Overview

• The Bronx Zoo is raising a king vulture chick, hatched on February 25, using a hand puppet designed to mimic an adult vulture to prevent the chick from imprinting on humans.
• The chick is the first king vulture to hatch at the zoo since the 1990s, and its genetics are critical as its 55-year-old father has only one other living descendant.
• An adult king vulture is housed in an adjacent enclosure to provide behavioral cues, supporting the chick's species-appropriate social development.
• The lifelike puppet, crafted by the zoo's Exhibition and Graphic Arts Department, is part of a technique first developed in the 1980s for condor conservation efforts.
• Data from the chick's hand-raising is being shared with other institutions to improve avian husbandry practices and bolster conservation efforts for wild bird populations.