NEW YORK — A baby vulture at a New York zoo is being fed not by another bird but by hand puppet — a decades-old technique used to ensure the chick doesn’t identify too closely with its human handlers.
King vultures can neglect their chicks, so hand-feeding is necessary to ensure the baby survives, the Bronx Zoo said in a statement Tuesday. But to make sure it doesn’t imprint on humans, staff train the bird’s instincts onto a hand puppet that’s crafted to look like a real vulture.
“At this stage of development, our animal care staff are feeding the chick with the Bronx Zoo-made puppet once a day and we are working to ensure it does not imprint on humans,” Bronx Zoo Curator of Ornithology Chuck Cerbini said in a statement.
Footage of a feeding session shows someone with their arm clad in black and a puppet that looks like a vulture’s face and beak on their hand, which is used to grab morsels of food and deliver them to the chick’s mouth…