Seabirds in Zoos: Those Really Seabirds (except Penguins), with Functional Salt Gland

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Nikola Chavkosk

Well-Known Member
Hi Zoochatters,

I was wondering, what species of sea birds would be more common in zoos and that are regularly bred and propagated in zoos? I suppose they are quite care-intensive species. Do zoos holding them provide them salt water? I can not even list a dozen of such species. Frigatebird? Albatroses? Gulls? Those white birds flying long time without a rest? Different Charadriformes species?
I checked Zootierliste, there are no holders of frigatebirds or boobies...in Europe. There are however 69 holders of Eurasian oystercatcher in Europe.
 
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There are a fair variety of Charadriiformes being maintained in zoos - at Bristol they have Pied Avocet and Redshank, and they have also kept Ruff. Black-Winged Stilt is also a common ehibit species. At Slimbridge they have off-show a group of Spoonbilled Sandpipers that they managed to get eggs to hatching last year, although the young did not survive. Bristol also has Inca Tern and at Torquay Living coasts has several waders, Guillemot and Tufted Puffin as well. I doubt that the aerial species like Frigatebirds or Tropic birds could be successfully kept, but the main bar to keeping the others would be aggression or territoriality when breeding.
 
There's a Laysan albatross at the Monterey Aquarium. She lives behind the scenes and comes out for daily education demonstrations. I think that she is the only albatross on exhibit anywhere.
 
Thanks.
-Bristol zoo seems quite dedicated to sea birds

I was under false impression that frigatebirds can do quite well in captivity.
-Are there frigatebirds in San Diego zoo?
 
Gulls, terns, auks, garnets, Coastal pelicans, cormorants, marine ducks. Birdworld had skuas also.

Not as easy as you think though Rotterdam's Bass Rock is impressive and Huachipa has something similar for Peruvian coast seabirds.

Gulls (and skuas) are generally boisterous and a threat to other seabirds - exceptions are kittiwakes, grey and laughing gulls and the freshwater black headed gull. This is probably why they aren't more common. The coastal pelicans are not as safe as zoos seem to think either based on examples of them preying on other birds, and (very rarely) large cormorants prey on small birds (fledgling?) in the wild.

Auks are ostensibly difficult, I read. Gannets have had problems trying to dive into the deep pools. Shags seem harder than great cormorants (why?) . And yes, even the relatively easy elders can succumb to freshwater diseases without salt in their pool.

Elders, Inca terns, then cormorants, sulids and steamer ducks seem most common swimming/diving birds in zoos other than penguins. As a "taxon" the marine birds seem to be hard.

Where did the guanay cormorants go in Europe? And would it be too hard to import them again and Peruvian boonies and grey gulls, to fill out an exhibit with Humboldt's penguins and Inca terns?
 
SealPup said:
Gulls (and skuas) are generally boisterous and a threat to other seabirds - exceptions are kittiwakes, grey and laughing gulls and the freshwater black headed gull. This is probably why they aren't more common.
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I would hesitate to include Grey Gull in that list; I am given to understand they are pretty vicious to other species too - this being why Living Coasts no longer keeps them I believe.

SealPup said:
Where did the guanay cormorants go in Europe?
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The last ones in Europe died of old age a few years back.
 
I was just thinking that grey gulls are piscivores and are common in mixed species zoo aviaries: ofc that might prove only that initial mistakes spread like a meme. Whilst most debates on the ethics of zoos are rooted in principle, the ethics of mixed species displays are more about incompetence, both thoughtlessness and inability or disinterest to learn from mistakes.

Seaside Cinclodes might be a good aviary bird too. Any around? Zoos these days do not bother with small passerines.
 
In the US, puffins and Inca terns are both kept in large numbers at many institutions. Common murre is another species that is held in a few places. Eiders, auks, auklets, pelicans, cormorants, and some (but not many) gulls are around too.

San Diego Zoo does not have frigatebirds, nor do I know of any place in the US that does.
 
Sealife Park Hawaii does.

I've been holding off posting here, but now that I am might as well say this too.

