France's Mulhouse Zoo has welcomed a male King Vulture chick.  The hatchling posed two days ago for these glamour shots by Life On White only 70 hours after its birth. Keepers must feed the chick with a lifelike puppet, or surrogate, so that the young bird does not associate human hands with food. Eventually, he will move to another zoo to live with a female King Vulture. King Vultures live predominently in the lowland tropical forests of Central and South America. New evidence that wild populations of King Vultures are in decline points to habitat destruction and poaching as the primary threats to this unique bird species.

Photo credits: Life on White