Kori Bustard: Threatened on the African Continent

Most people on safari get to see the Kori bustard, the world's heaviest flying birds at 18 kilos. You might see them displaying with puffed out feathers, a warning to other nearby males or an attempt to impress a female. I have always hoped to come by a kori's naturally dropped feathers on one of my hikes. Threatened by habitat loss, and by hunting, the kori's numbers across Africa are decreasing. So the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC is helping. When a captive kori female lays an egg it is replaced by a false surrogate and the fertilized egg is hatched in an incubator. The surrogate egg is decidedly high-tech, detecting and compiling data on temperature and motion which is hoped to improve hatching methods and success.

27-07-2008