A baby bird’s recent birth at the Denver Zoo has caused a bit of family drama.
Vlad, the father of Steller’s sea-eagle chick, Kamchatka, had to be sent away on an indefinite “vacation” to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo after the egg was confirmed fertile, zoo officials said.
“Normally both parents raise the chicks, but we found that our adults tended to bicker over who got to take care of the check, which put the chick at risk,” said Hollie Colahan, vice president of animal care at the Denver Zoo, in an email.
The chick and his mom, Ursula, will reside in Bird World at the zoo. The species is native to the mountains of eastern coastal Russia, Mongolia and northern Japan. Kamchatka is the only of his species born this year in North America.
“We always try to replicate what animals would do in the wild, but like people, every animal is unique so sometimes we have to have to be flexible and open to new ideas to help our animals be successful,” Colahan said.
Meet Kamchatka, the only Steller’s sea-eagle chick to have hatched in all of North America this year! In the wild, you might find his counterparts in the mountains of eastern coastal Russia, Mongolia, and northern Japan, but here you can see him and mom outside Bird World.
— Denver Zoo (@DenverZoo)
Kamchatka — named after the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia — hatched on March 10, according to zoo officials. As of 2017, only 12 zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums housed the species, so hatchings are rare, with only 14 in the last decade, Colahan said.
The Denver Zoo has housed the species since 2005.
The Steller’s sea eagles live close to water in the wild and build their nests in tall trees or rocky cliffs up to 100 feet in the air, Colahan said.
The species name isn’t misspelled, she added.
“While they are ‘stellar’ in appearance, they are actually named after German naturalist Georg Steller,” Colahan said.
