Voting is Your POWER on Nostr: England’s Chester Zoo successfully bred secretarybirds for the first time in its 95 ...

England’s Chester Zoo successfully bred secretarybirds for the first time in its 95 year history last week, with parents John and Jolene producing five chicks as part of an international conservation breeding program for the endangered African bird of prey.

The achievement is especially significant given how small the safety net population is: only 79 secretarybirds exist across the entire European breeding program, and just three other chicks hatched anywhere else in the past year.

Secretarybirds are unusual among raptors for hunting on foot across African grasslands, using their long legs to stomp venomous snakes, which is reflected in their scientific name Sagittarius serpentarius, meaning “archer of snakes.”

In the wild, their numbers have fallen to as few as 6,700 birds due to widespread loss of grassland habitat to agriculture and development, leading the IUCN to list them as Endangered.

Zoo officials say the breeding techniques developed at Chester could help other conservation zoos across Europe improve their own success rates with the species

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/five-endangered-secretarybird-chicks-hatch-in-major-conservation-first/