Overview
- The zoo announced Thursday that its flock of 41 Chilean flamingos produced four healthy chicks, the first successful hatchings by this group in nine years.
- Staff say the chicks are being fed crop milk by their parents, are doing well, and remain under close daily monitoring by keepers.
- Zookeepers installed a protective mesh netting that let the flock stay outside overnight and observed behavioral shifts in April that led to nesting activity.
- To encourage nest building, staff prepared the habitat in May by shaping cone-shaped mounds with extra dirt and Dura Edge’s Dura Pitch substrate for the birds to use.
- Visitors can view the chicks at Flamingo Lake, and the zoo has limited nearby access to reduce disturbance while staff continue health checks and study whether the changes boost long-term breeding success.