Cassowary in the UK over the last 25 years

johnstoni.

johnstoni.

Well-Known Member
25 years ago, you could still see single-wattled and Bennett's cassowaries at London zoo, double-wattled cassowaries at many collections no longer keeping them today such as Port Lympne, Marwell, and Birdworld. For a short period before they closed, Rode bird gardens also kept cassowary.

I'm interested in how little they have bred, at which collections they have been successful, and what the future holds for this species in the UK and Europe. As a fairly long-lived species, maybe there only needs to be a few institutions in Europe breeding cassowary each year?

As far as I can tell, the last successful UK breeding was around 8 years ago at Paignton, can anyone confirm whether there have been any chicks raised since 2003? Before then, Birdworld raised a single chick in 1994, then another in 1995, but sometime after that went out of the species altogether. Edinburgh appear to have have success in the late 70s/early 80s. Is that it for UK collections?

Currently, I am aware of the following UK site with cassowary listed on ISIS:

Paignton 1.0.2 It has been stated elsewhere on this site that they have 0.1 breeding female (hatched 1984) and her 1.0 son hatched 2003, but ISIS list 1.0.2.

Chester 1.1 when did these arrive, and where are they from?

Bristol 1.1 I believe are a pair of breeding age, arriving shortly after Wendy the elephant died, and the okapis moved to her paddock. The cassowary are in the former okapi paddock.

Edinburgh 1.1 Did these arrive in the last few years? Someone on here stated that the female laid her first clutch last year, but that it was infertile.

Blackbrook 1.1

Birdland 1.1 Someone on here reported to have seen a single, old animal, but ISIS still report 1.1, has anyone seen a new pair or are there still two, perhaps one was off-show?

Twycross are no longer listed as having cassowary, although a photo of one said to have arrived in 2009 is in the gallery.

Fife Animal Park state that they have Cassowary on their website, which surprises me given the lack of ESB/EEP managed species in their collection.

Hamerton Zoo Park don't list either, but I'm aware they keep cassowary, do they have 1.1 or just a single bird?

Any information in addition to the above would be appreciated.
 
I sure that Bristol had a chick some time between 2004 and 2007 but can’t find any info on the internet.
 
Blackbrook and Birdland both have a single bird now of the opposite sex to each other,last I heard they were talking about which collection was going to send there respective bird to the other collection!

Twycross did have a young bird which I believe was a male arrive in 2009,but this was moved on to another collection in 2010,cannot remember which.They have no current plans to go back into them.

Hamerton I'm not sure if they have a pair or not I have only seen a single bird on by 2 visit's last year,have not been yet this year.
 
I presume the remaining specimen at Birdland is the survivor of the pair that arrived from Rode following the sad closure of that magical place? When did Dudley stop keeping Cassowaries? I have not been since 2000.
 
thanks for the information.

I can't find any records of Paignton breeding cassowary since 2003....although not every years annual report is available online since then. However an article on their site states that they have reared 17 cassowaries over the last 30 years. They appear to have had 5 birds until about 2009, and now just have 2 or 3, unfortunately someone else suggested on here that only the female from the breeding pair now survives, and I guess this pair were the key to their success.

Dudley seemed to stop keeping cassowary only around 2 years ago. I am assuming the birds were quite old.
 
Johnny Morris. said:
Paignton had one female and its (male i think) 8 year old offspring last week.
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Is it possible that a third (as listed on ISIS) bird is held somewhere offshow? I'm assuming there are offshow paddocks at Paignton given they held up to 7 birds simultaneously at points over the last 10 years.

It would seem that a compatible pair that mate successfully is the key to success with this species, rather than specific institutions having success with multiple or successive pairings. I'm also sort of posing that as a question. I suppose if Paignton continue to do breeding from other individuals then that would prove my assumption wrong.

Would anyone know whether the majority of cassowary bred at Paignton were parent-reared? I have read online documents for hand-rearing protocols devised (and I assume trialled) by Paignton, but I've seen photographs of cassowary chicks with an adult at Paignton taken in the last 10-15 years.
 
futurekeeper said:
i think that paignton is one of the biggest breeders in europe with madrid?? a year or 2 ago they had 7 or 8 there
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As far as I am aware, (one of the?) biggest breeder(s) in Europe is Avifauna (Alphen a/d Rijn, NL), which also holds the ESB.

They breed either yearly or almost yearly for at least the past decade (most probably longer).
 
Also, it was suggested elsewhere on here that the RSCC was intending to keep cassowary at one stage, I think I even remember seeing them listed on the old website, but to my knowledge they never acquired any, does anyone know any different?
 
Paignton did have several birds on my last visit (2009). The current situation with Cassowary in european collections is being investigated by the curator of birds at Paignton with a view to determine the sub-specific status of those birds currently held in captivity. So it would seem that any movement of birds and any breeding of birds could be subject to the findings of that investigation and research , which is likely to take some time.
Many collections did keep single birds , purely for exhibit purposes on the whole with little effort to establish breeding pairs , Birdworld , Paignton , Dudley and Edinburgh were the main zoos making concerted efforts to breed their Cassowaries in the past.
 
I believe Paignton's 27 year old female passed away at the weekend, and that there are 'some' off show. I have no details.
 
Thank-you.

Concerning the earlier query about the rearing of chicks at Paignton, one of the television programmes about the zoo (Zoo Story) featured film of a keeper exercising chicks that were being hand-reared.
 
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