New SA Zoo cockatoo chicks first to hatch in years

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Zoo is celebrating the birth nineteen years in the making -- a palm cockatoo.

The breeding pair of palm cockatoos at the zoo, which are always on exhibit, arrived 19 years ago.

Hatching chicks is part of the species survival plan at the zoo, which is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

This is the first successful hatching of a palm cockatoo in the U.S. since 2014 at an AZA organization.

“It’s the staffing and the people that took interest in this animal that helped make this a successful hatching,” said Josef San Miguel, director of aviculture at the San Antonio Zoo.

READ: San Antonio Zoo offers discounted admission to locals for last day of Zoo Boo!

Zoo staff are hopeful that there will be three new palm cockatoos total.

The mother bird is currently in the exhibit, sitting on her last egg.

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