Chester Zoo Red BoP at Chester

Writhedhornbill

Writhedhornbill

Well-Known Member
What is the situation with red BoP at Chester now the hen has died?
Will they be getting another Hen?
Will they change species of BoP?

I love red BoP, and would like Chester to keep the species in the collection.
 
Have they lost their female? do you know when this happened and why?

It wont be easy to get the hold of a new female I would guess, many places which keeps it has just a pair and a odd bird at best, just a handful places seems to keep more than 2-3 birds. Maybe taking a female from a place which has not had any breeding sucess?
 
No, Chris_Walton told me on another thread. The best zoo to take new BoPs from would be one of the American zoos that have recently had Chicks. There have been four born over there recently.
 
I think that before getting a new, super rare female, they should evaluate what went wrong with the first female. These birds are just too precious. Get a new one only when you are sure that you can keep her alive and get her to breed, otherwise it would be the better choise to send the male BoP to more experienced, more sucessful holders.
 
It seems to me that female birds of paradise do not do as well as males in zoos. There does not seem to be any logical reason for this, but many collections seem to have males only. Both hens at Chester died, possibly the latest female was elderly.

I hope they bring in another species, but I expect they will keep the males and wait to see if any more females become available. It would be nice if they had 2.2
 
That would be great Rob.

The female was quite old I think, as she had been kept at Bronx for quite a while before moving to Central ark. Then she moved back to Bronx and then to Chester.
 
bongorob said:
It seems to me that female birds of paradise do not do as well as males in zoos. There does not seem to be any logical reason for this
Click to expand...

It may be that more males are born, like in many species in zoos. There are ways to prevent this.

Other may be that zoos tend to keep breeding groups of several females with one male. So immature males need to be send elsewhere.

BoPs are great creatures, pity that so rare outside New Guinea. Is there any zoo which actually has a lek of several BoP males in one aviary? Somewhere in Asia?
 
Their was talk of soem coming fom Singapore just before the Bird Flu struck last year the it all went quite.
 
sorry i have not heard any plans of brining in new stock but will find out

forgot to say the hornbill chick also died but they are nesting again
 
This is sad news about the hornbill chick, but I believe it`s common that hornbills need serveral tries before they are experienced enough to raise their chicks. It is very encouraging that the chick hatched and survived for some time, I am sure they will have more sucess soon.
 
I guess you mean the tarictic hornbill Penelopides chick? :confused:

Re BoP: I think that these should only be kept in pairs as they are hugely territorial and males do not sit easy with oneanother in the same enclosure. Could it not be that the female is simply being harassed to much and that may have been the cause of death? At Al Wabra, Qatar all birds of paradise species (6 in all and breeding) are kept in pair situations ONLY.
 
I completely understand Chris, The zoo doesn't really want this sort of information circling do they, and to be honest, as long as it doesn't happen again, it's not really our business....

I was only asking really to try and find out whether it was something that could have been avoided or not....

I also hope that the zoo will keep the species, as they are, in my opinion, one of the nicer BoP species.

Are there any plans in place currently to change the species or bring in some more individuals?
 
chris_walton said:
the female did not die of stress according to the pm
Click to expand...

Chris,

It would be interesting to learn if Chester know about the breeding success and methods of BoP's keeping at Al Wabra, Qatar? If not, perhaps we can suggest they contact them for more info or even a female red bird of paradise. :)
 
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