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Just a few meters from an aviary in southern Austria, where the mountains are rough but the valleys lush and expansive, Barbara Steininger got nervous. At twenty-five, Steininger was about to become a foster mom. Not an everyday occurrence, she said, “especially if your fosterlings are birds.”
Moments later, a Wildlife Park Rosegg zookeeper placed two featherless chicks in Steininger’s warm hands. Her freckled face lit up. Two down, thirty-three more to go.
From that chilly day in April 2023, Steininger and her colleague, twenty-eight-year-old Helena Wehner, would be the chicks’ sole caregivers. It’s much like being a mom to a human: Cuddles are as essential as words of encouragement and adoration, all delivered in baby speak. Eight times a day, they’ll hand-feed them. “Just that it’s not breast milk or formula,” Wehner said, but a mix of shredded beef hearts and mice.
Such devotion isn’t afforded to just any bird, but to some of the last of the northern bald ibises.
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