How about a heartwarming story about an airline attendant from Alaska Airlines who went far above and beyond her flight responsibilities to help save six rare Chilean flamingo eggs on their flight from the Atlanta Zoo to Seattle?
Meet flight attendant Amber May, and the heartwarming story of how she helped out when a passenger asked her for help with eggs. At first, Amber thought the passenger wanted to have her eggs served to her warmed up, but that wasn’t the story at all!
According to Alaska Airlines, it had been a zoo employee who told Amber the incubator she was carrying with her, keeping the flamingo eggs warm had stopped working. It was then the flight attendant rushed to help and filled several rubber gloves with warm water and handed them to the passenger who then wrapped the eggs in a makeshift nest to keep them warm during the five hour flight.
Neighboring passengers on board the plane offered their jackets, sweaters and scarves to wrap around the nest to keep the eggs warm. Amber and the other attendants took turns filling the gloves with warm water, and when the flight arrived in Seattle, the passenger caring for the eggs thanked everyone and was optimistic all the eggs would hatch.
And, according to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, the efforts of the flight crew and the compassionate passengers made the difference. Six chicks – four females and two males hatched about a month later.
Incidentally, these flamingoes are quite rare and are a near threatened species – they were the first Chilean flamingos to hatch at the zoo since 2016. It is hope to help raise the reproductive success since of the 48 flamingoes already at the zoo, many of the birds are older and no longer laying eggs.
And now for the really cool part for Amber. The zoo was so appreciative of the help, because the eggs never would have survived without the help of the crew and passengers, Amber visited the zoo and was invited to name one of the male chicks and meet all of them last November.
Amber arrived at the zoo with her six-month-old granddaughter whose name is Sunny, and so she decided to name the chick “Sunny.” Her grandmother intends to return when her granddaughter is a bit older and explain to her how the six chicks got a little help from their friends.
Follow the National Pet Rescue on Facebook for the latest animal related news.
