cuban amazon parrot

[vogelcommando]

The Cuban amazon parrot ( Amazona leucocephalus ) is a quite uncommon bird in zoo-collections and several of its subspecies are realy rare and endangered !
Afther the closure of Life Fellowship in Seffner I don't know which other collection is working intensively with this species and I hope someone can help me.
The subspecies :
A. l. leucocephalus I guess the most commonly kept subspecies ( ? )
A. l. palmarum from western Cuba and Isle of Pines, was bred at Life Fellowship but where did their birds went to and who is breeding them ?
A . l. caymanensis from Grand Cayman Island also kept and bred ( ? ) at Life Fellowship and also San Diego kept them in the 1980-ties. Where are these birds and who's breeding them ?
A. l. hesterna from Little Cayman and Cayman Brac Islands. Bred at Life Fellowship but no clue if it is kept and/or bred anywhere.
A. l. bahamensis from the Bahamas, I've heared somewhere that it was succesfully bred in a public collection on the Bahamas but no further information....
Who can help ?????

 

[DDcorvus]

LPF has caymanensis and palmarum is not considered to be a separate subspecies anymore. A. L. leucocephala is actually quite widely kept by private keepers.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

I know Bronx once held A. l. caymanensis but I did not see them my last visit to World of Birds so I don't know if they're still there. I'm revisiting this weekend if weather permits so I'll keep an eye out for them.

~Thylo

 

[vogelcommando]

Thanks for that and please try to take some photos too !!

 

[vogelcommando]

If they still have them of course ( otherwhile it can become a little difficult ).

 

[ThylacineAlive]

My trip may be posponed due to weather but we'll just have to wait and see.

According to their website, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo has the nominante subspecies.

~Thylo

 

[ThylacineAlive]

My trip went on as scheduled and, yes, the amazons were there!

~Thylo

 

[vogelcommando]

Thanks a lot, good picture ! Howmany Cayman cuba amazones did you see =

 

[ThylacineAlive]

Thanks a lot, good picture ! Howmany Cayman cuba amazones did you see =

I remember only one. Of course things constantly change in World of Birds and animals are always being moved around so the zoo probably has more off-exhibit.

~Thylo

 

[condor]

palmarum is not considered to be a separate subspecies anymore.

palmarum is questionable. There are some recent taxonomic authorities that recognize it, while other don't. MtDNA has not revealed a clear difference compared to the nominotypical race, but a morphological study has revealed some clear differences:
Ottens-Wainright et al 2006: http://biosci-web1.lsu.edu/jeberhard/CaribAmazona.pdf
Reynolds and Hayes 2009: http://www.llu.edu/pages/faculty/wh..._parrot_morphology__and__plumage_in_press.pdf

Worth pointing out that above evidence also suggests bahamensis, as currently defined, actually comprises more than one subspecies. This isn't much of a surprise when considering the unique breeding behavior of the Abaco birds. On page 29 of Ottens-Wainright et al 2006 they briefly mention a captive breeding program for the Great Inagua Bahaman Amazon at Ardastra Zoo (Nassau, Bahamas), but no details are provided.

 

[vogelcommando]

Thanks for those 2 links, very intresting !

 

[vogelcommando]

Came along an old article in the International Zoo Yearbook ( vol. 24/25 ).
In this article its said that the Research Institute for Avian Medicine, Nutrition and Reproduction at Lake Worth - Florida worked with the Cayman Brac amazone ( A. l. hesterna ) and tryed to collected samen for AI which was however unsuccesfull ( at least in 1982 ).
I've several questions about this note:
Does anybody has some further information about this Research Institute and does it still exist ?
Does anybody has some information about the number of Cayman Brac amazones kept at this Institute and if they ever bred it there ( naturaly or with AI ) ?

 

[Great Argus]

Searching Zoochat, there's several European facilities holding the species. Far as North America, I can only find reference to them at Bronx and Audubon. San Francisco had them until recently, I don't know where they went. I don't have any information on breeding or subspecies though.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

Searching Zoochat, there's several European facilities holding the species. Far as North America, I can only find reference to them at Bronx and Audubon. San Francisco had them until recently, I don't know where they went. I don't have any information on breeding or subspecies though.

The entire European population is nominate apart from perhaps a Grand Cayman, caymanensis, kept bts at Loro Parque. Currently Bronx keeps 1.1 nominate, but until a couple years ago they kept a single caymanensis.

~Thylo

 

[vogelcommando]

Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac amazones being kept on the Cayman Islands itself ( keepers can get amnesty is they register their birds ) :

https://www.birdscaribbean.org/2020...q98DCUhHrx68aNAQ7040fHn5WM1eYtt69bW0rgNDbaLFo