Secretary Bird At German Zoo Walks With 3D Printer Leg

There is one artificial leg for Soeckchen the secretary bird in a park at Walsrode, northern Germany. The leg created with a 3D printer is helping the bird to move on her own.

It happened at the Weltvogelpark bird park in Walsrode, where the two-year-old secretary bird, Soeckchen (Little Socks) hopped around in an aviary with a left leg that was broken. It had to get amputated.

The zookeepers tapped Lars Thalmann of e-Nable, who is involved in making free prosthetic hands for children. But it was the first time a request for a prosthesis for an animal - in this case, the secretary bird -was put forward, according to AP.

However, it could not be fixed right away, said the park spokeswoman Janina Buse. They had to try it twice. The first prosthesis that was based on the secretary bird's leg's form was too heavy. Hence, Thalmann created the second leg with no talons. "It looks much simpler, but the bird is managing brilliantly with it," she said.

What makes the event interesting is a few facts about the secretary bird. The species has an intriguing snake-hunting ability. It can simply kick a snake to death with a powerful force that is about five times its body weight.

There are a number of other facts too about secretary birds that make them very interesting. They are called by the interesting name due to the "quill-like crests" behind their heads that look like 18th-century clerks with real pens tucked into their artificial wigs, according to Animal Corner.

This Sagittarius serpentarius species is a huge raptor that has special relations with hawks and eagles. It is a large, terrestrial bird of prey that lives in the open grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa - unless it is in a zoo in Germany and other countries, of course!