Watch: Zoo hand-rears newly hatched flamingo chicks
Four recently hatched flamingo chicks are being hand-reared after they were brought to a conservation zoo without their mother.
The American flamingos were transferred as eggs from Chester Zoo to Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire where they were incubated and hatched in a specialist nursery.
They have been fed a concoction made of boiled eggs, water and corn oil which is designed to mimic the "crop milk" produced by flamingo parents.
Tim Savage, the zoo's head bird keeper, said the chicks arrival at Whipsnade would play "an important role in the species’ conservation and breeding by introducing different bloodlines to the flock”.
The chicks will be weaned off their milkshakes and slowly introduced to solid foods from about 10 days old.
Flamingos are one of three bird species to feed their young with crop milk via their beaks - the others being pigeons and emperor penguins
After two months the chicks are expected to join the other flamingos at the zoo.
Mr Savage said: "Once the chicks are strong enough to feed on their own and look after themselves, they will be introduced in stages to their peers, and then eventually to the whole flock in their wetland home."
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