At the Bronx Zoo, a baby king vulture is being hand-fed using a specially designed puppet to prevent the chick from imprinting on humans. This method guarantees the vulture receives necessary nutrition while it remains connected to its species. The technique dates back more than forty years and has successfully been used with other bird species such as Andean condors and California condors. The chick, which is the first of its kind born at the zoo since the 1990s, is crucial for preserving its father's genetics, who is 55 years old.
At this stage of development, our animal care staff are feeding the chick with the Bronx Zoo-made puppet once a day and we are working to ensure it does not imprint on humans.
The zoo says it helped develop the feeding technique more than four decades ago when workers there used it to raise three Andean condor chicks, which were then released into the wild in Peru.
Hand-puppet rearing has also been used to help bring back the critically endangered California condor.
The new king vulture chick is the first of its kind to be hatched at the Bronx Zoo since the 1990s.
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