Dallas Zoo welcomes southern ground hornbill in first successful foster of species - The Dallas Morning News
On a recent afternoon at the Dallas Zoo, a large, long-beaked bird eagerly snapped a worm from a caretaker's hand.
But Okpara, the 18-year-old father of a family of souther ground hornbills, didn't keep the delicacy for himself.
He walked to the back of his habitat and offered it to Nanjamba, the group's 32-year-old mother, and when she didn't take it, he gave it to 3-month-old Kune, the baby of the family.
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As he shared the treat, the large, red pouch on his throat puffed out, and he grunted to the four birds he provides for.
"Dad is like the security guard and the enforcer for the family group," said Ann Knutson, the zoo's assistant zoological manager of birds.
Unlike other birds, southern ground hornbills live in family units, and they have strong bonds and dynamic relationships.
When Kune hatched, the Dallas Zoo's hornbill family expanded to five, but the connections among its members are unique
A successful foster
Okpara and another bird, Nanjamba, are raising Kune as their own, but Nanjamba didn't lay him as an egg.
Kune (pronounced koon-aye) is the first southern ground hornbill chick among zoos accredited through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that has been successfully transported from another facility to be fostered by a different family group, said Knutson, who serves as the coordinator of the southern grounded hornbill species survival plan created through the association.
She is responsible for monitoring southern ground hornbill populations at all association-accredited zoos and makes breeding recommendations to expand the species, which is declining in its natural habitat of southern Africa. Of about 250 zoos the association accredits, 52 have southern ground hornbill populations.
Although Okpara and Nanjamba are no longer recommended for breeding, another pair of hornbills at Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee were. When they laid their egg, Knutson agreed to bring it to the Dallas Zoo.
Even though she'd coordinated with the Knoxville zoo and airlines far in advance, transporting the egg, which is about twice the size of a chicken egg, in a portable incubator was stressful.
"When I went through security, you can't x-ray it, so I had to go and open it and show them that it was an egg," she said. "Where the flight attendants put their coats and stuff was literally just big enough for my incubator to fit in there."
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As the first zoo within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to attempt an egg transportation and foster, Knutson was nervous.
"Any number of things could go wrong, like a flight being delayed, the incubator randomly breaking," she said.
But Kune hatched safely two days after came to Dallas.
Normally, the mother would take over feeding the chick, but Nanjamba came to the zoo in 2015 with a broken beak, so she couldn't.
Caretakers started feeding Kune by hand seven times a day but have slowly backed off.
"The beauty of that is they're still teaching the baby how to be a hornbill, even though we're having to hand feed it," Knutson said.
If southern ground hornbills are raised entirely by humans, they can "imprint" on their caretakers — creating a bond with humans that makes it difficult for them to communicate with their own species. That could make it difficult for Knutson to arrange breeding opportunities in the future.
"For the first few years, they'll be fine," she said. "But then once breeding age hits, which is about 10 to 13 years old, imprinted hornbills tend to have issues."
At only a few months old, Kune is easy to spot among the group of hornbills.
He is slightly smaller than his family members, who stand about three feet tall, and the pouch at his throat hasn't yet turned bright red. That will happen as he reaches adulthood, and though grown hornbills have white coloring underneath their nearly four-foot wingspan, Kune's feathers are still black.
Kune's siblings are adjusting to a new family structure. Four-year-old Pili has done well with Kune's arrival, but another brother, also 4, hasn't taken well to the new baby getting all the attention, Knutson said.
"Mosi has been really jealous of the baby, acting like what you would think a small child would act like," Knutson said.
Most of his behavior with caretakers and his parents has been attention-seeking.
Knutson cautions new visitors to remove items dangling from their clothing or bags before they enter the habitat.
"He's become this thief. He'll come up and pull things out of my pockets without me feeling somehow, and he'll then come around in front and just show it to me, like 'Look what I got,' " she said.
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A strong family unit
Although there are benefits to southern ground hornbills' unique family relationships, the dynamics create challenges for caretakers.
Because the father,Okpara, feeds his family — something he still does with his other two sons, who are old enough to eat on their own — it can be difficult for caretakers to provide medical care to the birds.
About a year ago, the one of Pili's toenails fell off, causing him discomfort that required the toe to amputated.
Removing him from his family for the five-hour surgery made Knutson nervous because even a short time apart can affect the birds' bonds.
Pili needed to get stitches and receive medicine after the surgery, but the strong connections among the birds made it difficult to provide care.
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"If we try and give Pili food, Dad could run up and take it from him and feed it to Mosi, or Pili could come up and feed the chick," she said. "You have to take them out to do anything, but we can't take them out because then it would ruin their connection."
Caretakers were lucky to be able to administer treatment without much trouble.
But a year before that, they faced an even bigger challenge when Nanjamba developed cataracts and needed surgery so she could see again. As part of her convalescence, she had to be removed from the group for a month.
"We put her inside in a stall next to ... [the habitat]. They couldn't see her, but they could still talk to her," Knutson said. "She had access vocally for at least a week, but you could tell they were talking through the wall. The family group would just be inside sitting next to the wall; it was really cute. And then for the last three weeks, she did have a visual with them, so they would just all sit there and they would pass little tiny pieces of food to her through the fence."
Even though Nanjamba has fully recovered, the rest of the group still regularly checks on her, leads her around the habitat and makes sure she is fed, Knutson said.
"She is very well taken care of," she said.
A standard for hornbill expansion
The hornbills used to be housed in what is now the zoo's cheetah habitat, but they were moved behind the scenes after the cheetahs arrived over the summer.
"I want them on habitat for the public to see because I think the public just doesn't know about them," Knutson said, adding that their unique family relationships make them fun for visitors to watch.
Kune could be transferred to breed at another facility someday, but he will remain at the Dallas Zoo for at least five years — enough time for him to learn how to live within a family, Knutson said.
The zoo previously had seven hornbills, but two of the males were sent to breed elsewhere. Knutson said she wants to expand the group back to seven, but male chicks are required because only one female can live in a family unit.
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For now, Knutson said she's excited to share the Dallas Zoo's success with other zoos to show it's possible to grow their populations in unusual ways.
"I'm really excited about it because then by sharing the story, people would see 'Oh, we can do this,' " she said.
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