Oxpeckers in captivity
- Thread starter elefante
- Start date
Zootierliste shows two zoos in Germany cuurently keeping Red-billed Oxpecker, and eleven zoos in Europe formerly keeping them; and two zoos in Europe formerly keeping the Yellow-billed Oxpecker.
I have seen an old photo, either in one of the IZYs or one of Hediger's books - I can't remember exactly where - of an oxpecker exhibit in a European zoo where they had a hide stretched over an arched frame as a substitute for an ungulate.
I have seen an old photo, either in one of the IZYs or one of Hediger's books - I can't remember exactly where - of an oxpecker exhibit in a European zoo where they had a hide stretched over an arched frame as a substitute for an ungulate.
This old photo might be taken in Zoo Zurich in Switzerland (to 99% if you have seen it in a Hediger's book). If I remember correctly, then Zoo Zurich was also the first zoo in the world in breeding Red-billed Oxpeckers. Unfortunately they phased out this species somewhere within the 2010s. And yes @elefante, a curator of this zoo told me once, that they have also observed parasitic behavior.
Took care of a small group at Vogelpark Walsrode in the late 1980s.
Recently I've seen them at Hagenbecks Tierpark in Hamburg - both in Germany and in both cases the Red-billed species.
Recently I've seen them at Hagenbecks Tierpark in Hamburg - both in Germany and in both cases the Red-billed species.
Back in the 1960s, London Zoo had an oxpecker exhibit exactly as "Chlidonias" described above.
Pootle
Well-Known Member
Yes the oxpeckers perched on the hide as, in the wild, they would have perched on ungulates.
Oregon Zoo had them in the recent past, not sure about other North American zoos. There's none around in North American zoos now.
What? When?
Gone by 2016 for sure, no signage or any to be seen.
It’s an interesting idea, I wonder how realistic it would be to have a set up similar to the Hippo aviary at Beauval or the Okapi at Rotterdam, but with a more appropriate species. Would whichever species that may be, still be likely to host ticks or mites in a captive setting though?
Oxpeckers don't just eat parasitic invertebrates, they are also parasitic themselves - they open wounds on animals and keep them open to feed upon the blood. You wouldn't want to be keeping them with ungulates in zoos.
I seem to remember hearing one zoo kept them with ungulates in an indoor exhibit?
Edit: This appears to be Zurich, with rhinos? Do they still have this setup?
It's possible they did - I'm just saying it's a bad idea. Also note that direct blood-feeding in oxpeckers is a relatively new discovery (I think), so it probably would also depend on when that zoo did so.
Zurich Zoo definitely kept red-billed oxpeckers with black rhinos. A paper on the subject was published in "Zoo Biology" (September 2004); the paper is available on line but I couldn't copy the link.
Very interesting, and also confirming the potentially parasitic role. Though the authors note that in-situ oxpeckers seem to play different roles to different species. Thanks Tim for the heads up about it and to Chlidonias for finding a readable copy.
I did not know that, definitely sounds like a bad idea in that case!