If you bothered to actually do even the simplest search of the forum, Nikola Kavkosk, you would see that there have been a number of topics posted with the exact same question, with excellent replies. However you seem to be to lazy have have bothered looking what so ever, despite the extreme ease of such a search (frigatebird or gannet, for instance, would register a hit for one of the threads very quickly.)
 
People starting with forums might be confused by being asked to search. I remember having to be shown.

Also on a mobile device I myself prefer not to search on forums. Cross referencing threads works best on a desktop with a mouse.

On some browsers search functions on some forum software don't even work.

So there are reasons people don't search first.
 
I can think of northern gannets in Europe right now, which should be present in a dozen or so collections in Europe (too lazy to check haha) , which is not bad for a ''seabird species''.
 
Some seabirds do very well in captivity and I have kept several species, including Giant Petrel, Southern Skua and Lesser Frigate Bird for periods of over a year. There are however many pelagic species that are not suited to captivity, such as many of the petrels, and I doubt the ability or ethics of trying to keep these.
 
Carl Jones said:
Some seabirds do very well in captivity and I have kept several species, including Giant Petrel, Southern Skua and Lesser Frigate Bird for periods of over a year. There are however many pelagic species that are not suited to captivity, such as many of the petrels, and I doubt the ability or ethics of trying to keep these.
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Grey Gulls seem to be well established at Paignton Zoo, and at least one private collection in the UK.
There was a Frigatebird at Avilon Zoo in Manila when I visited in November.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
In the US, puffins and Inca terns are both kept in large numbers at many institutions. Common murre is another species that is held in a few places. Eiders, auks, auklets, pelicans, cormorants, and some (but not many) gulls are around too.

San Diego Zoo does not have frigatebirds, nor do I know of any place in the US that does.
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Which eiders are commonly kept?
 
Coelacanth18 said:
King and spectacled eiders. Neither are common though, both are only at a very small number of facilities each.
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In Europe the Common Eider is by far the most common, with the nominate subspecies being the most common, but some of the others are being kept as well. King and Spectacled are being kept but in low numbers.
 
a partial list:
Atlantic puffin: Omaha, Sea World [San Antonio, San Diego]
common murre: Omaha, Sea World [San Antonio, San Diego]
horned puffin: North Carolina, St Louis
parakeet auklet: North Carolina
rhino auklet: Sea World [San Diego]
thickbill murre: North Carolina
tufted puffin: Bronx, Omaha, Sea World [San Antonio, San Diego], St Louis
doublecrest cormorant: Abilene, National Aviary, San Diego, Smithsonian, St Louis, Waco
Guanay cormorant: Bronx
olivaceous cormorant: Tyler
whitebreast cormorant: Dallas, New Orleans, San Diego
African dater: San Diego
anhinga: Abilene, Bronx, New Orleans
Pacific eider: Ft Worth
king eider: St Louis
smew: Bronx, Ft Worth, Houston, National Aviary, OKC, Pinola, San Diego, Smithsonian, St Louis
Steller sea eagle: Ft Worth, National Aviary, San Diego
whitetail sea eagle: Alexandria
magnificent frigatebird: TX State Aquarium
Franklin gull: Abilene, Waco
grey gull: Bronx
herring gull: Ft Worth, Waco
laughing gull: Albequerque, Bronx, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Tyler, Waco
ringbill gull: Abilene, San Antonio, Tulsa, Tyler, Waco
silver gull: National Aviary
American white pelican: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Bronx, Brownsville, Dallas, Ft Worth, Little Rock, San Antonio, San Diego, St Louis, Tulsa, Tyler, Waco
brown pelican: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Bronx, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, Monroe, National Aviary, San Antonio, Sea World [San Antonio], Smithsonian, St Louis, Waco
Dalmatian pelican: Dallas, San Diego
great white pelican: Dallas, Ft Worth, New Orleans, San Diego
Peruvian pelican: Bronx
pinkback pelican: Dallas, Ft Worth, New Orleans, Omaha, San Diego
subantarctic skua: Sea World [San Diego]
Caspian tern: Oklahoma City
common tern: Bronx
Forster tern: Bronx
Inca tern: Bronx, El Paso, National Aviary, Omaha, San Antonio, San Diego, Sea World [San Antonio], Tulsa, Waco
 
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