For the second year in a row, Harry and Cooper did not want to take the season off. Even after raising four chicks in the last two years, they wanted more! They started copulating in the social aviary where they had just finished weaning their last chicks, and even laid an egg on the floor. Our team acted quickly, setting them up with an enriching breeding aviary and a brand-new nest box. They got busy right away.
Upon initial inspections, our bird team discovered that they had four eggs, three of them developing. While Harry and Cooper are excellent parents with two chicks, they could never manage to raise three in the past. Now that we know fostering works (read Alvin’s story!) our team was confident in doing this again. And we knew just who to give this little egg to.
One of Cooper’s chicks getting a health inspection.Serabi and Mufasa have been parents in the past, but in recent years they have been struggling to lay eggs. We thought that their environment may be the issue, so this year we moved them to a different aviary to see how they would do. Serabi laid two eggs right away, which we considered a success! However, the eggs weren’t fertile. Confident that she could raise chicks again, we chose her to be the next foster mother.
Skip to “moving day,” our Bird managers Sol and James, myself, and a volunteer named Maria were ready to take action. Sol blocked Cooper’s nest so that I could candle eggs and pull the youngest without risk of getting injured by a protective macaw mom! This was meant to be a quick assessment of the eggs, putting the youngest safely in a thermos, and carrying it to its new home. Come to find out there weren’t three fertile eggs, there were four! This is the highest number of fertile eggs in one clutch that we have ever seen in our Breeding Center! Sol and I were shocked and we had to make a quick decision. We knew that Cooper still couldn’t raise three chicks, but were uncertain if Serabi could raise two. We decided that two is easier than three, and that Serabi deserved the chance for a bigger family.
The choice to foster was easy, choosing the right eggs was the hard part. Selecting the right ones is important, because taking two of very different ages could mean the youngest is disadvantaged in the competition for resources. And since there were two nests to think about here, if we chose wrong, we could cause problems for two chicks. After careful inspection, two eggs were selected and put into the thermos, and we were on our way. James and Maria blocked Serabi from her nest just in time and we easily swapped the eggs. Relieved that we pulled this off and anxious to see what would happen, we waited.
A week later, Cooper’s chicks hatched with Serabi’s following close behind. Sadly, Serabi’s youngest didn’t survive its first 24 hours. However, the other three are still growing and doing amazing. Had we not done fostering, it’s likely that we would only have two healthy chicks instead of three. The most fulfilling part (other than more healthy chicks, of course!) is knowing that we were able to give a good mom another opportunity to do what she does best, despite her struggles with fertility. Cooper and Serabi don’t know it, but together they are ensuring that their species thrives in the wild the way that it’s meant to. As I always say to my team (much to their annoyance), team work makes the dream work!
By Carey Wentz
Communication Manager