As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Saturday 28 June 2014

Edinburgh zoo hatch nine rare Darwin Rhea chicks

by TAMSIN TYESON

Published on the 27 June 2014 
13:43

Bird keepers at Edinburgh Zoo had a surprise when NINE of the Darwin rhea chicks hatched. Picture:contributedEDINBURGH zoo bird keepers have faced a delightful dilemma of having “an incredible nine” rare and endangered chicks to care for.

The bird keepers were hoping their hard work would pay off by getting one chick from a rare pair of Darwin’s rheas -- instead they were surprised with nine chicks.

The development was hailed today/yesterday [FRI] as a great achievement for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns and manages Edinburgh Zoo, as Darwin’s rhea chicks have only been born and successfully raised in a very small number of zoos in the UK -- certainly never thriving in such large numbers.

Darwin’s rheas are large flightless birds, named after Charles Darwin who came across one of the birds during the second voyage of HMS Beagle in 1833; his party shot and started to eat one of the birds before Darwin realised it was a new species.

Continued

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