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Brazilian toucan gets new 3D-printed beak

Wednesday, 26 August 2015 3:15 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 26 August 2015 6:05 PM ]

Veterinarian Carmen Soto (out of frame), in charge of an animal rescue centre, in La Garita, Alajuela, 45 km north of San Jose, cures a toucan that lost the upper half of his beak after being attacked by unidentified animal traffickers, on February 4, 2015. Though such attacks are not uncommon in Latin America, now the animals count on a new friend --social networks -- to defend them. AFP PHOTO/EZEQUIEL BECERRA

It seems that it’s not just humans who are benefiting from 3-D printing technology. Animals too are now taking advantage of it. This includes a toucan that had a beak printed for her.

Tieta the toucan was rescued from an illegal animal market stall. The top part of her beak was broken, as you can see, most probably after mistreatment at the hands of wildlife traffickers. For Tieta, that meant she couldn’t eat or clean her feathers properly. Then, Brazilian researchers decided to save Tieta by 3-D printing a new beak. It took researchers a couple of months to perfect the fake beak, but just three days for Tieta to get used to it. She’s now happily back to eating bugs.

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