Hatching birds with electronic eggs

The Smithsonian National Zoo (USA) is using electronic eggs to hatch kori bustard eggs, only in Africa and at risk of extinction, and flamingos.

Electronic eggs are placed in the bird's nest after the mother has finished. It has a sensor system that collects heat on the surface and in an egg to hatch. Electronic eggs will record the frequency of mother birds turning eggs during incubation, and transmitting data to the computer every 48 hours. The information received will be used to simulate the natural incubation process in the laboratory.

According to the creature Sara Hallager, this is a breakthrough because the information recorded from the natural process helps them to better understand the biological characteristics of this bird and know how to incubate them more artificially. thereby improving the success rate of breeding in some species in the red list. Previously, electronic eggs were used to monitor the incubation process of cranes at Calgary (Canada) Zoo, waterbirds at Saint Louis Zoo (USA).

(Photo: Washingtonpost)

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