Once in zoos but now extinct

FBBird said:
Any idea how long they lived? I know the Foxwarren and Cleres ones lived long and did well (although they never bred) but the ZSL birds lasted about eighteen months, so never really got established.
Click to expand...

I have never managed to find out, but probably not very long - although they pre-dated the Ezra birds by at least two decades.
The following is on page 53 of 'Lord Lilford on Birds' published in 1903, where he describes his then single specimen as '..one of the rarest birds in my collection.During my forty years of live bird collecting I have only obtained three of this species. The present survivor is a female, and is by no means a handsome or conspicuous bird'. I can recall seeing it written (but cant find a reference) that his birds came from Jamrach, which is quite possible as the company was thriving up until WWl.
Ezra offered a reward for birds in 1923 which resulted in the 16 coming to Foxwarren.
 
Andrew Swales said:
I have never managed to find out, but probably not very long - although they pre-dated the Ezra birds by at least two decades.
The following is on page 53 of 'Lord Lilford on Birds' published in 1903, where he describes his then single specimen as '..one of the rarest birds in my collection.During my forty years of live bird collecting I have only obtained three of this species. The present survivor is a female, and is by no means a handsome or conspicuous bird'. I can recall seeing it written (but cant find a reference) that his birds came from Jamrach, which is quite possible as the company was thriving up until WWl.
Ezra offered a reward for birds in 1923 which resulted in the 16 coming to Foxwarren.
Click to expand...
I don’t have the reference to hand, but I think the ZSL birds came from Jamrach.
 
FBBird said:
Any idea how long they lived? I know the Foxwarren and Cleres ones lived long and did well (although they never bred) but the ZSL birds lasted about eighteen months, so never really got established.
Click to expand...

Andrew Swales said:
have never managed to find out, but probably not very long - although they pre-dated the Ezra birds by at least two decades.
Click to expand...

FBBird said:
don’t have the reference to hand, but I think the ZSL birds came from Jamrach.
Click to expand...
See the link below (which supplies an interesting PDF that can be downloaded).

https://www.researchgate.net/public...he_Pink-headed_Duck_Rhodonessa_caryophyllacea

According to this, the three Lilford pink-headed ducks (male and two females) were purchased from Jamrach on 19th April 1892; the drake and one duck died in 1896. The third individual was still alive in 1900.

This article also confirms the ZSL birds came from Jamrach.
 
Tim May said:
See the link below (which supplies an interesting PDF that can be downloaded).

https://www.researchgate.net/public...he_Pink-headed_Duck_Rhodonessa_caryophyllacea

According to this, the three Lilford pink-headed ducks (male and two females) were purchased from Jamrach on 19th April 1892; the drake and one duck died in 1896. The third individual was still alive in 1900.

This article also confirms the ZSL birds came from Jamrach.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the link, Tim. Something in the back of my head said 'Jamrach'..!
Lilford did substantially better than London Zoo, then - keeping 2 of the 3 wild-caught birds for 4 years, and the lone female for 8.
I think we have covered this before, but it could follow that the VERY slow trickle of wild-caught adults was never enough to provide a starting stock, despite Lilford proving they were viable in the right hands.
Like the Thylacine, this is a species (given a huge dollop of hindsight), that could have still been with us today.
 
Tetzoo Quizzer said:
While at University we were able to and encouraged to handle skin and particularly skull of Thylacine. The later was frequently a specimen used in Finals where the ability to distinguish it from a Canis skull might be tested (although it wasn’t for my year).
Click to expand...

That is amazing !

I would love to handle the skin or skull of a thylacine or indeed any other extinct species.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Thank you for the link, Tim. Something in the back of my head said 'Jamrach'..!
Lilford did substantially better than London Zoo, then - keeping 2 of the 3 wild-caught birds for 4 years, and the lone female for 8.
I think we have covered this before, but it could follow that the VERY slow trickle of wild-caught adults was never enough to provide a starting stock, despite Lilford proving they were viable in the right hands.
Like the Thylacine, this is a species (given a huge dollop of hindsight), that could have still been with us today.
Click to expand...

