Importation of red junglefowl - interest from zoos?

H

htul

New Member
I am wondering if there would be any zoos or wildlife parks interested in importing red jungefowl from the UK. If so, what is the best way of getting in contact with the relevant people (and who would they be?)?

For background:

Red junglefowl, in their pure form (ie. not contaminated from cross-breeding with domestic poultry) are quite rare and would greatly benefit from conservation breeding efforts.

Unfortunately, within Australia, the stocks of "red junglefowl" that we have available (including those on exhibit in zoos) are likely to have been contaminated at some point in the past and have several characteristics consistent with domestic poultry rather than pure red junglefowl (eg. lack of eclipse plumage in the males, and visible combs in the hens).

Further, there are five recognised subspecies of red junglefowl (with slight variations in physical characteristics, and being found in separate areas within the range of the species), whereas many of the red junglefowl in Australia have been bred indiscriminately without consideration of subspecific status.

As such, they would not be eligible for registration in international studbooks for the conservation breeding of this species.

Within the poultry keeping hobby, a syndicate has been formed for the importation of domestic poultry from the UK. The first importation is currently in quarantine, and expressions of interest are being sought for a second round of importation. Red junglefowl, being recognised as the progenitor of domestic poultry (and sharing with them the same scientific name) are eligible for import through these efforts (although, as far as I am aware, none were imported through the first round of importations by the syndicate).

The costs of importing through such a syndicate would be relatively minimal by zoo budgetary standards (with the costs even further reduced if there was interest from several facilities), and I was therefore curious as to whether there would be any interest in such a venture. It would seem that this would be a very good opportunity for Australian zoos and wildlife parks to relatively cheaply obtain stocks and be involved in the conservation breeding of this species.

Regards,
htul
 
First of all I would contact the syndicate which does the importation, then I would place some notes/articles in the several Australian avicultural magazines about the importation and ask if somebody will join and last but not least contact the Australian zoo organisations
( simply Google them because I don't have names at the moment ).
I guess there would be at least some intrest because many Australian zoos co-operate in some kind of South-east asian breeding projects.
I wish you good luck and hope to hear soon about breeding results with red junglefowl in Australia
 
I would have thought no chance of meeting quarantine requirements - but you say some domestic poultry are already in quarantine??
 
You can import the hatching eggs of domestic chickens.

:p

Hix
 
expressions of interest are also being sought for the importation of Grey and Green Jungle Fowl. I trust someone has the means to take up the oppertunity!
 
The call for expressions of interest for the import of grey and green junglefowl is in error (probably arising from a misunderstanding that these could also be included as 'poultry' in the import syndicate).


At present, only red junglefowl are listed under the "List of specimens taken to be suitable for live import" (as per http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/lists/import/pubs/live-import-list.pdf ). In fact, the common name is specifically listed as "red junglefowl" - though the implication is that this therefore also includes domestic fowl as the domestic form of this species.

Consequently, any attempts to import grey and green junglefowl would require the development of separate import risk assessments - a costly and lengthy process.

Yes, I should have clarified - only hatching eggs are importable (even of domestic fowl/RJF): the offspring arising from the first batch of imported eggs are currently in quarantine ( see Rare chicken breeds get some new blood - ABC Rural - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) )

The process is also complex from the exporting end in the UK (whereby only specific disease free flocks are eligible to produce the hatching eggs, and the parental flock itself is housed in a quarantine export premises). There is, of course, the element of risk in that not every egg is likely to hatch into a viable chick (there may be poor fertility, poor hatchability etc, and then, even after hatch, there is the possibility that the batch fails to pass all quarantine requirements: however, thus far I believe the first batch has had quite good fertility and hatchability - and it is hoped that they will go smoothly through the quarantine process). But such risk is inherent in any import process of live organisms into Australia.

I recently did contact the co-ordinator of the import syndicate to clarify that zoos/wildlife parks would be eligible to participate in this import syndicate (which they are). I just think that this would be an invaluable opportunity to obtain pure stocks of this species (and hopefully pure representatives of each of the five subspecies) for Australian conservation breeding efforts.

The costs involved would be easily within the means of wealthy individuals and certainly within the collective budgets of several (or even just one) zoo; though the housing and successful maintenance of subsequent stock would be better suited to a structured breeding program between various facilities (ideally, including private individuals). Since TWPZ (and presumably other facilities) already have "red junglefowl" as part of their exhibits/breeding programs (often as part of their "Asian exhibits"), it should be an easy matter to incorportate pure representatives of this species into their collections.
 
the following is just one of my random thoughts, and I have no idea if zoos would be interested (it seems more the sort of thing that private aviculturists would have to do).

To import chicken eggs I would think one would need a lot of them to make the cost of importation worthwhile. All the eggs would need to be of a similar age so they can all be imported and then hatched at more or less the same time (i.e. it wouldn't seem sensible to import eggs ranging in age from freshly-laid to fifteen days old). The reason you can get a lot of chicken eggs all the same age is because domestic chickens are available in large numbers.

For red junglefowl, they aren't farmed in large numbers. They are kept by private aviculturists in much smaller numbers. Would it not be a problem obtaining a good number of eggs all the same age as the eggs of domestic fowl which are being imported? I imagine one would want to import more than one or two clutches because otherwise what's the point?
 
Steve Robinson said:
My suggestion would be for you to talk to the ARPIS people.
Click to expand...

Steve, could you clarify re: ARPIS?

Chlidonias,

I must admit that there would be technical challenges in importing RJF eggs as opposed to domestic poultry eggs (particularly due to the lower fecundity - although, as with many gallinaceous species, removing the first clutch will result in further egg-laying. Nonetheless, you would need many breeding hens in the donor breeding export flock to make the venture worthwhile. Sourcing such a large number may indeed be a problem. I was, however, under the impression that the parental breeding birds were themselves hatched within the export quarantine facility - if so there is that extra generation to build up numbers slightly).

As to whether this falls in the realm of zoos or private individuals? I have had some discussions about this - and unfortunately, for the aviculture sector it really comes down to returns on financial investment: prices for RJF (or at least what we call "RJF" in Australia) are not high enough to warrant relatively high (from the point of view of an average individual aviculturist) investment costs. There is a bit of a mentality of "it looks just like a chicken" and also the issue of "if it looks like a RJF, it doesn't matter that it's not actually a pure RJF - near enough is good enough". Perhaps, in the end, zoos might share this view - and admittedly they are never going to be a high profile drawcard to get crowds through the gates. It may end up there is just not enough interest from any sector to get pure indivdiuals of this species into the country.

But it would be a great shame if this were the case - as the species is in very real danger of "genetic extinction" throughout its home ranges due to crossbreeding with domestic poultry, and would greatly benefit from strucutured conservation breeding efforts.
 
The issue with dealing with the zoos will be their "one way" door. They will happily acquire stock, but not share it, unless you join their cartel in which they maintain tenure & you basically only provide adjistment.

I hope you can continue, just ensure that you don't do the work & then loose control.
Good luck.

Cheers Khakibob
 
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