Fort Worth still has them listed on the website so they may still hold the species. No sign of them on Jacksonville's website.
Harpy Eagles in North American Zoos
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Fort Worth still has them listed on the website so they may still hold the species. No sign of them on Jacksonville's website.
Thanks @ThylacineAlive and @Great Argus. Kinda sounds like all 3 zoos might have phased them out then, unfortunately... and I haven't heard of other places that have acquired them besides maybe DWA (I don't know how long they have held harpy eagle).
Right now there are only 2 facilities actively breeding them. San Diego with their prolific breeding pair, and Miami, who's breeding pair are siblings produced by the San Diego pair. The majority of the other birds are all out of San diegos pair, Dallas World has a wild caught female, and I think there is one other, but that's it. The entire US population stands around 20 birds, in both private and public hands.
It would be interesting to look at compared statistics (how many birds, # of holding facilities, breeding success, etc) for the extra large raptors like Harpy, Steller's Sea Eagle, and the condors. With the possible exception of Andean Condor none of them are common, though it seems many of us would like to see more of them. From what I understand, space is an limiting factor for many zoos and small number of breeding pairs plagues most of the species. Seems to me many zoos have gone for the readily available rehabbed Balds and Goldens, rather than put effort into Harpies, Crowned Eagles, hawk-eagles, Bateleurs, etc. Barely a handful of Martials, Wedge-tails, and White-tails remain. California Condor will hang on in the Southwest I expect since the species still needs the support, and Andean Condor is perhaps the only relatively successful extra-large raptor in the US. King vulture seems to be holding, and some of the large African species like Ruppell's and Cape are getting some support, but even their numbers aren't large. Personally I would like to see Bald and Golden eagles shunted to the smaller facilities that don't necessarily have the space or expertise to work with the larger raptors, and see more effort put into the rarer species.
Large raptors have historically been somewhat hard to breed - actually most large, long-lived birds have proved difficult to breed. Most species have only survived as long as they have because individual birds can live for decades; many zoo vultures, for example, are either wild-caught from decades earlier or bred from one or two prolific pairs. Similar situation with storks, toucans, hornbills, etc.
Too true sadly. Giant tortoises are the same way. Gorillas and elephants were that way as well for a long time.
I’ve visited Jacksonville in 2013 and 2016 and neither time were harpies on display.
It seems like elephants are still that way to some degree, unfortunately, while gorilla breeding is now quite standard and usual. Giant tortoises, it's hard to tell; they can overproduce offspring so easily that to let more than one pair nationwide breed a clutch per year could end up pushing the population over capacity.
Having grown up with San Diego's collection I'm always surprised at how rare certain species are when visiting other facilities; a fact that is often reinforced of late! Though, I was surprised to see that San Diego had Steller's Sea Eagles on display. Previously I had only seen them at the Woodland Park Zoo.
Anybody who will house more Bateleurs will get my patronage!
I would readily support this so long as the facilities in question had appropriate aviaries for them. Denver Zoo, for example, needs a lot more space for their Andeans. I'm not sure what the point is if you can't see them fly.
I visited Dallas and DWA last year and both still had them. I could have sworn I saw one at Fort Worth, but I'm not finding documentation of it so maybe I'm misremembering? I completely fell in love with them.
Edit: Found the photo from Fort Worth.
Edit: Found the photo from Fort Worth.
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I'm not sure what the native range was to begin with, but Oregon Zoo and World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho might fall outside of it.
If you go back into the Pleistocene, they could be found from New York to California.
Range of California Condor circa 1800:
A lot further North than I would have expected. Makes you wonder why they haven't spread out more.
~Thylo
Yeah, that's why I wasn't sure how to answer. I knew that they lived all across the continent before humans arrived on the continent, but after that I believe they were restricted to the western states.
If you mean the ones that have been released and are living in the wild, I don't think there are enough of them for that to happen. I was told by a condor expert that the release groups at Pinnacles NP and in southern California act sort of like "meta-flocks"; they might travel hundreds of miles in search of food, but they will tend to nest and congregate together rather than colonizing new areas. Maybe once there's enough of them to hit critical mass and induce competition for resources they will spread on their own, but until then you'd probably need a controlled release at a northern site to reintroduce them.