Three months after it hatched, a rare Palawan Hornbill chick is delighting staff and members of the public in Wroclaw Zoo in western Poland.
The bird, identifiable by its distinctive beak and black and white plumage, hatched in May 2019 and is the fourth chick to be born in the zoo.
The chick only left its nest three months after hatching to explore its outdoor enclosure, and its gender is still unknown by keepers.
Palawan Hornbills are notoriously difficult to breed, explained the chairman of the zoo's board, Radoslaw Ratajczak.
They need to have the right food and the right conditions as well as the desire to successfully breed, Ratajczak said.
Wroclaw has six of the eight birds living in European zoos, he said.
According to information posted on the zoo's website, it is the only location in Europe where Palawan Hornbill chicks have been hatched in recent years.
Breeding programmes in zoos in Athens and the Czech city of Pilsen have not seen any new chicks so far, the zoo says.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies the birds, native to the island of Palawan in the Philippines, as 'vulnerable'.
Their population is decreasing due to deforestation and hunting of the birds for food and for the horns on their beaks, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, Ratajczak said.
CHAIRMAN OF WROCLAW ZOO'S BOARD, RADOSLAW RATAJCZAK, SAYING:
"At the moment, there are eight of these birds across Europe - out of which six are ours (Wroclaw Zoo's). We have parents and their offspring, last year amazingly three chicks hatched and this year we had one. But still, we are delighted about this (the birth of a chick this year) and will develop this group in Europe."
CHAIRMAN OF WROCLAW ZOO'S BOARD, RADOSLAW RATAJCZAK, SAYING:
"Hornbills change their diet depending on the season, so we pay close attention to this. It is also necessary to find the right kind of hollow for them (to nest in). They don't like every hollow and they won't nest in every one. Next, you have to find a pair who will want to breed. And then you have to provide the right kind of food, which has a higher protein content as well as providing the right materials to line their hollows. Hornbills are particular as to how they build walls (in the hollows that they nest in) - (they use) mud, clay, rotten leaves which they mix with their saliva and food residue. This solidifies to resemble concrete."
CHAIRMAN OF WROCLAW ZOO'S BOARD, RADOSLAW RATAJCZAK, SAYING:
"We (humans) are destroying their habitat because big trees are being cut down to get large amounts of wood. Because of this, they lose their food source, because these big trees bear fruit, whereas the small ones do not. In addition to this, they are killed for food. Their helmets, so the horns on their heads, are important in traditional Chinese medicine. Their heads are (illegally) exported to China for a lot of money. There are also many other factors that put them at risk, and unfortunately controls are lacking."
8 сен 2019
