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Adorable pictures show a flamingo chick taking its first steps after hatching at a zoo for the first time in a decade.
The week-old Chilean flamingo chick can be seen taking its first tentative steps under the watchful eyes of its parents.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) says the chick hatched on 4 September 2025 – marking a major milestone in the zoo’s breeding program.
At hatching, the bird’s beaks are straight, with the distinctive downward curve beginning to develop around three to four weeks.
Their soft white down will gradually gain the pink colouration – for which flamingos are known – as pigments from their diet build up over time.
The Chilean flamingo is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it could become endangered.
Its survival is threatened by habitat loss from mining, water diversion, and pollution, as well as human disturbances like unregulated tourism and egg collection.
This newly hatched chick is now the youngest resident of the zoo’s flamingo flock, compared to its oldest residents – Shrimpy, Louis, and Rio – who are estimated to have hatched in 1961.
