Playing mother hen to a flamingo chick Thursday 5 August 2004 A
Caribbean flamingo chick, hatched on the 6 July, is being hand
reared by keepers at Whipsnade Wild Animal Park Standing at 10
inches (25 cm) tall the leggy young bird will eventually grow as
tall as 4 feet (1.2 m) and its creamy off white plumage will
change to the familiar flamingo pink when it is a year old.
Flamingos lay their eggs in nests made of piles of mud which
they carefully mould into a chimney shape, however the keepers
noticed that the parents had abandoned one of the nests and so
they collected the egg to see if it could be incubated. After 28
days the egg hatched, producing a long, pink-legged and very
noisy chick! It has been a major achievement to hatch and rear
the youngster as they are notoriously specialised feeders. The
chick is fed 3 times a day on a special mixture of sprats,
peeled prawns, two egg yokes, baby food cereals, vitamins,
probiotic and calcium, which is liquidised in a food mixer and
fed via a syringe. The keepe