Vienna, Austria

[Note: undated footage]

This is the midwife moment zoo keepers help a brood of adorable ostrich chicks hatch from their thick egg shells with a hammer and a power drill.

The youngsters had been developing inside their incubated shells for more than a month at the Schoenbrunn Zoo, in the city of Vienna, Austria.

Then experts decided to give them a helping hand to emerge from the thick shells of their huge incubated eggs, which are 30 times heavier than a chicken egg.
Extraordinary footage shows keepers giving the youngsters a helping hand as they pierce the shells with a power drill last month.

A hammer can be seen standing by to take on any exceptionally tough eggs.

As the hatchlings emerged they are popped back into their incubator at a constant 35 degrees Celsius until they're dry and strong enough to emerge.

The chicks, North African red-necked ostriches, were finally allowed out to explore their enclosure.

Video footage of their first steps from 5th June shows them tucking into special high protein pellets as they graze through the undergrowth.

The chicks are already showing off the voracious appetite that gives the ostrich its reputation for eating almost anything.

And as they trot around the enclosure they're displaying the powerful legs that enable their wild relatives to run at up to 70 kph (43mph) on the African savannas.
Keepers later told how they were from the first clutch of eggs for their mum and dad since they arrived at the zoo in 2021.

A European conservation breeding programme for the highly endangered bird outside of its natural habitat aims to boost numbers.