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A flamingo chick from last year being raised by her mother in the Safari Park.

Five newly-hatched flamingo chicks are being hand-reared by keepers after the eggs were abandoned by their parents during a violent thunderstorm.

The chicks' parents fled their nests at Longleat Safari Park when they were spooked by a huge clap of thunder brought on by the recent heat wave.

Adult flamingos build a volcano-shaped nest and lay a single egg, which they then usually sit on for around a month.

But if they leave the nest they don't return - so keepers at the Wiltshire attraction were forced to intervene to save the chicks.

They are now using syringes to feed the endangered Chilean flamingos five times a day after the eggs were artificially hatched in an incubator.