100 Day Project Day 2
Day 2/100
Today we're in Africa with the largest of all the hornbills - the Southern ground hornbill. After a zoo breakout in Honolulu you can also find a wild population in Hawaii!
One of only two species of ground hornbills they are confined to national reserves and parks. Southern ground hornbills are what's know as "cooperative breeders" meaning that each breeding pair is assisted in the raising of the chicks by at least two other young birds. It's thought that this assistance breeding teaches the younger birds how to care for their young adequately and it's been found that birds with less than 6 years of assisting experience are not able to breed themselves.
With a very slow reproduction rate and with humans clearing their very specialised habitat in large sweeps, they're classed as vulnerable to extinction.