It is said that science and technology benefit mankind. With the development of all kinds of science and technology, even animals can enjoy the convenience brought by science and technology.
For example, the red-crowned crane "Li Li" would not be fun if it were not for the maturity of 3D printing technology.
It happened in 2016. Lili fought with his companions in a crowd of cranes, but his force value was too low, and his upper beak was cut off. He looked very miserable. The wound became infected and the staff had to amputate its upper beak, a bit like a human amputation.
You see, the beak is an important organ for predation, social interaction, self-defense, and so on. If this happened in the wild, a broken beak would almost certainly be declared dead. Although Lili is well cared for by the staff, who feed it hundreds of loaches for several hours every day, if this goes on, the disabled Lili can only linger and have no quality of life. Moreover, a healthy red-crowned crane can live for 50 or 60 years, and Li Li was only 6 years old at the time. He would be dependent on human care for the rest of his life, and it is estimated that the most devastated are the feeders.
To cure LiLi, an elite team of doctors and 3D printing companies worked closely together. Birds have been known to evolve hollow bones to keep their weight down in order to take to the skies. For the delicate red-crowned cranes, the first problem is the material of the artificial beak. Not only should it be light and strong, but it should also be resistant to corrosion. After all, red-crowned cranes spend their days fishing with their beaks in the water, which would make a lot of fun if they got rusty.
By choice, the team settled on a titanium alloy, which solved all the problems perfectly. The challenge for 3D printers is to shape the metal into a shape that fits the beak of an upright bird. In order to recreate the bird's beak, the staff made seven accurate measurements from one plastic model back to the other, and finally achieved the perfect iron beak. Next comes the doctor, who inserts a printout of a new bird's beak on top of a broken upper beak that looks like a construction site, to the gawking eyes of the parrots next door. To ensure that Ritri will be able to feed on its own in the future, doctors have carefully fine-tuned its lower beak to look as much like Ritri's original beak as possible. After the operation woke up, LiLi couldn't wait to peck up the fish in the bucket, this time as expected did not miss, artificial beak such as the arm.
