Shoebills in captivity

One piece of unfortunate news about shoebills in Japan is that, according to the Tokyo Zoo Stock Plan report, hormone tests on a female at Ueno Zoo suggest that her ovaries are inactive. The zoo is currently reassessing the nutritional balance of her diet.
 
Update from Noichi: 0.1 Kashishi/Caxixi has been showing greater interest in 1.0 Sasa and the birds started to stay together sooner. Both birds are bowing to each other and are trying to “aggressively approach each other” (that’s how translate translated it). The keepers blocked the two birds from contacting to prevent a fight as they did last year. However, as this is the reason why I am giving this update, the keepers acknowledge that this year the birds might have to be left alone and sort things out on their own.

It would be nice if both Noichi and Chiba get successful together this year.
 
Kobe animal kingdom has imported two shoebills from “the Congo” (not sure if it’s the DRC or the RC). One reason the park has cited to import these two individuals is because Bongo and Marimba do not get along. Judging from the bill color of the pictures the park uses, I assume the new arrivals are still young to breed.

神戸どうぶつ王国
They are from the DRC (コンゴ民主共和国), as mentioned in the paragraph before the message.
 
Most of the recent posts in this thread are about shoebills in Japanese zoos, but are there any updates on breeding efforts in Europe or the U.S.? If I remember correctly, Prague Zoo, which keeps two pairs, was planning to build a larger enclosure specifically for the shoebills. I'm very curious if there’s any news from them, or from Pairi Daiza, which was the first in the world to breed shoebills successfully.

Also, are the breeding pairs that produced offspring at Pairi Daiza and ZooTampa still alive? I’m aware that the female from the successful pair at Al Wabra was lost due to Mandai’s serious mishandling.

If any zoos are truly committed to shoebill breeding, they should form a consortium and share information internationally.
 
I apologise if I am being dense .... but part of me thinks there could be a way that zoos could improve breeding success...
We do know that in the wild shoebills breed at end of rainy season, and tend to build nests on a small island or on floating vegetation.

Could it be that if more thought were put into the water element of shoebill enclosures, we might find more success?
 
Chiba zoo has announced that 0.1 Shizuka has laid an egg. The egg is, unfortunately, infertile. This is the sixth egg laid in Japan. According to the keepers this is first time Shizuka has laid eggs consecutively.

https://x.com/ChibaZoo/status/1920792742361169958
Shizuka has laid another egg on the night of June 1. Unfortunately this egg is infertile as well. This event is still valuable since this is the first time Shizuka laid more than one eggs in a year.
 
Shizuka has laid another egg on the night of June 1. Unfortunately this egg is infertile as well. This event is still valuable since this is the first time Shizuka laid more than one eggs in a year.
Do they have a male shoebill?
 
Do they have a male shoebill?
Chiba keeps 1.0 Jitto.


I apologise if I am being dense .... but part of me thinks there could be a way that zoos could improve breeding success...
We do know that in the wild shoebills breed at end of rainy season, and tend to build nests on a small island or on floating vegetation.

Could it be that if more thought were put into the water element of shoebill enclosures, we might find more success?
Kobe Animal Kingdom built their shoebill enclosure in a greenhouse with an artificial rain system. There are also nests built above the water area, albeit with stilts. Despite this the park’s female Marimba never laid an egg there.
 
Would be interesting if we found out there's some reproductive problem affecting wild shoebills too... obviously some of these girls are ovulating more than others
 
The names of the new shoebills Kobe have been revealed:

It has been determined that the new shoebills are a breeding pair. Just like the other shoebills the park has kept throughout its history, these new animals are also named after African instruments. The male is named Sakala while the Female is named Kurral.

The display for the birds is a tiny unattractive exhibit called the “Mabamba Camp” located by the exit of the BigBill exhibit. The birds will be displayed alone in morning-afternoon shifts.

Credit: Kyodo News
upload_2025-6-25_16-12-8.jpeg
if this is the display then I don’t feel comfortable about the backstage area…

Personally I don’t think this will really help the new birds be a good match for each other. I do wonder if the park know if the birds were hand-reared or parent-reared before being shipped to Japan.
 

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Shizuka has laid another egg on the night of June 1. Unfortunately this egg is infertile as well. This event is still valuable since this is the first time Shizuka laid more than one eggs in a year.
Shizuka has laid her third egg this year (her 8th total). This egg is also unfortunately infertile. However the zoo has observed a pattern of behavior that precedes the eggs being laid.

the news from the zoo’s twitter account
 
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the arrival of shoebills (which is also the same year the park was rebranded from Kobe Kachoen) Kobe Animal Kingdom will be hosting a shoebill symposium on October 27. The symposium will feature six presentations and a panel discussion. The presentations are titled as the following (translated using google translate):

View attachment 729215

I am not going to assume this is the first symposium on Earth, let alone in Japan, that is about shoebill husbandry and breeding. I just hope that most of the discussion could also be seen by the rest of the zoological community. It would also be nice that the zoos and researchers find that there’s more to shoebill breeding than just humidity, flight space, and individual history of shoebills.
Noichi Zoological Park will be hosting the second Shoebill symposium on September 27. There will be speakers from Gifu University, Ueno Zoo, Kobe Animal Kingdom, Kakegawa Bird and Flower Garden, and Gokatsuraike Animal park.

Kakegawa is a weird inclusion since it is not a JAZA member and only houses a single individual (Futaba) and therefore doesn’t seem to have any breeding attempts.

Gokatsuraike will be sending staff to Uganda as a part of Japan International Cooperation Agency.
 
Shizuka from Chiba has laid her fourth egg this year! According to the zoo she laid this egg in her enclosure during the day instead of her holding area during the night. Unfortunately this egg is also infertile since Shizuka did not mate with Jitto.

https://x.com/ChibaZoo/status/1949756767979864322
Shizuka laid her fifth egg this year. This egg was also unfortunately unfertilized due to the lack of copulation. The keepers knew of this egg with the help of an xray.


https://x.com/ChibaZoo/status/1958108548476678534
 
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