Four times a day, Thai conservationist Watchiradol Phangpanya puts on a black, long-sleeved shirt, red gloves, and a red balaclava, hoping to imitate an endangered red-headed vulture feeding its baby. The pinkish chick, covered in white fuzz that will turn into black feathers as it grows, is the first red-headed, or Asian king vulture, to be bred in Asia and only the second in the world. Watchiradol and his colleagues at the Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo in northeast Thailand want to ensure any hatchling bred in captivity does not imprint on humans so they will be better prepared for eventual release into the wild. "It's necessary ... to disguise ourselves as a bird, thereby leading them to see us as closest to what their parents would look like," Watchiradol said, adding that it's the b...
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