I really think it's time zoos stopped running flight-restricted vultures with hoof stock. I realise there may well be old pinioned vultures around, but even they would be better housed away from hoofstock, and would have more chance to breed.
I would emphasise that I'm not against flight restriction for terrestrial/aquatic species, but can't accept it for vultures or parrots.
I really think it's time zoos stopped running flight-restricted vultures with hoof stock. I realise there may well be old pinioned vultures around, but even they would be better housed away from hoofstock, and would have more chance to breed.
I would emphasise that I'm not against flight restriction for terrestrial/aquatic species, but can't accept it for vultures or parrots.
I don't feel well versed enough in the issue to make a statement of opinion one way or the other, but I would like to mention that the Phoenix Zoo has flight-restricted Ruppell's Vultures on their African Savanna and they have had seemingly quite good breeding success with them.
I really think it's time zoos stopped running flight-restricted vultures with hoof stock. I realise there may well be old pinioned vultures around, but even they would be better housed away from hoofstock, and would have more chance to breed.
I would emphasise that I'm not against flight restriction for terrestrial/aquatic species, but can't accept it for vultures or parrots.
Yeah, it's not something I'm a massive fan of either - but as you say, these are not short-lived birds so even if dropped today flight-restricted vultures would likely be around for some time.
I was fascinated at Rheine to see an open-topped enclosure designed to contain fully-flighted flamingos by basically using a version of a big cat fence with overhang. A very interesting experiment indeed - clearly not an option for many species, and you'd wonder if having built the fence that high you may as well just net it over and be done with it - but an interesting experiment to avoid more intrusive methods of flight restriction.
Don't know about the US but they're still pretty common in Europe - over 60 zoos listed on Zootierliste. Not as common in Britain as they used to be, but still around.
