Antarctic bird species in Sea World facilities

splendens

splendens

Well-Known Member
I found these pretty unique articles on the rearing of antarctic bird species from eggs collected in the wild in the 1970s and 1980s. The species raised were two spp. of gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus), rockhopper (Eudyptes crestatus), macaroni (E. chryso!ophus), and Magellanic (Sphenicus magel/anicus) southern giant petrels (Macronectes giganteus) antarctic terns (Sterna vittata), kelp gulls (Larus dorninicanus), brown skuas (Catharacta lonnhergi) cape petrels (Daption capense), blue-eyed shags (Phaacrocorax atriceps), and the snowy sheathbill (Chionis albus).

The eggs were collected from the wild and quarantined in san diego where they were raised and kept in the penguin encounter and sent to other sea world facilities. Eggs were obtained in chile Nelson Island, South Shetland Islands the Cape Horn sector and the Falkland islands. Hundreds were hatched and fledged though a malfunction in an incubator thermometer allowed the temperatures to reach 112 degrees killing all eggs and chicksin that incubator. Most species were exhibited in the penguin encounter though one article mentions the giant petrels who were still growing to be extremely aggresive. It is mentioned the san diego and ohio facilities would specialize on high antarctic species while the others would focus on sub antarctic species.

View the pdf for the full article
From Antarctica to San Diego - by Egg | AFA Watchbird
https://s3.amazonaws.com/Antarctica/AJUS/AJUSvXXIIn5/AJUSvXXIIn5p229.pdf

Not sure if creating this thread is allowed. Please delete if necessary. Sorry for any inconvenience.
 
ZTL lists no sheathbills in ZTL collections.
The black-faced sheathbill was kept in 4 collections (Berlin, Cologne, Duisburg and London) and the pale-faced sheathbill was kept in 5 collections (Berlin Tierpark and Zoo, the earlier Hamburg Zoo, London and Moscow)
 
Very interesting!

Books about bird keeping generally say that petrels, sheathbills or skuas were never kept in human care. Terns and cormorants are difficult. And here is a whole list of unique species.

How many were reared? How they were kept? How long they lived? Did any of the birds attempted to breed themselves? Any photos?

Numerous seabirds are endangered, and I imagine experience can be important for conservation. E.g. rearing endangered petrels or terns from deserted nests, or moving seabird colonies to places safe from introduced predators.
 
It was mentioned that several hundred chicks hatched and presumably fledged so they probably lived to adulthood though many eggs and chicks perished in an incubator malfunction. The articles did not mention breeding.

Photos of birds such as the terns, petrel, shags and penguins and details on rearing can be found in the two links in the thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top