Spectacular success for bird keepers at Edinburgh Zoo
July 2014
Bird keepers at Edinburgh Zoo were hoping their hard work would pay off and their rare pair of Darwin's rheas would produce a chick this year.
Little did they expect or dream that they would be faced with the delightful dilemma of having NINE of the supersized and increasingly threatened South American birds!
A massive coup for animal conservation charity the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, who own and manage Edinburgh Zoo, Darwin's rhea chicks have only been born and successfully raised in a very small number of zoos in the UK and certainly never thrived in such large numbers. The animal experts believe their amazing success has been down to, amongst other things, a special outdoor exercise routine and a varied diet of fresh weeds from across the Zoo's grounds.
Nick Dowling, Senior Bird Keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, said: "Our Darwin's rhea pair, Evita and Ramon, are in their first breeding season together here at Edinburgh Zoo and we were hopeful we might successfully help them to hatch and rear their first chick this year. It was beyond our wildest expectations that we would end up with so many – an incredible total of nine.
"The chicks have all been artificially incubated as the keepers were concerned about wild birds damaging the precious eggs when Ramon left the nest to feed; in the wild, it is the male of this species sits on the eggs to incubate them. As soon as the eggs started to hatch in our incubator, we transferred them into a machine called a brooder for a couple of hours and then into a specially made pen with heat lamps. Some of the chicks even needed help to kick their way out of their eggs.
"Feeding these nine large birds has been a big, but enjoyable challenge. To stimulate feeding in the new hatchlings, we encouraged them to peck at food with a "puppet" rhea parent made up from old rhea feathers, a photo of an adult's head and an old sock to cover our hands! Thankfully they got the idea after a few hours. They eat a specially made type of pellet for young ostriches, grated carrot and plenty of greens. We also spend a lot of time picking wild garlic, mustard, dandelions and different grasses from around the Zoo grounds and believe the addition of these fresh weeds has made a real difference to their diet.
"We believe our other key success has been their exercise routine. From only a couple of days old, we built special little pens in an sunny off show area of the Zoo and let the chicks run riot in there. Watched over closely by RZSS volunteers, the chicks got at least four hours of exercise per day and plenty of vitamin D from the good weather we have been having. This exercise mirrors what would happen in the wild as from a very young age the birds have to chase after their parents as they forage for food. Believe it or not the exercise actually helps to keep the birds regular, which can be a real problem for Darwin's rhea young.
"The birds are balls of energy and run around non-stop and they are also eating machines, but we are not complaining as it is an amazing and unexpected problem to have. We are delighted and extremely proud that Edinburgh Zoo has succeeded in hatching and rearing such a difficult and increasingly threatened species."
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