More Not Chickens

[Angela]

Very sad. But gotta agree with you, this one does look eerily like a muppet

I can see the color of the plummage coming on....He/she will be breathtaking when it reaches maturity. I'm optimistic. I think I'll call him Gaylord.....I tend to name everything.

[3dogs]

I hope you get the answers you need from Cornell. With only a couple of hatchlings at a time any loss is pretty heavy. The surviving chick is a cutie!

[Altair]

I noted while watching a documentary of the harpy eagle there were aracaris featured as well. While I was mesmorized by the eagles, I couldn't help think of jungle and his beloved toucans. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episo...-episode/7324/, specifically around 6:30 and 14:45. It's neat how the toucans use the eagles to deter marauding capuchins and other predators.

[jungle]

I saw the same program and watched it specifically for that portion. It was on BBC a year ago and I missed it. The BBC website did not offer that DVD for sale so I was thrilled when I heard this was going to be on last night. Seeing them bathe in that tree hollow is identical how they do it in their water dish in the living room!

[3dogs]

Altair, thanks for posting the video! Loved the closeup shots of the young eagle. It was an interesting documentary.

[Altair]

Happy to, 3dogs. That eagle chick made an impression on me. I also highly recommend "The Queen of Trees" about fig wasps and their relationship with sycamore fig trees. What sounds like a tedious subject delves so much deeper into how the world works right under our eyes.

And on topic, anything new with Cornell's lab results, jungle?

[jungle]

The final necropsy results, while they did show some pathogens, were still relatively inconclusive. There was a fairly heavy growth of yeasts in the ventriculus (likely candida) which is not surprising. Yeasts are often secondary to other issues and these birds are especially susceptible to yeast infections. It was very unlikely that this is what caused the death, however. There was some thickening of the heart tissue which indicated that he likely died from a heart attack. The two most likely causes of that in this case would be either a bacterial septicemia or a viral infection. Because there were virtually no other signs of bacterial infection we are leaning more toward a viral infection.

These birds can carry many different types of viruses and it is difficult to screen for them (and expensive). The track record of this species in aviculture has led many breeders to suspect some sort of pathogen that the adults can live with but dooms the chicks in so many cases. Only a handful of people in the US are working with this species and even fewer are getting them to breed. The number of breeders that will actually submit the losses for workup is even less and this is one of the biggest problems. If there were a more coordinated effort to investigate the problems we would be able to get more anwers far more quickly.

The good news is that the remaining chick has managed to survive and is weaning now. He is driving me a little crazy as it is especially clingy right now and always wants to fall asleep by nestling down on the back of my neck and getting scratched. If I stop scratching before he falls asleep he will start pecking my head until I continue.