Edinburgh Zoo Rainbow landing closed permanently

A very popular exhibit with visitors, people I know who have experienced it thought it was great, personally I thought it was O.K. but smacked a bit of Trafalgar Square "feed the birds tuppence a bag"
 
A fair enough reason I guess although it could be worked around (more lorikeets, lower the amount of time nectar is available etc) but by and large small primates will still be more popular with joe public than bird species, regardless of how close they get.

And speaking of close, I find it hard to believe they think it's going to be easy to control a combination of both public and inquisitive primates. I remember one visit to Blackpool a few years ago where I saw 2 very stressed looking members off staff trying to keep an eye on all the squirrel monkeys. Not to mention the public that were trying to touch them.
 
I wonder where they are getting cocks-of-the-rock from. There's not that many around in zoos. Are there any cotingas at all in the UK currently?
 
Chlidonias said:
I wonder where they are getting cocks-of-the-rock from. There's not that many around in zoos. Are there any cotingas at all in the UK currently?
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An incredibly good question that led me to a Zootierliste trawl - the only UK zoo listed for a cotinga species is Amazon World (Isle of Wight), which is down for Spangled Cotinga (Cotinga cayana).

Cocks-of-the-Rock are only listed for four European zoos - Walsrode, Wuppertal, Veldhoven (all of which I can vouch for as I've seen them myself) and Tierpark Berlin (where they would be new since my last visit). Absolutely stunning birds that I will never tire of seeing. Veldhoven had at least one young animal in 2009 so there is breeding going on.
 
the rainbow landings exhibit was run and staffed by the Visitor Services team, it was not run by the animal department

the feeding and care of the birds was undertaken by the animal & vet team obviously

by relaunching the building as a mixed South American exhibit frees up many of the enclosures within the Magic Forest which will, hopefully, allow for the Magic Forest to be redeveloped to include some Nocturnal animals

i believe this will also allow for the rehousing of the Pudus which are currently housed near the old Gorilla House where the Pandas are going
 
Will be great to see Cocks-of-the Rock in the UK again , fabulous birds . Showing my age , I remember quite a few in a glass-house aviary in the old Birdland , Bourton-on-the-Water . Penscynor had a pair for a while . Wonder if any have been bred in the UK in the past .
 
Good to hear the Rainbow Landings building is opening (and soon) with a nice sounding exhibit. I'm still very much more of a bird fan tbh so more pleased with the news of the Cock-of-the-rock too, as I think they're great, and will make this exhibit a little different perhaps than the similar walk-through small primate enclosures. (I rather liked the one I saw at London Zoo last year.)

I saw Cock-of-the-rock at Ueno Zoo in Japan in 2008, cracking bird!

http://www.zoochat.com/648/cock-rock-176109/

cock-rock-176109
 
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I agree they are amazing birds and another thing to make Edinburgh unique. I always remember it from the rainforest diorama at Liverpool Museum from when I was little.

I have a question, will the birds be ok with the primates? I know some zoos have problems with nesting birds and monkeys stealing eggs.
 
the monkeys would definitely steal eggs, but what I took from reading the article was that the cocks-of-the-rock would be in a separate aviary within the walk-through, not loose with the mammals. I would certainly be pretty silly in my opinion to mix them when they are so uncommon in captivity.

Most of the captive cocks-of-the-rock seem to be in the USA so maybe that's where Edinburgh plan on getting them from (or, perhaps its wishful thinking made to look definite by the article?)
 
Well, the article suggests there will be an aviary within the house for cock-of-the-rock. I agree that pudu are not a tropical forest species, however rodents such as paca or agouti are likely to do more damage. I do feel generally that tropical birds thrive when given access to the outdoors, even if their main enclosure is indoors. Amazon World has many gems, but is lacking in breeding successes among their most rarely seen bird species IMO. I felt the same way about primates being kept permanently indoors, however the condition of the monkeys in the clore rainforest at ZSL is superb, I now wonder if, with the right air circulation and humidity, if this needs to be the case.
 
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