Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a toucan as a pet? It’s not as easy as having a parakeet, as 35-year-old Janelle Tsao discovered after adopting Touki two years ago.
Since then, Touki has become a TikTok sensation, growing some 600,000 followers for her @ToukiTheToucan account. The exotic bird has separation anxiety, which means Janelle from Los Angeles hasn’t been on vacation since and can’t leave the house without asking another adult to supervise her flying friend of two years.
In addition to not being able to separate, touki the colorful bird has recently become the subject of many conversations after the posting of a video in which his translucent neck is shown.
“What does ‘I can see through you’ mean?” Could be read in the video posted by Janelle on TikTok, as she lifted Touki’s neck plumage with her fingers.
In the video, you can see that a part of the toucan’s anatomy seemed to be hollow. The video immediately gave a lot to talk about. So much so that it went viral with more than 12 million views and thousands of comments.
In the images, Touki’s skin appears to be translucent, making it possible to see through it, as well as exposing the spine and nerves of the bird. After the hit video and being faced with an avalanche of questions, Janelle decided to share a new video explaining in more detail.
According to Janelle’s explanation, the neck of the bird has thin and translucent skin that reveals both its spine and its veins, and muscles.
Janelle and her girlfriend Arielle Zarutsky fell in love with exotic wildlife during a trip to Las Vegas, so their hearts were completely stolen when they spotted Touki at a breeder in June 2019, when he was just a few weeks old.
Fortunately, the couple was well aware that toucans are not your average pet – they need a huge amount of space to spend their time. They’re also extremely territorial and monogamous, so only bond to one other animal or human, which is why the level of anxiety when they separate.
