Baby Toucan Learns To Fly

This man found a baby toucan on the Amazon forest floor — watch him learn to fly and become so fluffy

Transcript

00:00All right so we were just coming up from swimming by the river

00:04and found this little one in the leaves missing a lot of feathers.

00:09I used a towel to catch him. He was in such bad shape it broke your heart to look at him.

00:15My first thought was this toucan was dying.

00:18So we just found a little baby toucan who doesn't look healthy at all. So cute.

00:23She's coming back to the station with us. I'm gonna see what we can do to get this one fixed up.

00:32It's got these horrible things all over it.

00:34Parasites were embedded in his skin. My heart broke for how much pain this animal must be in.

00:43I cut a piece of bamboo and made a jungle syringe.

00:46This bird's got some fight left in it. I'm gonna let this little bird rest now.

00:56I just prepared myself to wake up in the morning and for him to not have made it.

01:01The next morning he was 50 percent better.

01:09We've been feeding her every day keeping her hydrated and well fed. Yes I know you're hungry.

01:14He had already figured it out in one day you guys mean food.

01:18When he wants food he's gonna get the food.

01:21It's a really good thing the bird wasn't bigger because he really is a little dinosaur.

01:30We realized that he didn't need the syringe to eat we could just feed him with a spoon.

01:34He figured out how to pop it back and we're like oh my god this thing is smart.

01:39He had so much personality he became the center of the research station.

01:44Little by little she's looking less like a horrendous vulture and more and more like a

01:47toucan. The blue started coming back on his skin and his wing feathers started coming in.

01:53When he was vocalizing and aggressive it was so encouraging because he knew that he wanted to be

01:58wild. Pretty soon he started leaving the perch that we had in the station and staying in a nearby tree.

02:07He was practicing hopping going after some of the insects.

02:11This bird is doing so much better and every day getting stronger and pretty soon we're

02:16going to be doing flying lessons. Oh yeah show everybody show everybody how you fly.

02:26I started taking him out on the trails and would give him a little toss

02:28then I'd let him coast to the ground. Then as he really began to get better at flying

02:33he began to go out into the jungle and he came back when he wanted to.

02:41Finally all of his feathers are back and he's beautiful looking he's completely healthy.

02:47One day he went out into the jungle and they don't come back.

02:53We couldn't have hoped that it would have gone better than that.

02:56I've been working in the Amazon for 18 years. We have indigenous leadership, global experts,

03:01and a team of rangers protecting 50,000 acres of rainforest.

03:05Our lives are made possible by this tremendous interconnected system.

03:10None of the animals I've ever rehabilitated have had the spirit that this little bird had.

03:19By saving Lucas we've repaired this one very very small piece of the Amazon rainforest and

03:24the fact that Nikita saw him on the forest floor I still am thankful for that. The greatest thing

03:28is knowing that right now Lucas is out there being a fully fledged toucan because we were

03:34able to help him.