Zootierliste numbers: Germany's obsession with small parrots

SusScrofa

SusScrofa

Well-Known Member
I've been looking through Zootierliste numbers, and when it comes to smaller species of parrots there's a staggering number of German holders (20 and usually more), especially when compared to the USA and UK, the two other large and well-represented zoo nations.
  • Budgerigar (G: 314, US: 79, UK: 66)
  • Fischer's Lovebird (G: 91, US: 11, UK: 8)
  • Black-cheeked Lovebird (G:22, US: 1, UK: 24)
  • Masked Lovebird (G: 82, US: 2, UK: 8)
  • Rosy-faced Lovebird (G: 115, US:10, UK: 29)
  • Red-crowned Parakeet/Kakariki (G: 82, US: 2, UK: 12)
  • Turquoise Parrot (G: 20, US: 0, UK: 0)
  • Bourke Parrot (G: 33, US: 5. UK: 5)
  • Crimson Rosella (G: 65, US: 1, UK: 6)
  • Eastern Rosella (G: 137, US: 7, UK: 12)
  • Rose-ringed Parakeet (G: 120, US: 6, UK: 21)
  • Plum-headed Parakeet (G: 25, US: 6, UK: 3)
  • Derbyan Parakeet (G: 29, US: 3, UK: 7)
  • King Parrot (G: 45, US: 2, UK: 5)
  • Red-winged Parrot (G: 20, US: 1, UK: 1)
  • Princess Parrot (G: 20, US: 4, UK: 7)
  • Regent Parrot (G: 30, US: 3, UK: 3)
  • Superb Parrot (G: 54, US: 1, UK: 9)
  • Red-rumped Parrot (G: 44, US: 0, UK: 6)
  • Cockatiel (G: 295, US: 37, UK: 57)
Numbers may be slightly off as I combined subspecies/breeding forms into one listing and didn't look thoroughly for duplicates, although upon quick inspection it doesn't seem there were many duplicate listings anyways and I'm sure whatever is wouldn't drastically change numbers. Other than BC Lovebirds being found in slightly more UK collections, Germany dominates in holder numbers. I haven't even looked at Macaws, Amazons and other larger parrots but I'm sure Germany does well there too although maybe not as dominant.

I also understand that ZTL isn't precisely accurate and this is certainly the case for the US listings which are still comparably incomplete. But I still doubt when all is said and done the US will have many more holders added to these species.

Germany is an exceptionally zoo-rich nation for its size, I get that. But whats the deal with such a huge number of mini-parrot holders, particularly compared to other countries?
Does Germany have a strong tradition of parrot rearing?
Is there a pop-culture reason for the popularity, like a recognizable parakeet mascot for some sports team or food product?
Are parrot-holding vogelparks in Germany basically the American equivalent of free nature centers found in countless neighborhoods that always have a rehabbed Great Horned Owl and Red-tailed Hawk?

Or are many of the German holders actually just pet shops or private breeders that most would not count even remotely as a quasi-zoological facility (even in very liberal terms).
 
The US listings will be incomplete, 'tis true, but the real factor is probably just that Germany is renowned for the huge number of little bird parks around every second corner. There simply are way more bird collections there.
 
Plus, also major zoos generally have moved away from birds to some degree, especially common species often found in pet shops, which most of these are.
 
Sample bias plays a role here.

ZTL has more complete data for Germany´s obscure little parks than any other country, I guess. This type of small parrots is absent from accredited important zoos that most ZC people prefer to visit. Only when species lists of local little bird parks, children petting corners, rescue centers start to get added to ZTL, they also start to appear.

(btw I´ve just randomly opened listings for regent parrot on ZTL, and 3 out of 9 Czech collections mentioned there were added by me within last 3 months, one is a children teaching zoo open just 3 hours a week to public, one is private collection open on appointment or special days, one is a petting corner in suburbs that has a mixed aviary with surrended pets and regent parrots living there are not even signed.)
 
Jana said:
Sample bias plays a role here.

ZTL has more complete data for Germany´s obscure little parks than any other country, I guess. This type of small parrots is absent from accredited important zoos that most ZC people prefer to visit. Only when species lists of local little bird parks, children petting corners, rescue centers start to get added to ZTL, they also start to appear.

(btw I´ve just randomly opened listings for regent parrot on ZTL, and 3 out of 9 Czech collections mentioned there were added by me within last 3 months, one is a children teaching zoo open just 3 hours a week to public, one is private collection open on appointment or special days, one is a petting corner in suburbs that has a mixed aviary with surrended pets and regent parrots living there are not even signed.)
Click to expand...
It's common-ish in my experience for public places in the UK to have some sort of small bird area.
Not sure how relevant it is to parrots but I remember years ago a public aviary close to a friend's house that had Gouldian Finches, Budgies, and Zebra Finch to my best memory.
And Beale Park's butterfly house had Zebra Finch until some recent point too.
So there are definitely more small birds out there than on ZTL.
 
I’d also argue that the Wild Bird Conservation Act also makes import of many parrot species to the private sector much more difficult compared to Germany. And zoos with imposting power just aren’t interested in importing small (mostly nin-endangered) non-endangered parrots.
 
PossumRoach said:
I’d also argue that the Wild Bird Conservation Act also makes import of many parrot species to the private sector much more difficult compared to Germany. And zoos with imposting power just aren’t interested in importing small (mostly nin-endangered) non-endangered parrots.
Click to expand...
These are all very common aviary birds (in the original post), so importing doesn't come into it. They are already easily available.
 
I've been looking at the ZTL zoo index for Germany and its easy to see even from a quick glance the tiny bird parks are extremely abundant as @Chlidonias said. There are often only a dozen species or less at these parks but they usually have some combination of the above small parrots with Zebra Finches also being another extremely common species at these facilities (around 200 German holders of wild-type/pet morphs of the species). These types of parks are basically non-existent in the US and from a frequency perspective could be considered the German equivalent of the US nature centers keeping some herps indoors and unreleasable native birds of prey outside. I now wonder why are zebra finches, rosellas and lovebirds in particular so popular in German parks and not other songbird or parrot species? In the US, Ara macaws and the Yellow-headed/naped/crowned Amazons are the go-to parrot species and if you compare numbers between US and Germany for those species, the difference is minimal and sometimes the US even has a higher total by a good amount. Small US facilities don't seem to care about songbirds so there is no species that would be an equivalent to Zebra Finches, which are comparably rare here. From what I read, rosellas and lovebirds can also be aggressive so I don't know if they'd provide an advantage for mixed species pairings for example. But I don't have experience with these birds.

@birdsandbats While true that the US listings on ZTL are still a work in progress and I actually do personally know of a couple of zoos here holding some of the parrot species above that haven't been added to the database yet, I'm quite certain that even a 100% complete US database won't change the discrepancy in numbers (I can also say for certain that some US holders are outdated and no longer holding some of the species they list, though this could be the case for Germany as well). I've visited many zoos, even small and obscure places, on the east coast of the US and there simply are few if any zoos keeping these species, and I see no reason the midwest or west coast would be different. So even if in the best case scenario a dozen or so US holders are added to one of the rosella or lovebird species, the difference compared to Germany with its sometimes 100+ holders would still be stark.

@PossumRoach I'm not aware of the details of the Wild Bird Conservation Act. But aren't most of the parrot species on the above list readily available in the private trade and bred in captivity? I'm sure lovebirds and rosellas are at least. But it seems if a US facility is going to keep a parrot it will be an Ara macaw or a select few Amazona species.
 
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