Doctors from the People's Hospital in Muchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, performed an operation to give an artificial beak to a crested ibis (Nipponia Nippon), a rare and endangered bird.

On February 8, a male ibis broke is beak during a fierce battle fighting for the female ibis attention. The necrotic wound was long as eight centimeters from the front of its lower beak and it had to be cut off. Without it, the lower beak lacks support and the bird was unable to eat on its own or comb its feathers, affecting his courtship signal. 

Giving him an artificial beak became the best solution to the bird's problem as it could not bear the weight of titanium alloy, which was used on a red-crowned crane at the same occasion. 

Through comparison, it was discovered that PEEK material for human bones was the most suitable, for it weighs only a quarter of titanium alloy and has a texture that is closer to that of a real beak, being an overall better match.

The non-toxic, corrosion-resistant and high-temperature resistant material also shows good stress resistance and hydrolytic stability.

"No matter how difficult it is," said Wu Yongzhong, staff member at a breeding center in Muchuan, "we need to find a way."

After six mold tests, the 3D-printed PEEK artificial beak finally arrived in Muchuan. The next day, the bird underwent surgery for less than an hour. The doctors gave the animal an anaesthetic and cleaned the wound before bonding the cross section. They also drilled and threaded, polished and adjusted the new body part.

The ibis was even given a black mask to prevent it from getting frightened, and slowly woke up to its "new tool."

This was the first time the hospital used an artificial beak. Because the succulent membrane in the middle of the ibis' jaws is very thin and covered with capillaries, the procedure is very difficult. As a result, doctors needed to be exceptionally careful.

Equivalent to a human joint replacement, it needs fixed surgery and a recovery period. The new beak installed weighs around six grams.

Although the operation was highly successful, it will take some time for the ibis to recover and is currently under observation.

The video has gone viral on China's social media platform. Some netizens joked that the bird must have fallen deeply in love with the female ibis to have even broken its beak.

The crested ibis is the nation's first-class protected animal and it is globally endangered. According to thecover.cn, there are more than 4,000 of them in China and 68 reside in the breeding center in Muchuan, Sichuan, where it can be monitored and taken care of.