New York, New York – A king vulture chick at the Bronx Zoo is being hand-raised with a puppet, part of a technique designed to prevent the bird from imprinting on humans.

The chick hatched on February 25. It is being hand-raised to ensure healthy development, as some vulture parents may neglect their chicks. The chick’s genetics are important because its 55-year-old father has only one other living descendant. This is the first king vulture hatched at the Bronx Zoo since the 1990s.

The hand-raising method was developed at the zoo more than 40 years ago. A keeper uses a puppet that resembles an adult bird to feed the chick inside a brooder, which serves as its nest. The keeper also wears a costume to hide human features.

The Bronx Zoo first used this method in 1980 to raise Andean condors. Those birds were released into the wild in Peru the following year. The technique is now also used to raise and reintroduce the California condor.

The puppet used for the king vulture chick was designed by the zoo’s artists. Information gathered during this process is shared with other zoos and bird conservation groups to improve care and conservation techniques.

Chuck Cerbini, the zoo’s Curator of Ornithology, said the technique combines the skills of animal care staff, veterinarians, and artists. Staff currently feed the chick once a day with the puppet and keep it separate from humans to avoid imprinting. An adult king vulture is housed in an adjacent enclosure to help the chick observe natural behavior.

King vulture chicks are born with white down feathers. Juvenile feathers begin growing around four months, and full adult plumage appears by age four.

The king vulture is listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN. It lives from southern Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay. While its population is stable, habitat loss and poaching remain threats.

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