Mar 07 2025 1 mins 1
Sometimes nature can feel cruel, but humans can step in to help out.
Scarlet macaws lay up to four eggs per clutch — that’s the group of eggs produced during one nesting event. But whether in the wild or in captivity, the parents routinely feed only one or two of the chicks, leaving the others to starve. This happens to healthy chicks and whether food is plentiful or scarce.
For reasons not well understood, the last chicks to hatch are the ones left to die. But now a fostering program removes neglected chicks from one nest and places them in another where chicks have been lost to predators. The foster parent birds raise the chicks as their own, allowing them to thrive.
If the program remains successful, it may help endangered parrot species too.
