Staff at vulture conservation organisation Vulpro at Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape were celebrating the hatching of an endangered Cape Vulture chick this week - the first to be born in captivity in the province.

A tiny, pink, wrinkled Cape Vulture chick hatched at the Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday 11 June, bringing with it hope that an ambitious plan for the survival of the species will work.

By Wednesday afternoon, staff at the game reserve were waiting for a second chick to make its appearance.

Vulpro CEO Kerri Wolter said the "tiny yet mighty chick" was a huge milestone for their project to restore vulture populations.

The eggs are hatched in incubators, mom birds are given fake eggs to sit on, and then the hatched chicks are returned to the mom bird as researchers found that where vultures are held in an enclosure, others scratching around will sometimes break the eggs. She said at this stage they can't tell the sex of the hatchling.

Vulpro is the only vulture conservation organisation of its kind in Africa and is spearheading population restocking and supplementation to address the severe decline of African vulture species.

Also read in Daily Maverick: Reversing the Red -- the battle to halt species extinction in South Africa

As adorable as the newcomer is, Wolter said they do not name the birds as they will be released...