Dana M
Williams Pacific Daily News
Published 1:32 p.m. UTC Jun 1,
2018
One of the rarest birds in the
world - a Guam kingfisher - recently hatched at the Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, the institute announced Thursday.
Only 140 of the birds exist in
the world, and none live in the wild. All of the birds are descended from 29
individuals that were placed in human care in the 1980s to save the species
from extinction.
The chick, which hatched May 17,
is the 19th Guam kingfisher hatched by the institute.
According to the institute, the
birds are notoriously hard to breed, and the new chick's parents were not
displaying appropriate parenting behaviors. The chick has been living in an
incubator and is being hand-raised.
The chick is being fed a diet
of chopped mice and crickets, mealworms and anoles, the institute said.
The last time a Guam kingfisher
hatched at the institute was 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment