スミソニアン国立動物園のインスタグラム(smithsonianzoo) - 12月7日 06時18分

Animal keepers can sometimes determine the sex of a baby bird before it hatches! Assistant curator Eric Slovak makes a tiny hole inside this greater rhea egg and extracts a small bit of DNA. A dab of epoxy is used to seal the hole as though it was never there. He sends the sample to a DNA sexing lab for analysis. In a weeks’ time, animal keepers will learn the sex of the bird inside the egg!

Extracting a small sample of amniotic fluid does not harm the chick inside of the egg. Some species of birds show no sexual dimorphism, so the only way for staff to tell males from females is by looking at a DNA sample. Taking a blood sample from an adult bird could be stressful for that animal, so staff opt to take it from the egg. When the chick matures, it will become a part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan and matched with a mate for breeding.

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