What's this egg-citing and rare new addition at Durrell?

Thursday 26 November 2015

It was just a cold, abandoned little egg until Durrell’s bird-keeping staff swooped in to save it.

But with their help it has hatched into a precious new addition to their pink pigeon flock.

Durrell's Bird Department Deputy Head Harriet Whitford said: "We have a colony of Java doves that are very good at rearing babies. Therefore, we often put pink pigeon eggs under them. One pair had been given this egg to look after, but unfortunately on this occasion, gave up incubating before it was due to hatch.

"We found the egg cold and abandoned, so took it to our artificial incubation facility. We shined a bright torch through the egg but couldn't see any movement. However, a heart monitor detected a weak heartbeat. We slowly started to warm the egg up and after an hour or so, could see the squab moving around once again.

"We kept it in an incubator, and waited until it was ready to hatch. The squab needed a little more assistance at this point, so we chipped away at the egg and helped it out.

Laurie, as the chick been named, is a squab native to Mauritius where the pink pigeon is still really rare. Back in the 80's there were just 16 left in the wild and they were on the brink of extinction but thanks to Durrell's efforts there are now 470 wild birds.

It's now just over 30 years since Gerald Durrell released the first captively-bred pink pigeon back into the wild but the captively-bred population is still quite small - there are only 70 in an international studbook outside of Madagascar. So Laurie's arrival is great news for them and there are now 18 pink pigeons living at Durrell's wildlife park.

Durrell don't yet know whether Laurie is a boy or a girl, but she has now been fostered by another pair of Java doves who have taken the youngster under their wings and Harriet says they are doing a great job of looking after their new addition, which has already put on 3g!

Here's what Harriet says Laurie is likely to look like at one week old;

one month old;

and three months old!

(Picture credit: Harriet Whitford, Durrell's Bird Department Deputy Head)