Mating songs put endangered Bronx birds in the mood for sex

Love songs worked on a rather low-libido colony of endangered birds in the Bronx, who got into the mood after listening to mushy tunes.

The flock of 21 Waldrapp ibis living at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo had produced no chicks for seven years.

But, after zoo keepers piped in a sexy soundtrack of mating calls recorded halfway around the world, they turned frisky and have hatched six offspring from three sets of parents.

And it is a great accomplishment, as the birds are extremely endangered - there are just 400 left in the wild - and rarely reproduce in captivity.

"The whole species is at risk," the New York Daily News quoted Mark Hofling, a zoo ornithologist who oversees the species survival plan for ibis in North America, as saying.

"They had pretty much stopped courtship behaviour. They were just going through the motions," said Hofling of the Bronx birds.