Zookeepers at London Zoo are celebrating the hatching of a Critically Endangered Ruppell’s griffon vulture. It’s the first vulture to hatch at the conservation zoo in more than 40 years.
The fluffy grey chick, which weighed just 115g at hatch - the same as a bar of soap - had a dramatic start to life, as extraordinary footage from the zoo’s new vulture nursery shows. Zookeepers were excited when mum Philomena laid an an in mid-January but as she left her previous egg for long periods it never hatched.
This time, to give the youngster the best chance of survival the team moved Philomena’s new egg, which they nicknamed ‘Egbert’, to a special vulture incubator while a wooden dummy egg was swiftly placed into the nest by keepers for Philomena to patiently sit on. Egbert hatched in early March, with keepers hand-feeding the youngster four times daily, and providing a surrogate cuddly toy owl in his cosy incubator.
Once the chick has fledged, the zoo vet team will send a feather off for DNA testing to determine the bird’s sex - male or female. Ruppell’s griffon vultures are the world’s highest-flying birds, documented to have reached soaring heights of 10,973 meters above sea level – the same height as most aeroplanes.
However, for the moment Egbert isn’t going anywhere near that high - though the youngster’s adorable antics are set to make it a very happy Easter at the Zoo.