They have been legally imported from the Congo. I really respect KAK’s enthusiasm for shoebill breeding, but I do have a few concerns—mainly whether these two are also imprinted, and if the facility truly has enough space to properly manage all four birds. If they end up being placed in the Big Bill area or the African Wetlands area, I’d honestly be pretty disappointed.
Ideally, I think they should take a more dedicated approach, like what Prague Zoo does—keeping at least one pair completely off display to focus on breeding. But realistically, that might not happen.
Slight tangent, but past CITES records show that Thailand and China had plans to import anywhere from 4 to 20 shoebills at once from the Congo and other places. As far as I know, there’s no solid info confirming those birds ever arrived. Still, now that KAK has managed to import them legally, it’s possible other countries could follow suit—and that could end up leading to another tragedy like what happened with African manatees.
神戸どうぶつ王国