Polish scientists are coming to the aid of a zoo penguin that lost its beak in a fight or a fall by using a 3D printer to create a new one.
Keepers at Warsaw Zoo say that, without a new bill, the animal's chances of survival are slim because it can no longer preen or feed itself.
Now a company distributing 3D printers may have saved the day. "We had gone to the zoo to see if they could use any of our 3D technology and didn't know anything about the bird at first," Bartek Jarkiewicz, from MTT Polska, said. "Then they said they had a penguin with a problem and asked if we could come up with a new beak."
Scientists from Omni3D, a Polish producer of printers, have made a 3D scan of a penguin's beak to get an idea of the shape and dimensions needed, and plan to produce the first beak, made out of a hi-tech plastic, next week.