Start of the season 2016
Newsletter 10/04/2016
Yesterday the first 16 chicks have arrived at Zoo Vienna for hand-raising. They all come from the breeding colony at Tierpark Rosegg in Carinthia. Next week, another 16 chicks will be added, partly provided from the breeding colony in Rosegg, partly from the breeding colony of the Konrad-Lorenz research station in Grünau, Upper Austria.
A total of four human foster-mothers take care of the birds. One group will be raised by the experienced team Corinna Esterer and Anne-Gabriela Schmalstieg, the second group by a new team consisting of Rachele Trevisi and Milena Klumb. The two groups are kept entirely separate until the end of July when the two groups will meet during flight training. In August, we aim to lead both groups together from the breeding site across the Alps to the wintering site in southern Tuscany.
The chicks are taken from the nests at the age of 3-9 days, weighing between 100 and 400 grams. Older chicks are not suitable for hand-raising because they are already used to the biological parents and hardly accustom to hand-rearing. From April 17th, the visitors of Zoo Vienna are able to witness the hand-raising of the chick. When the birds reach an age of about 35 days, they become mobile and start to explore their environment. Then it's time to move to the training camp at Seekirchen am Wallersee, country of Salzburg.
In the meantime, some the wild birds already departed from the wintering are in southern Tuscany. One bird, Jazu, has already arrived at the breeding area Burghausen, Bavaria. Further 13 birds are on the way, some already in Austria, most of them still in Italy. More birds will probably depart within the next days. We therefore hope for a good breeding season in 2016.
The whereabouts and movements of all birds can be followed on the App Animal Tracker, mostly on a daily basis.
Picture: Milena Klum and Rachele Trevisi (from left) picking up the chicks at Rosegg. From now on they will dedicate themselves to the 16 chicks every day for half a year, until they´ll release the birds in mid-September in Tuscany. In the presence of the birds the foster parents wear yellow clothes in order to support the selective imprinting and to intensify the development of social ties.
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