Kagus at Paignton Zoo

[vogelcommando]

Just found in some old ornithological magazines a note on Kagus which have been kept at Paignton Zoo. The only information given in the article is that 4 specimens died during 1940....
I would be intrested to know how these birds came to Paignton and when'
Also it would be intrested to know if there were more than the 4 specimens that died during 1940.
Hope some-one knows more about these rare birds kept at Paignton.

 

[kiang]

Well that's my let down of the day (and only 16 mins in).

 

[Tim May]

In his book “British Zoos” (1957) Geoffrey Schomberg records that a kagu was hatched at Paignton Zoo but, sadly, the chick was not successfully raised. Unfortunately Schomberg provides no other details .

 

[robmv]

The first Paignton guidebook, published in August 1930, includes a photo of an adult with a chick (but it does state "hatched but not reared").

 

[FBBird]

Kagus at Paignton

Currently away from home & unable to check in the Avicultural Magazine, but there is a photo of parent with (short-lived) chick, about 1928. Worth checking their online index. These birds were probably collected by one f the several professional collectors who were around at the tne, like Wilfred Frost. They would bring back birds for people like Alfred Ezra, Delacour, John Lewis (of Waitrose), and of course Herbert Whitley at Paignton. Again I would need to check, but I think the Gurneys at Keswick Hall in Norfolk also had Kagus around this time.

 

[MikeG]

Not concerning Paignton, but a note on kagus in aviculture appears in The Avicultural Magazine for 1921.
Hubert D. Astley, a one-time President of the Avicultural Society, writes: "I have lately been fortunate in obtaining two Kagus, which are probably male and female, and also probably bred by Mr. Heumann in New South Wales." Astley ends his short correspondence by saying "Let aviculturists and ornithologists bestir themselves to keep the Kagu from everlasting destruction, before it is too late."
So we can deduce that kagus were available (to private aviculturists, as well as presumably to zoos) in the early 1920s; that they had been bred in captivity; and that even at that time there was a real fear that they might become extinct. Astley's plea that the Kagu be bred in captivity to save it from 'everlasting destruction' reminds us that such ideas were around well before the days of Durrell.