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Science & Technology

Rare Kiwi Chick Hatches At San Diego Zoo

The brown kiwi chick is weighed at the San Diego Zoo, April 5, 2016.
San Diego Zoo
The brown kiwi chick is weighed at the San Diego Zoo, April 5, 2016.

The San Diego Zoo announced Wednesday the hatching of a brown kiwi chick.

The female emerged from its egg on March 11 at the zoo's Avian Propagation Center and is being monitored by animal care staff. Another brown kiwi chick hatched at the zoo in 2014, but it didn't survive.

According to the zoo, the chick that recently hatched didn't eat for six days and lost 26 percent of her body weight, which is typical for the species. Weight gain began last week, and she checked in at 11.8 ounces on Tuesday.

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The kiwi has several unusual traits for a bird species: It does not fly, the mothers do not feed their chicks and the egg is four times the expected size for a bird of the kiwi's proportions.

The chick is the 11th member of the endangered species hatched at the zoo, which reared its first brown kiwi in 1983. The zoo is one of six in the U.S. working with the species.