White necked rockfowl?

I don't think that any zoo in the world keeps either species of rock fowl. I saw both species at Frankfurt Zoo in the mid 1980s and the white-necked species at Rotterdam Zoo in 1982. Rock fowl are among the world's most unusual birds and it's a pity that no zoo was able to develop a successful breeding population.
 
did the last grey-necked at Frankfurt die? I saw it in 2004 I think it was. I think that may have been the last one in a zoo (at least outside Africa)?
 
According to Zootierliste, the last white-necked rock fowl lived in Frankfurt until 1995. I didn't see any rock fowls when I visited Frankfurt in 2002, although Zootierliste says there was a grey-necked rock fowl there in 2009.

I hope ISIS becomes open access soon, so I can check if any zoos have rock fowl or other animals that are kept outside Europe.
 
I have seen the grey-necked in Frankfurt in 2009. For sure it is not there anymore. Unfortunately.
 
bongorob said:
London have kept them in the past.
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London Zoo was the first zoo to exhibit a grey-necked picathartes; it acquired a specimen in 1948 that had been collected in the Cameroons by Mr. C. S. Webb, London Zoo’s Curator of Mammals and Birds.

Six years later, in 1954, London Zoo became the first zoo to display a white-necked picathartes; this specimen was collected on a joint BBC TV – Zoological Society expedition featuring David Attenborough and Jack Lester, London Zoo’s Curator of Reptiles.

I must have seen these birds in London Zoo when I was a very young child in the mid 1950s but have no recollection of seeing them. I saw both species of picathartes in Frankfurt Zoo many times over the years; they were always amongst my favourites there.
 
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Tim May said:
London Zoo was the first zoo to exhibit a grey-necked picathartes; it acquired a specimen in 1948 that had been collected in the Cameroons by Mr. C. S. Webb, London Zoo’s Curator of Mammals and Birds.

Six years later, in 1954, London Zoo became the first zoo to display a white-necked picathartes; this specimen was collected on a joint BBC TV – Zoological Society expedition featuring David Attenborough and Jack Lester, London Zoo’s Curator of Reptiles.
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Following on from my earlier post, a little more detail that might be of interest:-

In his book “A Wanderer in the Wind. The Odyssey of an Animal Collector” (1953) Cecil S. Webb describes how he acquired the first ever captive picathartes; he purchased it from a worker on a rubber plantation who caught it (surprisingly unharmed) in a trap set for brush-tailed porcupine.

The spring 1954 edition of “Zoo Life” includes an article on picathartes by J. J. Yealland, Curator of Birds at London Zoo; this article confirms the grey-necked picathartes, from Webb's 1948 collecting trip, was still alive at the zoo when the white-necked picathartes was received from the Attenborough / Lester expedition.

The same edition of “Zoo Life” includes an article by David Attenborough on the expedition to Sierra Leone that obtained the white-necked picathartes. Apparently this bird was initially hard to feed until Jack Lester discovered its fondness for small frogs; it had a prodigious appetite for these and would eat twenty in quick succession until it was eventually weaned onto a diet of pieces of meat and mealworms.
 
Gerald Durrell tried obtaining white-necked rockfowl as well, during his collecting days in Cameroon. I think this was in "The Bafut Beagles". He found a nest site but there were no chicks at the time, so he was unsuccessful.
 
Re the Attenborough/Lester expedition: I recall recently seeing on YouTube (of all places) a document from Attenborough to the managers at the BBC describing the Lester expedition for the rockfowl, as a proposal for a film series.

:p

Hix
 
Tim May said:
Six years later, in 1954, London Zoo became the first zoo to display a white-necked picathartes;......
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The ZSL Annual Report for 1957 lists that a further three white-necked picathartes were acquired in 1957.
 
white-necked rockfowl in captivity today

Are there any known zoos to keep the rockfowl today? I'm researching the birds and am currently looking for husbandry information.
 
No Picathartes in captivity as far as I know. The last one was the female in Frankfurt that died in 2009? But are you expecting the species to arrive in captivity if you are looking for husbandry guidelines?
 
I wouldn't say "expecting," just curious if there were any guidlines written back when the London Zoo had them, or if any of the African institutions or the German institutions that have/had them have written any husbandry guildlines on the species.

I'd like to see the species as a part of a captive population, especially if the wild population is being thinned out enough to be considered "Vulnerable" by the IUCN.
 
BHolt08 said:
just curious if there were any guidelines written back when the London Zoo had them, or if any of the African institutions or the German institutions that have/had them have written any husbandry guidelines on the species.
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I don't know about 'guidelines' as such, but there are 2 articles you might find useful:
"Successful hand-rearing of the White-necked Picathartes at San Antonio Zoo" by David McKelvey (1981) in International Zoo Yearbook 21(1): 219–221
"Hatching the White-necked bald crow Picathartes gymnocephalus at Amsterdam Zoo" by D. Dekker (1973) in International Zoo Yearbook 13(1): 120–121.
 
I'm hoping that someone may have contact information from any of the institutions that have experience with the species in a captive, or even extensive experience with the species in wild setting.
 
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