Chick raised in captiv is now 10 days old, the bird now weighs four times its birth weight

Captivity Breeding 21 May, 2011 – The white-bellied heron chick raised in captivity is growing, that too in good health, according to royal society for protection of nature (RSPN) officials.

It weighed 212.1g, almost four times its birth weight, as of May 17. The chick hatched on May 7 in the hatchery in Phochu valley. Then, it weighed only 54.9g in incubation.

It is fed three times a day and eats a fish (8-10cm long) at every meal. “It has developed feathers and can feed on its own, since it was four days old,” the project manager of RSPN said. Earlier, the chick was fed, using a heron-like puppet even tossing fishes into its beak. “It has become very active.”

The research officials until yesterday were fishing for smaller fishes, using mosquito nets, to feed the chick. “We’re going to buy fishes from Gelephu soon,” she said.

The heron should be about 72 days old to be able to fly.

Every year, RSPN officials make artificial ponds along the river to attract the heron. Villagers first spotted the bird in the Phochu valley after the October 7, 1994, flood. The international union for conservation of nature (IUCN) included the bird in the critically endangered species in 2007. Of the bird’s current global population, estimated to be less than 200, Bhutan has 26.

Bhutan had about 31 WBH in 2009, one heron was reportedly electrocuted in Zalarongchu in Wangdue, and another killed by a construction worker in Densari, Punakha. The bird feeds solely on fish and is very shy, making conservation efforts difficult.

Conservationists fear increase in settlements along the Phochu and initiation of the Punatsangchhu power project would wipe out the habitat of the bird. The ongoing conservation project, with experts from the USA, aims to address the high mortality rates at its infant period, due to predation and other calamities, such as forest fire, and save the bird from extinction.

source www.kuenselonline.com