the ecosystem.
Vulture chicks remain in the nest for several months, meaning zoo
keepers will be hand-feeding the chick well into the summer.
Zoo guests can see a group of Ruppell’s griffon vultures on the
African Journey savannah this summer.
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