A Brazilian flamingo will no longer have to stand on just one leg.
Zookeepers at the Sorocaba Zoo in southeastern Brazil fitted a Chilean flamingo with a prosthetic leg, which was donated by a local prosthesis manufacturer after the 6-year-old bird fractured it a month ago.
[seealso slug="cow-prosthetic-legs"]
"To prevent an infection from setting in and spreading to the rest of his body, which would have killed him, we decided to amputate the leg and give him the prosthesis," said the zoo's veterinarian, Andre Costa, who performed the surgery on the bird.
The zookeepers have never heard of another bird getting a prosthetic leg, so they believe that this is the first time the operation has been performed.
Costa wasn't exactly sure how the bird injured his leg, but he blames aggressive cranes, which tend to be territorial, or a clumsy pelican, both which share an enclosure with the flamingo.
Although flamingos are known for standing on just one leg, zookeepers say that the bird would have little chance of survival without both legs. But the bird still needs to be accepted back into the flock, which contains 28 other flamingos.
"The other birds might see the prosthesis as an object to be attacked, not as a leg," said Costa. "They may shun or attack, and even kill him."
Additional reporting by the Associated Press.