Rare Horned Guans hatched at the St. Louis Zoo weighed only five ounces, and were 8 inches tall covered with fuzzy brown and black downy feathers. The birds are called Horned Guans because at around three months they will begin to develop two bumps on the top of their heads which will slowly twist and grow together.
The two birds were born from a 12-year-old male and a 7-year-old female. The adults look extremely different than the chicks. A vibrant red horn protrudes from the top of their head which is believed to be used to attract mates. The birds are about the size of a small turkey and are covered with onyx black feathers and have a white chest.
The St. Louis Zoo was the first to become accredited in the nation to exhibit this particular species, according to ZooBorns. There are collectively 56 Horned Guans that can be found in five institutions mainly located in Mexico.
With those numbers you can see that they are one of the rarest and most endangered species, according to the IUCN Red List of birds. In Mexico and Guatemala you can only find around 1,000-2,499 individual birds. Why? Well, their natural cloud forest habitat has been demolished to make room for coffee plantations, logging and various other cash crops.
The journey to these chicks hatching started back in 1997 when the St. Louis Zoo began to work vigorously with all kinds of species of Guans after it had received $25,000 to start researching how to artificially inseminate them. They were first successful with Piping Guans which came from cracid species, which are in the same family of game birds, as are the Horned Guans. Thus, the Horned Guans now have a chance at rebuilding their numbers with the help of the St. Louis Zoo. Together they can help the species for the better by supplying a new place for breeding and caretaking of the delicate chicks.
