Rare Horned Guans Hatch at St. Louis Zoo

Rare Horned Guans hatched at the St. Louis Zoo. While they are just five ounces, and 8 inches tall with fuzzy brown and black downy feathers, they are called Horned Guans because of what will happen when they enter their third month. They will start getting a couple of bumps on the top of their heads, which will slowly twist and grow together.

"This hatching is an important development in what has been a great effort to save this species; it was the result of many years of hard work," said Jeffrey P. Bonner, Dana Brown President and Chief Executive Officer at the Saint Louis Zoo. "It took great attention to the welfare of the parents and enormous patience and persistence" from the zoo staff to achieve this milestone.

While there are 56 Horned Guans in five institutions mainly in Mexico, the St. Louis Zoo was the first to become accredited in the US to exhibit this species, according to Zooborns

These are among the "rarest and most endangered species", according to the IUCN Red List of birds.

Born from a 12-year-old male and a 7-year-old female, the adult guans appear different. There is an interesting, vibrant red horn that juts out from the top of the head, which is used to attract mates.

The birds are as big as small turkeys, covered with onyx black feathers and have white chests.

You can find just about 1,000-2,499 birds in Mexico and Guatemala, and their natural cloud forest habitat has not got destroyed to make space for coffee plantations, logging and diverse cash crops.

It was in 1997 that the St. Louis Zoo started to work vigorously with Guans after it got $25,000 to start researching how to artificially inseminate them. They became successful with Piping Guans from cracid species in the same family of game birds, as are the Horned Guans.

Now the Horned Guans family can be build up quickly, with the help of the St. Louis Zoo, which will give a new place for breeding and caretaking of the delicate chicks, according to hngn.