Two Lear's macaw chicks hatched at Pairi Daiza's Rare Bird Conservation Centre in early July, the Hainaut animal park announced on Thursday.
The chicks are the first offspring of a breeding pair consisting of a male born in June 2014 and a female born in July 2017. Their first breeding attempt last year ended in disappointment after the pair broke their only egg.
For the second attempt, the eggs were transferred to the park's incubation unit, where staff kept the parents and eggs under constant supervision to maximise the chicks' survival chances.
The Lear's macaw is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. In the wild, the species survives only in a semi-arid region of north-eastern Brazil.
The teams opted for constant monitoring of the parents and eggs to maximise the chances of survival. Credit: Pairi Daiza.
According to Pairi Daiza, the births mark a milestone unmatched by any other conservation centre open to the public: successfully breeding all three species of blue macaw (the hyacinth macaw), the Spix's macaw and now the Lear's macaw.
"By gaining a better understanding of their reproduction, development and behaviour, we can expand the available knowledge and share it with international teams working to conserve the species," said Steffen Patzwahl, curator at Pairi Daiza.
The chicks, now three weeks old, are being hand-fed five times a day and are under constant care.
