Four rare endangered Edward’s Pheasant chicks born in Barcelona Zoo

Barcelona Zoo has announced the birth of four rare endangered Edward’s Pheasant chicks.

As reported in a statement by Barcelona Zoo today, Sunday, May 22, four Edwards Pheasant chicks were born there last April. This species of bird is endemic to the rainforests of Vietnam, and according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, is in danger of extinction.

According to elperiodico.es, the Catalan zoo already had two of these pheasants, so these four new offspring bring their total to six in the Barcelona attraction. The recovery of the species is part of the European program for endangered species ‘EAZA Ex-situ Programme’ (EEP).

Since the year 2000, there has been no record of specimens of the Edwards Pheasant in its natural habitat. The centre attributes the critical situation of the species to phenomena such as hunting and the disappearance of its habitat due to defoliation during the Vietnam War that was fought from 1955 to 1975.

Currently, the world population of Edwards’s pheasant is made up of a total of 279 individuals: 124 males, 108 females and 47 “individuals not yet sexed”. The species is named after the French ornithologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards, who first brought the bird to light back in 1896.

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