A Scottish bird sanctuary has welcomed three baby emu chicks after a successful breeding programme.
Mark Halliday at Bird Gardens Scotland, where the birds hatched, said that the adult emus have been at the sanctuary for around ten years but had never managed to hatch any eggs.
However, their luck changed just a few days ago.
“Every year the chief emu sits on a pile of eggs but he has never managed to hatch them,” he told STV News.
STV NewsAfter years of disappointment the sanctuary decided to help the chief emu out, and put some eggs in an incubator.
They swapped the eggs out when they got to the hatching point and shortly after the three chicks arrived.
“As soon as he heard the cheeping inside the eggs, he was off and he’s been a great dad,” he said.
Emus are known to have a unique mating strategy with a female laying ten to 15 eggs and leaving them with the male before moving on.
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