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Flamingo gets new leg to stand on with world-first prosthetic limb

Seven-inch carbon limb fitted on flamingo in Brazil zoo after leg amputated due to infection possilby caused by pelican attack

Andre Costa, a vet at Sorocaba Zoo in Brazil recently amputated the lower part of the right leg of a flamingo at the zoo and replaced it with a prosthetic leg. Andre, who performed the amputation to halt an infection that would of killed the bird, decided to give the 7-inch carbon limb a try. He says the bird wouldn’t have survived with just one leg.
Andre Costa, a vet at Sorocaba Zoo in Brazil recently amputated the lower part of the right leg of a flamingo at the zoo and replaced it with a prosthetic leg. Andre, who performed the amputation to halt an infection that would have killed the bird, decided to give the 7-inch carbon limb a try. He says the bird wouldn’t have survived with just one leg. Credit: Photo: AP Photo/Nelson Antoine

A flamingo at Brazilian zoo has had a prosthetic limb fitted after its leg had to be amputated, in what is thought to be the first operation of its kind.

Andre Costa, the zoo's veterinarian, removed the the lower part of the bird's right leg to halt a potentially fatal infection. He decided to fit the seven-inch carbon limb as the bird would not have been likely to survive with just one leg.

"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 Mr Costa.

Mr Costa said it was not known how the bird's leg was injured, but that "perhaps one the clumsy pelicans that share the enclosure crashed into him or he was attacked by one of the crowned cranes, who are very aggressive and territorial."

The carbon limb was donated by a local prosthesis manufacturer.

Within days the flamingo was adjusting nicely to his new leg - even tucking it under his body to make the flamingo's classic one-leg standing pose.

But challenges remain for the six-year-old Chilean flamingo.

Mr Costa said the bird remains apart from the other 28 flamingos kept at the zoo and will only be gradually reintroduced to the flock.

"The other birds might see the prosthesis as an object to be attacked, not as a leg," he said. "They may shun or attack, and even kill him."