The Zoo bird department had its first gray-crowned crane chick (also known as the East African crowned crane) hatch in the Zoo’s 52-year history working with the species! When the crane egg was laid, it was moved into the Zoo’s bird house to be incubated so that its hatching conditions could be carefully monitored due to the previous egg not surviving.
A “dummy egg” was placed in the nest so that the birds could continue to care for it. When the chick hatched, the bird staff strategically coaxed the protective parents from the dummy egg and placed the chick in the nest. They even put the chick back into half of its eggshell so that it would appear to be just hatched! The gray crowned crane pair have quickly taken to their role as doting parents to their hatchling.