Would be interesting to know how severe these wounds were or how strong the impacts for the rhinos were respectively. We should not forget that oxpeckers and black rhinos (and at the beginning also white rhinos, common hippos and pygmy hippos) were kept together in the Africa House at Zoo Zurich for decades and I doubt that the vets would let it be if there has been big problems (however I might be wrong of course).
Oxpeckers in captivity
- Thread starter elefante
- Start date
I can only remember dishes as a food source for ALL the birds within the free flight area of the Africa House, including oxpeckers.
I saw this paper a while ago about feeding preferences of captive oxpeckers being kept in South Africa, using donkeys as hosts. The oxpeckers wounded the donkeys and drank their blood either when less-preferred ticks were available or when ticks were in low abundance - both I imagine would be the case in a zoo setting. What's more, even when there was a high abundance of their preferred ticks the oxpeckers still wounded and fed from the donkeys.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...uphagus_erythrorhynchus_A_parasitic_mutualist
I'd say it was best for oxpeckers to be kept apart from ungulates. I do like the idea of a frame with an animal skin stretched over it to give them something to perch on mentioned earlier.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...uphagus_erythrorhynchus_A_parasitic_mutualist
I'd say it was best for oxpeckers to be kept apart from ungulates. I do like the idea of a frame with an animal skin stretched over it to give them something to perch on mentioned earlier.
At Walsrode we fed them a mixture of a good quality of universal food, minced meat, dried insects and living insects ( mealwurms, crickets and locusts ) from a bowl placed on a higher feeding-place.
Sophie Brugmann
Active Member
Just a little anecdote here: Hagenbeck used to keep them as free flight birds within their tropical aquarium. But they had to be moved out after 3-4 years because they started bothering the guests. They got used to people pretty quickly and started landing on them or stealing food in the restaurant. So the last remaining animals are now living in a small aviary and no new animals will be acquired.
Unenlagia90
Well-Known Member
Keeping herbivores and oxpeckers/cattle egrets together In a greenhouse should be cool.
Several of the previous posts and linked research papers suggest that perhaps oxpeckers and ungulates are best exhibited separately. Cattle egret might work potentially.
Dvur Kralove had (and maybe still has) cattle eggrets free flying in their pigmy hippo winter house - but only during winter when doors to outside hippo pens are closed.
Cattle egrets are among the species kept in the savanna aviary at Antwerp, but I haven't actually seen them on or interacting with any of the buffaloes yet (and if they can find food and other things they need elsewhere I don't really see why they would). You can usually see them in the areas surrounding the buffalo paddock, such as on fences or vegetation, or around the bird pool next to the visitor area.
Jaguar_X
Active Member
I know I am super late to this thread, but hey, rather late than never.
I recently found this going through old media of Pretoria Zoo.
It is from 1989, but it was a special release of the zoo's magazine for their 90th birthday showcasing the progress over those 90 years. (It is not long at all and barely says anything but still, they tried)
Translated from Afrikaans to English:
I am unsure when in those 90 years it happened, since it doesn't specify, but I am sure it must have happened towards the end. I would love to find more information on this, but I am yet to find anything of use.
I recently found this going through old media of Pretoria Zoo.
It is from 1989, but it was a special release of the zoo's magazine for their 90th birthday showcasing the progress over those 90 years. (It is not long at all and barely says anything but still, they tried)
Translated from Afrikaans to English:
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
After it became apparent that the status of Yellow-billed Oxpecker became uncertain in some parts of the country (South Africa), the National Zoological Gardens (of South Africa) started with a breeding program that led to the first ever chicks being hatched, under our care, in captivity.
After it became apparent that the status of Yellow-billed Oxpecker became uncertain in some parts of the country (South Africa), the National Zoological Gardens (of South Africa) started with a breeding program that led to the first ever chicks being hatched, under our care, in captivity.
I am unsure when in those 90 years it happened, since it doesn't specify, but I am sure it must have happened towards the end. I would love to find more information on this, but I am yet to find anything of use.
Attachments
I couldn't find anything on this. I found a paper from 2014 about the breeding of Red-billed Oxpeckers at the Pretoria Zoo's MBBC where it specifically lists facilities having kept both species - and given that the paper is about breeding at Pretoria one would think they would have known about any previous breedings there of either species, but it does not mention it.
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...tional-Zoological-Gardens-of-South-Africa.pdf
Table 1 lists the ten facilities which the authors know have kept oxpeckers in captivity. In the text it also mentions the four current (2013) holders (MBBC, Oregon, Hagenbeck, and Dresden - all with Red-billed Oxpeckers).
The paper specifically says that the only other published record of oxpecker breeding than the current paper was at Zurich in 1973, but does also mention a (presumably unpublished) record of Yellow-billed Oxpecker captive breeding at De Wildt in the late 1980s.
Jaguar_X
Active Member
I am guessing this is what the paper was revering to, but this isn't Pretoria Zoo. I will definitely look for more information on this tomorrow. Because it is strange that Pretoria shares in a magazine that they bred the species and then basically completely contradic themselves later on. Something isn't adding up.
Oxpecker breeding was
later attempted at De Wildt Cheetah and Wild-
life Trust, South Africa, in the late 1980s (E.
Marais, pers. comm.). A pair of Yellow-billed
oxpeckers successfully reared a chick, whereas
Red-billed oxpecker hatchlings succumbed to
rodent predation.
Thanks for sharing the paper about breeding Red-billed Oxpecker.later attempted at De Wildt Cheetah and Wild-
life Trust, South Africa, in the late 1980s (E.
Marais, pers. comm.). A pair of Yellow-billed
oxpeckers successfully reared a chick, whereas
Red-billed oxpecker hatchlings succumbed to
rodent predation.
Jaguar_X
Active Member
Upon further research I found out that De Wildt (Name changed to Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre in 2010) was at that time owned or at least in partnership with Pretoria Zoo
StreptopeliaNL
Active Member
Last year when I visited Hagenbeck I saw one Oxpecker in an aviary in the bird house and one in the free flight hall in the aquarium (and it wasn’t bothering guests
)