Harewood House Lear's Macaws at Harewood House

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DDcorvus

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I've been looking into the issue of the Lear's Macaws at Harewood House. These three macaws came originally from Harry Sissen after they were confiscated (he is convicted of smuggling them into the UK). Originally they were supposed to go back to Brazil but after getting infected with a virus (PDV), it was decided they would not go back.
In 2007 the birds were still in the North-East of England but have been off-show.

Although there is a studbook they cannot be included due to the PDV infection (or being moved to a new collection), but as I could not find any news on the birds since 2007 I was wondering if they are still there or what are the plans with the birds.

I hope that some of the UK people can help me to clarify their position.
 
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I'm assuming that if they are/were bred from, then their offspring would also be excluded from the studbook? (Or could they be included if the eggs were removed from the adults and incubated artificially so the chicks had no contact with the adults?)
 
Chlidonias said:
I'm assuming that if they are/were bred from, then their offspring would also be excluded from the studbook? (Or could they be included if the eggs were removed from the adults and incubated artificially so the chicks had no contact with the adults?)
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PDD is a very nasty disease and messed up whole collections. Artificially incubated young birds from infected hens have consistently been developing PDD themselves so pulling the eggs is not an option. And although they have not been diagnosed with it themselves they are in a collection with the disease
 
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I had contact with Harewood Bird Gardens today and their answer was: we do not have this species and we never had this species. Now my question is are there more Harewood Houses in Leeds, or are the Harewood Bird Gardens a different organisation then Harewood House? Did I contact the wrong organisation or are they not totally open to me as I have clear proof (including pictures) that there were Lear's Macaws in Harewood House in Leeds in 2006.
 
DDcorvus said:
I had contact with Harewood Bird Gardens today and their answer was: we do not have this species and we never had this species. Now my question is are there more Harewood Houses in Leeds, or are the Harewood Bird Gardens a different organisation then Harewood House? Did I contact the wrong organisation or are they not totally open to me as I have clear proof (including pictures) that there were Lear's Macaws in Harewood House in Leeds in 2006.
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They have them, they just don't tell anyone.
 
bongorob said:
They have them, they just don't tell anyone.
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I can imagine they do not want to shout it out, but denying it is plain stupid especially as other partners involved in the ex-situ breeding of Lear's Macaws are mentioning Harewood House as one of the breeding centers (although not after 2007).
Plus as they are not suitable for breeding why not put them on display and use them to tell the story of parrot smuggling and in this way try to educate the public.
 
Shoebill said:
PBFD birds both carriers and positive are normally culled from large collections.
I think its bad practice that these animals are still kept on the premises.

Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD), veterinary advice and assistance for the parrot species
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for your info the birds do not have PBFD but Herpes (PDV) and that in the collection of Harewood House there has been diagnoses of PDD, but not in the Lear's Macaws yet (although the disease is very contagious.)
 
For people: I edited some information as it became clear that my original information was incorrect. The current information is.
 
DDcorvus said:
for your info the birds do not have PBFD but Herpes (PDV) and that in the collection of Harewood House there has been diagnoses of PDD, but not in the Lear's Macaws yet (although the disease is very contagious.)
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I can imagine they do not want these birds advertised ..., nor on display if PDD is on site. Perhaps a veterinary precaution.

Perhaps, they can part with the birds and these can be relocated to a specialist aviculturalist collection where they can be maintained in- and outside? :confused:
 
I suppose Harewood could technically be right if they say they do not own the birds as they were only deposited with them after confiscation from Harry Sissons . I wonder how they are housed and if they are in a possible breeding situation - I would hope so given they are so rare .
 
Their claim was not that they do not own them (as they do not, the birds are owned by the Brazilian State), but that there are no Lear's Macaws at Harewood, which is clearly not true.
And even if the Herpes issue is solved, Harewood seems to had PDD on site. The cause for this disease is the Avian Bornavirus but there is new research that this virus is not the sole cause of PDD, which also put a question on the current identification tests. So you have rare macaws in an environment where there was PDD, but also the development that current identification methods might be insufficient.

No matter how rare this macaw is I would think twice before accepting these birds in my collection and so would most collections (and my assumption is that this is also the sole reason the birds are still in the UK and not at the Loro Parque, Al-Wabbra or in Brazil).
 
Funny enough I had been thinking about these birds just recently.

I can confirm that I saw the three individuals at Harewood in 2003, and that most of the information that has already been conveyed is true (well as much as I was told - owned by Brazil, confiscation, slated for return). I was unaware that they had contracted any disease or that that they were still within the collection.

Assuming they are still housed in the same block off display, the birds are in a typical large parrot flight aviary, that at times had other birds alongside them. Cannot remember any dimensions, sorry. Given the value of these and other birds housed at Harewood, the security is pretty high. I'm not sure the staff were aware of the sex ratio, or if they were I don't recall it.
 
DDcorvus said:
Their claim was not that they do not own them (as they do not, the birds are owned by the Brazilian State), but that there are no Lear's Macaws at Harewood, which is clearly not true.
And even if the Herpes issue is solved, Harewood seems to had PDD on site. The cause for this disease is the Avian Bornavirus but there is new research that this virus is not the sole cause of PDD, which also put a question on the current identification tests. So you have rare macaws in an environment where there was PDD, but also the development that current identification methods might be insufficient.

No matter how rare this macaw is I would think twice before accepting these birds in my collection and so would most collections (and my assumption is that this is also the sole reason the birds are still in the UK and not at the Loro Parque, Al-Wabbra or in Brazil).
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Agreed and accepted.

I know Al Wabra made an exception for the Spix's and tried treating some of the diseased stock they have accepted in ...
 
A bit off topic but the Loro Parque has bred 5 Lear's Macaws this year from 2 couples. A very very nice result.
 
Has the Lears ara captive population a balanced sex ratio, or is there more males/females? And is it inbred and would need fresh blood or is it still ok?
 
The Loro Parque has 17 Macaws (or 22 as I m not sure if the 5 young are included or not), Al-Wabra has 3-9 (not sure how correct this is), Harewood is having 1-2 and then there were 3 very young males confiscated this year in the Czech Republic. And then there are several birds in Brazil.
Of the founding population (including Brazilian birds),43 birds 19.24 actual number of 2006, there were 42 wild caught ones (later two females bred in Florida were added to the population) so it should be still ok, but if both Al-Wabra and Loro Parque keep getting results like this, there should a bigger exchange of birds between Europe and Brazil then now.
 
Thanks for the answer. 42 wild-caught birds is a lot, if only half will pass their genes to other generations, it still remains a robust base for a captive program. Maybe we will see Lears to take the place of araraunas in our zoos one day? :)
 
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