Zoo collects, sends out flamingo eggs

HIALEAH, FLA. - Darcy Henthorn can't wait to meet her little bundles of joy.

All 20 of them.

The Oklahoma City Zoo curator of birds recently claimed 20 flamingo eggs in Miami to exhibit in her zoo. The zoo is now one of more than a dozen wildlife parks across the county that have received the popular pink birds from a former south Florida race track.

Hialeah Park hasn't held a horse race since 2001, but the 300 flamingos that once flew over the track still live inside its 11/8-mile racing oval. The Miami Metrozoo now collects some of Hialeah's flamingo eggs and distributes them across the country. Hundreds of eggs have been collected here since the 1980s, wildlife officials said.

The eggs, which are a little smaller than a soda can, are laid on soil nests.

After they are collected by Metrozoo workers, they are stored in temperature-controlled coolers, given an identification number, examined, sorted and placed in an incubator. The eggs are then stowed away until other zoos can claim them. Once the birds hatch, they are hand-reared.

"It's going to be a lot of work," Ms. Henthorn said. "But it's going to be well worth it."