Zoo Atlanta Uses Puppet To Raise, Feed New Vulture Chick

ATLANTA, GA — Zoo Atlanta is using a puppet vulture to prevent a one-month-old vulture chick from imprinting on humans. The strategy of puppet rearing allows the new chick to see itself as a vulture, said the zoo’s bird team in a blog.

They’ve been hand-raising a critically endangered hooded vulture chick that hatched on April 9.
It weighs about 800 grams, or just under 2 pounds.

“This is the first successful hatch of any vulture species here at Zoo Atlanta, so we are very excited!” read a blog on the zoo’s website.

“It was very important that this chick recognize itself as a vulture and not imprint on humans, so we have been using the strategy of puppet rearing,” the blog continued. “We use a puppet made to look like an adult vulture to feed and interact with the chick while hiding the rest of our bodies with a visual block.”

The chick was born to hooded vultures and first-time parents Tai and Acacia, according to Zoo Atlanta’s Facebook video. The zookeepers said they artificially incubated the egg and puppet-reared the bird out of an “abundance of caution to prohibit the chick from imprinting on humans.”

“Imprinting is how a bird gains its sense of self and we want to make sure that this chick knows that it’s a vulture and not a human,” said Zoo Atlanta’s associate curator of birds Lauren Wilson.

The zookeepers make sure they’re quiet whenever they are working with the chick. They also hide behind a curtain and eliminate human noises. Instead of their hands, they use the puppet when caring for the bird.

There hasn’t been much interaction yet, but the vulture chick is more interested in its reflection in the mirror, said the zookeepers.

They've been documenting on social media for the past week.