Meet Bucorvus leadbeateri, the southern ground hornbill of southern Africa. As big as fellow ground-dweller the turkey but with sleeker bodies and plumage, southern ground hornbills boast a few fabulously eccentric traits. For one, they announce their gender through color, but flip the usual pink-for-girls/blue-for-boys trope: juveniles have yellow-hued throats, adult males bright red, and adult females a vivid violet-blue. Next, they are in a minority of birds who have eyelashes. I’d never really stopped to consider whether most birds have eyelashes or not, a character flaw I know I’ll be regretting for the rest of my life. But where Mother Nature bestows gifts of beauty like rich facial coloring and thick lashes, she sometimes is less gracious in, er, other areas. So yeah, southern ground hornbills are known to launch all-out assaults… on their own reflections. But they’re beautiful!!
One southern ground hornbill who resides in a northern Amsterdam zoo recently found himself in a bit of trouble. The poor guy damaged his upper and lower beak! (Which may or may not have been the result of him charging at his own image, no one’s squawking the beans.) But it’s ok, because the best of science and technology have come to this bird’s aid: a coalition of professionals from Artis Zoo, Utrecht University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UMC Utrecht, and medical technology company Amnovis, just fitted the patient with a 3D-printed prosthetic beak — and it seems to be working!
A male southern ground hornbill at Artis Zoo in Amsterdam has begun using a pair of artificial beak sections fitted through a 3D-printing procedure believed to be the first of its kind. The bird, which had suffered damage to both the upper and lower parts of its beak, showed signs of adapting to the replacements on the day of the operation, offering an encouraging early indication of the treatment’s success.
The injury had left the hornbill with two beak stumps, making everyday activities more difficult even though he could still manage some tasks. The beak plays a vital role beyond feeding, helping southern ground hornbills search for food, probe the soil and maintain their feathers. Restoring both sections was therefore important to improving the bird’s ability to carry out these basic behaviours.
…Utrecht University said CT scans and preserved fragments of the hornbill’s original beak were used to establish its shape and design replacements suited to the bird. Joëll Magré of UMC Utrecht developed the two 3D-printed prostheses, while Amnovis manufactured the titanium components used to attach them.
Artis veterinarian Martine van Zijll Langhout and avian specialist Yvonne van Zeeland helped develop the treatment plan. Veterinary surgeons Bjorn Meij and Lucinda van Stee performed the operation.
The intervention was notable because it replaced both the upper and lower portions of the beak. Artis Zoo described it as the first known case in which both sections of a bird’s beak had been repaired using prostheses in this way.
The bird’s ability to use the replacements was a key measure of the procedure’s early outcome. According to Artis Zoo, he began using the artificial beak sections on the day of surgery.
By the following morning, the hornbill could independently pick up a small mouse from the ground. Within a few days, he had also resumed preening his feathers, suggesting that he was recovering some of the functions affected by the injury.
These early developments are encouraging, although they do not yet establish how well the prostheses will perform over the longer term.
Obviously more observation is needed to see how the prosthetic holds up over time. But if it does work for the rest of this hornbill’s natural life? Then it opens up a whole world of possibilities for animal care! And I know this bird was already based in a zoo with dedicated vet care, but holy caw: our feathered friends have really been soaring to new heights lately with medical marvels! I’m mainly thinking of that brilliant pelican in Florida who reported itself to a NOAA office for emergency care, then trotted off to go about its business after being patched up. And now look at this hornbill: up and about post-procedure and picking up mice with his brand new beak! I know I speak for bitches far and wide when I say we have all our talons crossed for this pioneering patient… even if it later comes out that he instigated his own accident.
Photos credit: Artis/Facebook
I needed this feel good news early this morning. Man using technology to do good. Thank you.
Absolutely here for more celebrities of the non-human variety XD
This is so cool though! I hope it lasts and he does well.
If you manage to find yourself in Pittsburgh… go to the National Aviary! The primary vet there, Dr Fish (yes, that’s her name) has pioneered so many treatments in bird medicine. Listening to her talk about it, her passion for the area just shines through. She’s an amazing woman and also, the aviary is really really wonderful. I can’t recommend it enough obviously!
Love it when science mends animals. He’s looking very steampunk now, yes? The preening and dinner selection … he’s a happy bird.
This is the way I want to start every day—with hope and goodwill.
He is very steampunk! They even matched his beak color.
IKR?! He’s gonna own every hen in that aviary. 💀
Love this!
Also, watching the instagram reel, i learned the dutch word for beak is snavel, sounding like snaffle. Which is adorable. They fixed his snaffle!
Love this! Thanks! There’s also a toucan in South America who got a prosthetic beak.