ST. LOUIS, Aug. 20 (UPI) — The Saint Louis Zoo on Thursday announced the birth of two critically endangered horned guan chicks, the second recorded birth of the species in the United States.
The fuzzy brown chicks hatched Aug. 7 and currently weigh 5 ounces and stand 8 inches tall. The unique birds will start to develop two horns on the top of their heads at about 3 months of age. These horns will gradually twist and grow together as the chicks age.
“This hatching is an important development in what has been a great effort to save this species; it was the result of many years of hard work,” said Jeffrey P. Bonner, president and CEO at the Saint Louis Zoo. “It took great attention to the welfare of the parents and enormous patience and persistence … to make this happen.”
Zoo officials said that because the chicks’ parents are inexperienced, the babies will be hand-reared by staff. The parents — a 12-year-old male and a 7-year-old female — came to the Saint Louis Zoo, along with a third female, from the Cloud Forest Ambassadors Program at the Africam Safari Zoo in Puebla, Mexico.
Horned guans are native to southeastern Mexico and Guatemala and their populations in the wild have dwindled down to about 1,000 to 2,000 in those countries. Their natural forest habitat has been destroyed by logging, coffee plantations and other cash crops, the Saint Louis Zoo said in a news release.
Fully grown, horned guans are about the size of small turkeys and spend most of their time in trees. The two-inch long, red horns are thought to attract a mate.
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