With any wild caught waterfowl, there will only be the occasional female that will nest in captivity. Looks like the right Pink-headed Duck females never got caught.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
FBBird said:
With any wild caught waterfowl, there will only be the occasional female that will nest in captivity. Looks like the right Pink-headed Duck females never got caught.
Click to expand...

Considering how difficult it was to establish the Madagascar teal at Jersey in the 90's and to get it breeding I would imagine that it would have been near impossible in the 1930's.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Considering how difficult it was to establish the Madagascar teal at Jersey in the 90's and to get it breeding I would imagine that it would have been near impossible in the 1930's.
Click to expand...
Madagascar Teal were relatively easy to establish, once they managed to source both sexes.
U.K. collections had a number of first breedings of waterfowl in the 1930s, Smew and North American Ruddy Duck come immediately to mind. Parent Ruddies may well have been from wild eggs, but the Smew pair were definitely caught as adults.
 
FBBird said:
Madagascar Teal were relatively easy to establish, once they managed to source both sexes.
U.K. collections had a number of first breedings of waterfowl in the 1930s, Smew and North American Ruddy Duck come immediately to mind. Parent Ruddies may well have been from wild eggs, but the Smew pair were definitely caught as adults.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember David Jeggo writing in "The Dodo" that it was a bit of a struggle at first until they sorted out the enclosure design.
 
FBBird said:
With any wild caught waterfowl, there will only be the occasional female that will nest in captivity. Looks like the right Pink-headed Duck females never got caught.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, and not enough were caught to find the 'right' ones by trial and error. Unlike many pheasants for example where very small imports of spp like Brown-eared, White-eared, Edwards, etc established captive populations, waterfowl often do not. Captive populations often derive from the second generation following an almost accidental first breeding, or in the case of many northern spp, from young reared in captivity from wild-collected eggs. Huge numbers of birds like Baikal Teal were imported by the bird trade, with only a miniscule number ever reproducing.
I am sure there was every bit as much 'expertise' in the 1930s or indeed 60s or 80s, as there is today - especially given the wealth of many of the collectors, and the esteem these birds were held in their collections.
 
Andrew Swales said:
I am sure there was every bit as much 'expertise' in the 1930s or indeed 60s or 80s, as there is today - especially given the wealth of many of the collectors, and the esteem these birds were held in their collections.
Click to expand...

Yes, and of course there is Peter Scott in the 1950's as a prime example with what he managed to achieve with the WWT and particularly with the nēnē.

I don't doubt the wealth, expertise or zeal but would technical knowledge of husbandry back then in the 20's and 30's have been advanced enough to have taken into account factors such as the design of enclosures as being a critical component in breeding some waterfowl ?
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I don't doubt the wealth, expertise or zeal but would technical knowledge of husbandry back then in the 20's and 30's have been advanced enough to have taken into account factors such as the design of enclosures as being a critical component in breeding some waterfowl ?
Click to expand...
Yes - without question... AND without the help of modern antibiotics, feeds, research, the internet and even electricity...! Producing the results they did, with the ancestors of the birds we keep today, using broody bantams and paraffin incubators required a level of skill and knowledge at least equal to that of today.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Yes - without question... AND without the help of modern antibiotics, feeds, research, the internet and even electricity...! Producing the results they did, with the ancestors of the birds we keep today, using broody bantams and paraffin incubators required a level of skill and knowledge at least equal to that of today.
Click to expand...

That is an interesting point and I don't doubt it.

There was a level of awareness of extinction and biodiversity back in the 20's and 30's but nothing like todays conservation movement.

I think that is the real tragedy here as many species could have feasibly ended up like the Pere David's deer being extinct in the wild but with insurance populations in zoos had there been.
 
FBBird said:
I believe they still have the last two female Northern White Rhinoceros
Click to expand...

San Diego's animals all died by 2015. There are still 2 females (Najin and Fatou), that live at Ol' Pejeta in Kenya. These two animals belong to Dvur Kralove Zoo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top