Parrot TAG Regional Collection Plan 2020-2025

[Kifaru Bwana]

How come the black-cheeked lovebird, agapornis nigrigenis, population is so low ? Not many pure birds available or just a lack of interest? In Europe there is quite a healthy population both in zoos and private hands. And growing the population from 29 to 75 individuals in 5 years is pretty conservative. If you have 14 pairs you can surpass that in one breeding season. The breeding success in colony is lower than when housed as single-sex pairs but still. And the species is attractive, can be combined with softbills and is endangered.

I fear the term ex situ intensive management in the Americas is somewhat different than is the norm in Europe's EAZA/EEP. I just - do hope - AZA may eventually follow this lead.

What I find most disconcerting is that this inventory shows up the AZA zoo community seems to hold common non-endangered and quite hopelessly numerous in number psittacine species like budgerigars, cockatiels, galahs in high esteem. Where these take up valuable space that coulld be dedicated to endangered species and ex situ conservation breeding programs and even content to not invest in endangered species and let their populations in AZA zoos go to waste to the point the contestation is ... "we are not being successful..., there is little interest shown by zoos ..., ... we put the endangered taxa on phase out".

I just find that going to the guttural of why zoos actually exist in these modern times .... It seems the whole community just content to sit back and let it lie, which is just mindboggling and incredible to contemplate. This, This, This ... is really the raison d;etre for zoos in this world of ever decreasing biodiversity and more and more species and percentages of whole groups becoming threatened, endangered and potentially going extinct (for example: lesser sulphur crested cockatoo or Cuban Amazon).

 

[Great Argus]

While I don't necessarily agree with everything the AZA does, I do want to raise two points.

I fear the term ex situ intensive management in the Americas is somewhat different than is the norm in Europe's EAZA/EEP.

The EAZA has significantly more holding capacity, making it easier to maintain large populations. Assuming for corrections based on what each does and doesn't count as a member, the EAZA leads the AZA by roughly 100 members or so I believe. That's a lot of space. One of the biggest struggles for a lot of programs right now is having enough holders to maintain the necessary populations. The Asian Elephant is starting to hit a bit of a wall in this regard as small facilities lose their last elephant and are not willing to sacrifice the space to upgrade to the new recommendations to continue on. Similarly the big cats are in heavy competition for space between everything the AZA is working to manage. Things can only stretch so far.

What I find most disconcerting is that this inventory shows up the AZA zoo community seems to hold common non-endangered and quite hopelessly numerous in number psittacine species like budgerigars, cockatiels, galahs in high esteem. Where these take up valuable space that coulld be dedicated to endangered species and ex situ conservation breeding programs and even content to not invest in endangered species and let their populations in AZA zoos go to waste

The Budgies, Cockatiels, Coconut and Rainbow Lorikeets are prevalent because of feeding aviaries. It's one of relatively few interactive exhibit types we can actually do over here (though recent changes by the USDA are not helping) and they are popular. Many places use these aviaries as a small form of supplemental income by charging a dollar or two for a seed stick or nectar cup. And so they stay, common as they may be.
Now ideally some of that money could go towards keeping some rarer psittacines, but it doesn't usually seem to.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

@Great Argus, I agree there is a mismatch in participating institutions within the AZA network compared to the EAZA organisation. However, what I am on about is the level of commitment within individual zoos for psittacine and birds in general for that matter. It is a major concern that commitment within the AZA network among accredited zoos is just not there to maintain a significant presence of threatened psittacine species and in number of cooperative management programs with a good number of participants. That is not a crunch level question of numbers ....!

As to the number of budgies, cockatiels and some very common lorikeet species and the economy of bird feeding as a significant income generator for the zoo community does not - IMPO - drive away the just need to have a good and representative number of ex situ conservation breeding programmes for psittacines. FWIIW: income generation in European zoos is also for a good part an essential part of managing the business side of a zoo, yet it has not prevented the EAZA zoo network and the individual participating zoos from entering into a quite good number of psittacine conservation breeding programs.

All I am saying there is more that would - potentially - be similar across the Atlantic Pond and be an identical motivator for both associations to move forward on psittacine conservation work. There is ITMM a lot more that unites than divides us.

 

[Great Argus]

However, what I am on about is the level of commitment within individual zoos for psittacine and birds in general for that matter. It is a major concern that commitment within the AZA network among accredited zoos is just not there to maintain a significant presence of threatened psittacine species and in number of cooperative management programs with a good number of participants.

I do agree with your concern, and for that matter so does the TAG we are discussing. The lower number of potential holding institutions does not help, but I do not understand why only eight parrot programs currently exist. Only three of those eight are SSP's. It would not take much to set aside an aviary or two for threatened parrots. Whether a short-coming of the TAG for not pushing more or a disinterest on behalf of facilities themselves I have no idea. I have heard that in a number of cases facilities only want SSP species for the most part, and perhaps this plays into the issue.

As to the number of budgies, cockatiels and some very common lorikeet species and the economy of bird feeding as a significant income generator for the zoo community does not - IMPO - drive away the just need to have a good and representative number of ex situ conservation breeding programmes for psittacines.

I 100% agree with you - I was providing some explanation as to why those species are prevalent as they are. They do take up valuable space (the TAG itself acknowledges this), but facilities want them because of the monetary benefits. I'm not sure there is an easy answer to finding a middle ground on that situation.