Many people believe that the successful breeding of exotic species in captivity is due solely to cutting-edge technology and massive investments by the world’s largest parks. However, reality sometimes proves otherwise: in eastern Slovakia, a breakthrough has been achieved where numbers are literally in the single digits.
The Košice Zoo reports an extraordinary success. For the first time in history, zoologists have successfully raised a chick of a rare and endangered bird species—the helmeted gokko. This is a milestone not only for Slovakia but also on a global scale. Over the past 12 months, zoos around the world have recorded only five such hatchlings. Three successful hatchings were recorded in the U.S., one at the Weltvogelpark bird park in Germany, and the sixth in this exclusive group is the chick from Košice. In general, this exceptional event is also covered in a report on SITA.sk.
Why Is This Bird So Rare?
The helmeted guan is native to the tropical mountain forests of northern Venezuela and Colombia. Over the past half-century, its wild population has declined by nearly 40 percent.
The dramatic decline in numbers is primarily due to habitat destruction and illegal hunting. In addition, this mysterious bird is also threatened by superstitions linked to traditional medicine, as hunters believe that its distinctive helmet has aphrodisiac properties.
The Challenges of Breeding with Chicks
The Košice Zoo has been keeping this species since 2018, having received a breeding pair as a gift from the Prague Zoo three years later. The conditions for keeping them are extremely challenging, as they are tree-dwelling birds. During incubation, the females are very sensitive to any external disturbances and are only rarely able to nest and successfully complete the incubation of their eggs.
Erich Kočner, director of the Košice Zoo, explained that the zookeepers had to intervene in time and complete the incubation in an artificial incubator. The chick was ultimately raised without the usual parental care.
- Unusual Teachers: Since the parents feed their chicks directly into their beaks during the first week, other animals had to take on this role.
- A Group of Silk Chickens: The goko chicks were raised in a group with two silk chicken chicks.
- Natural Observation: The little goko learned how to forage specifically from these chicks.
The Future of a Public Favorite
The chick is now thriving, independent, and attracting attention not only from local visitors. Three foreign zoos have already expressed preliminary interest in this unique offspring.
For the Košice Zoo itself—which welcomes countless visitors annually and also manages large exhibits of Carpathian fauna as well as the popular DinoPark—this is yet another international success that confirms the high level of expertise among its zookeepers.
