I enjoyed this video! I appreciate that you gave the birds their fair share of screen time and I especially liked the Black Crowned Crane and American Flamingo segments! Also enjoyed seeing the Barasingha - it's been about 20 years since I saw them last. I grew up seeing them at the Oklahoma City Zoo in the 70s and 80s.
@Summer Tanager I always make sure to give birds their screen time! And yes the Barasinghas!!! They are SOOO UNDERRATED!!!! In fact, I went to the Audubon Zoo solely to get footage of them because I know that barely any other AZA facilities house them, and trying to get good footage of them on the Bronx Zoo's Wild Asia monorail is next to impossible because the monorail doesn't stop. Other zoos also had Barasinghas but dropped them from their collections. AZA should bring them back because unlike Eld's and other flightier, nervous cervid species Barasinghas do well on public display. Just a shame that Pere David's hog up all the space for Asian deer in AZA.
My only regret is that the zoo no longer houses Milky Storks. They used to keep them in the current Amur Leopard exhibit along with Babirusas, but then moved them to the Freeport McMoran Species Survival Center. 2 years ago they were again moved to San Diego Safari Park where they along with San Diego's population started nesting and hatching chicks!
@Sarus Crane Thank you for showing the bird collection some love and for providing the background information! I've only seen Eld's Deer once, and that was in the late 1980s at the Miami Metro Zoo - I didn't realize that they were flighty, but that would explain why they haven't caught on more. I had read 20 or 30 years ago that there was a concern that many of the U.S. Barasingha's had residual hybrid genetics from other deer species. According to this article (which I barely remember) some of the original U.S. imports had been housed with American Elk and/or Red Deer so that potential for hybridization was possible. I'm not sure how valid that concern is or if any genetic testing has been done in the past two decades. I remember the Oklahoma City herd being very calm and easy to observe. I would love to see more zoos keep this species again - it's much more interesting that American Elk and even Pere David Deer!
I'm sorry to hear that the Milky Storks are gone from the public collection, but it's great to hear that nesting is occurring because that means some progeny will probably find their way back on exhibit at one or both zoos soon!
@Summer Tanager Yeah from what I've heard is that Milkys are supposed to replace the Painted Storks in AZA's population. Currently, only Zoo Miami and Bronx are the ones that have individuals left. I would guess once offspring becomes available Miami and other zoos with indoor tropical exhibits would be first in line to get them. I don't think Barasingha could have bred with Red Deer or Elk since they're in Cervus and Rucervus is a more primitive ancestral genus of deer. Elk have been known to crossbreed with Sika to create the "Silk" Deer since they're both in Cervus. Personally, along with Barasingha I'd like to see more Sambar (Rusa) species such as Indian Sambar, Formosan Sambar and Visayan Spotted Deer come into collections. I do agree that Pere Davids Deer are great but slightly overrated. They would look good in a north Asian themed zoo area.
@Sarus Crane - I would not hold my breath to see any milky storks outside of San Diego anytime soon. They require a large colony and privacy to breed, so the population is going to have to grow quite considerably for them to begin being able to splinter groups off. There were talks at one point of importing more from Asia, but that would be quite the feat.
Barasingha can interbreed with Cervus species. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has a hybrid barasingha x Indochinese sika currently. With the current Chronic Wasting Disease restrictions and regulations and general trends in zoo populations in the United States, there is pretty much a zero percent chance of there ever being new exotic deer populations in this country. In the AZA, we’ll be lucky to see any exotic deer beyond Reeve’s muntjac, southern pudu, Père David’s deer, and barasingha in the long-term, at this point — Bactrian hangul if we’re very, very lucky, but things aren’t looking great despite the size of the population.
Thank you Sarus Crane and Kudu 21 for those insights! I'd like to think that hybridization isn't a problem among deer but in captivity their behavioral and habitat segregation breaks down and makes the unlikely suddenly possible. It sounds like we need to hold on to as much of the exotic deer population as we can - I don't think that CWD is going away any time soon.
Thank you both again!
Building on the Milky Stork discussion, I came across this article over the weekend about the San Diego Zoo's effort to boost the captive Milky Stork population in the U.S. Just like you said, all of the Milky Storks in captivity in North America have bee consolidated into one breeding group at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The article mentions that 9 chicks have been produced during the past two years and that the last 23 captive Milky Storks were brought to the Zoo. I don't know if that mean 23 adults plus 9 chicks, or if the nine chicks are part of the 23 (so 14 adults). I would be shocked if there were 23 adult storks in North America two years, ago, so I'm inclined to believe that there are 14 adults and nine chicks. Regardless, it sounds like the population is expanding rapidly if this level of breeding success continues!
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Joins in Effort to Save Endangered Milky Stork Species
07/24/2023
After more than two years of dedicated work, conservationists from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in San Diego, Calif., are successfully breeding a critically endangered coastal bird: the milky stork. This breeding program is part of an 11th-hour effort with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Taxon Advisory Group to assist the last remaining individuals of the species living in North America to reproduce and bolster the world's population of milky storks.
Under this program, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance brought North America’s last 23 surviving milky storks to a habitat at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, reminiscent of the effort made in the 1980s that helped save the California condor population from imminent extinction. While small milky stork population pockets exist in Asia, the team has been working to aid birds previously living in wildlife facilities throughout North America to produce new chicks. So far, nine milky stork chicks have hatched through these efforts, with the newest one hatching last month.
The team recently conducted the first medical checkup on the newest hatchling to look for irregularities, obtain weight, collect samples to determine sex, and implant a microchip.
“Milky storks look the same when they are adults, so we use microchips and banding to tell them apart,” said Andrew Stehly, curator of birds at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “This checkup went very fast; the chick was deemed healthy and was reunited with its parents. It is a tremendous honor every time I see a new chick because it increases my confidence that we will save these birds. Of course, the continuing success of the California condor program is proof of what is possible through these conservation efforts.”
The world's population of milky storks has fallen substantially since the late 1980s. Scientists attribute this decline to habitat destruction and deforestation from human activities, such as fish farming, rice cultivation, human resettlement, and increased wildlife trafficking. In 2008, the birds’ global population dropped to fewer than 2,200 individuals, alarming conservationists and leading them to change their status to Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of NatureRed List of Threatened Species.
“San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is the only zoological organization that has successfully bred and raised this species in the last decade,” said Stehly. “So, when we brought the birds together, we believed the Safari Park was the best location for this vital program. I’m proud of our organization and AZA for stepping up and doing what’s needed—because if we didn’t act, there’s a possibility we would lose these beautiful and important birds.”
@Summer Tanager -- You are correct in that the current population is comprised of 23 individuals (12.11), where eight individuals are the chicks produced in the last two years, post-colony-consolidation (one did not survive). The issue arises with the fact beyond those eight individuals, there are only three animals less than 20 years old (2010, 2017, and 2018 hatches). A lot of the older birds have not yet been proven to still be reproductively viable -- all eight surviving chicks come from only three separate dams, and several are the result of full-sibling pairings. All of which is why I say I would not hold my breath for the expansion of the milky stork population beyond San Diego anytime soon. The program truly and desperately needs the import of new blood.
@Kudu21 Thank you for the additional information! You have certainly researched this species and the breeding situation at San Diego! I see what you mean, it sounds like a very limited gene pool, so even if the population were to expand (triple or quadruple) we would still be dealing with a majority of birds that are basically siblings, half-siblings, and cousins. Wow!
@Summer Tanager — I used to work with them once upon a time, so I’ve just kept up with the program. They’re really interesting birds with a really interesting history in the United States.
