Haven’t exhibition Budgerigars
been imported?Adelaide Zoo So what happened to Greater???
- Thread starter Sarus Crane
- Start date
been imported?
Sure, but laws change. It's been well over twenty years (1995) since any psittacids were allowed to be imported to Australia.Haven’t exhibition Budgerigars
I believe a large number of Macaws were imported by private buyers in the mid 80s from the UK!Haven’t exhibition Budgerigars
Yes, quite a few parrots were legally imported at this time. The import window was only open briefly though. The predominant importers were poultry, racing pigeons and as mentioned above, show budgies. This is because that is where the money was. Parrots were next, but finches, softbills, doves, pheasants etc never made the cut. The problem was you had to hire the whole facility and there was never the demand for those birds to justify the cost.
I got quite excited when I heard importation was going to be allowed and started looking at the possibilities of opening a bird park. I went to the extent of getting price lists from toucan breeders in the US.
Of course parrot smuggling never went away and it is pretty clear continues.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
MRJ, from your research, do you know if in theory an import of exotic softbills is still plausible? We have an example above of an Adelaide Zoo staffer talking biosecurity risks importing flamingos, but given that aviculturalists are already allowed to keep any of a huge list of exotic species, that parrot breeders have been allowed to expand that list with additional species imported in recent history (and seem likely to do this again) and that the aquarist industry is given approval of new species all the time, is there not a precedent set here for even a private individual in theory to expect approval for an import of say, non-cites listed birds like toucans, turacos hornbills etc assuming all the proper paperwork is done?
Between 1949 and the late 1980's there was a total ban on the importation of birds and all bird products. Obviously that total ban no longer exits so in theory of course it is possible. However the time, cost and difficulty of getting to that point would probably be well beyond the capacity of a mere mortal.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
Out of curiosity, what other birds were you working on importing? It might be masochistic but I want to know what we missed out on having in the region.
I know this wasn't meant for me, and this isn't the exact answer you're looking for, but it might satisfy the same itch: I do think I can recall the species list I saw for the birds the ZAA was looking at importing. No toucans unfortunately, but like I said I think the thinking was species that recently were in Australian Zoos had the best chance:
Greater flamingo
Grey crowned crane
White-rumped shama
White-cheeked turaco
Victoria crowned pigeon
Himalayan monal
Razor-billed curassow
Crested wood partridge
I can't recall if rhea and condors where also on the list. They may have been. Pretty sure I've seen all these birds at various zoos or in the wild and they are all gorgeous. It's worth noting that whilst very rare, there are still people breeding shama's in aviculture here.
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The ZAA is a membership organisation, that is it does what it's members want. If members were seriously interested in importing birds the ZAA would be working on it.It is my understanding, (and I will be more than happy if someone wants to correct me) that the ZAA are not involved in any importation of birds for its member zoos within our region?. Not sure why that would be the case?. More than happy to be corrected
It soon became obvious that it was not possible so that is really about as far as I got. I did look at some potential sites.Out of curiosity, what other birds were you working on importing? It might be masochistic but I want to know what we missed out on having in the region.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
What has me confused is that its obviously so difficult that its turning off big public-funded zoos from pushing ahead with something as appealing as flamingoes, but its not considered out of reach by consortiums of parrot breeders*.
Personally, I think when you have a Dept of Agriculture as cripplingly slow and difficult as Australia has, it surprises me the whole zoo industry hasn't been more publicly vocal about the lack of cooperation.
*I suppose the answer to this is the obvious.
I can add that indeed toucans, as well as mot-mots and Bali starlings were under consideration. But I think even the zoos found it all too difficult.
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
toothlessjaws
Well-Known Member
My fantasy always starts as a bird park....
And then I always think: I must also have some pademelons hopping around as well. And some echidnas because they are simply the best. And tree kangaroos goes without saying and who could forget tasmanian devils....
Perhaps your thinking went the same way.
Parrots are easy.
First there is a requirement imports must be born in captivity. At that time most of these birds were still being imported from the wild for western zoos. There was a proposal to place birds in an English bird park, breed them, then send the progeny to Australia. The negotiations with the bird park were actually completed. Most parrot species were already being bred in private aviaries.
Then there was the problem of getting zoos into line as to what to import when. Not only did different zoos have different ideas as to what should be imported, there was different levels of enthusiasm for importing at all. Parrots were imported by tight consortiums with a common objective.
Getting them through quarantine would have presented immense problems with specialised diets and care requirements. Most parrots can cope with basic care for a period of time.
This and also convincing the authorities to let you do it and you can see the problems.
Just for the odd case Australia would allow import of flamingos or their eggs in future, please import enough birds of one species and keep them as a single group. Auckland got 20 birds and still struggles with few chicks (fingers crossed for better results).
Look how just doubling of starting stock can make a difference. Example Ohrada zoo. They imported 38 Greater flamingos from wild animal trader in Tanzania in autumn 2001, the same year like Auckland (at cost of ca 20.000 euro including transport). Built a pen and winter house at bank of carp fishpond, bough factory-produced flamingo pellets and let birds in. No incubators, no hand-rearing, no mirrors or other gimmicks. Their inventory lists over the years:
31.12.2001: 0,0,37; chicks 2001: zero
31.12.2002: 13,15,7; chicks 2002: zero
31.12.2003: 13,15,12; chicks 2003: 0,0,6
31.12.2004: 13,15,22; chicks 2004: 0,0,12
31.12.2005: 21,18,19; chicks 2005: 0,0,12
31.12.2006: 20,20,25; chicks 2006: 0,0,13
31.12.2007: 33,25,21; chicks 2007: 0,0,14
31.12.2008: 46,37,2; chicks 2008: 0,0,11
31.12.2009: 35,36,8; chicks 2009: 0,0,16
31.12.2010: 39,36,4; chicks 2010: 0,0,16
31.12.2011: 35,42,19; chicks 2011: 0,0,15
31.12.2012: 35,41,22; chicks 2012: 0,0,13
31.12.2013: 33,40,11; chicks 2013: 0,0,8
31.12.2014: 38,48,11; chicks 2014: 5,8
31.12.2015: 38,46,25; chicks 2015: 0,0,15
31.12.2016: 36,44,25; chicks 2016: zero
31.12.2017: 37,44,46; chicks 2017: 0,0,28
31.12.2018: 37,45,60; chicks 2018: 0,0,29
31.12.2019: 33,42,78; chicks 2019: 0,0,30
They lost 3 birds before the flock started to breed (two of them I think due to really stupid reason - new plastic colored/ numbered leg rings were incorrectly closed and birds caught their bill in them when searching for food in deep pond and they drowned. After second bird was fished out, keepers realized the problem and redid the rings). Nowadays Ohrada keeps a flock of 150 birds, maximum what their winter house can host and sends young birds to other zoos regularly.
Theoretically, if Auckland zoo invested more into initial import, half of NZ/Australia could have their own flamingos today.
Look how just doubling of starting stock can make a difference. Example Ohrada zoo. They imported 38 Greater flamingos from wild animal trader in Tanzania in autumn 2001, the same year like Auckland (at cost of ca 20.000 euro including transport). Built a pen and winter house at bank of carp fishpond, bough factory-produced flamingo pellets and let birds in. No incubators, no hand-rearing, no mirrors or other gimmicks. Their inventory lists over the years:
31.12.2001: 0,0,37; chicks 2001: zero
31.12.2002: 13,15,7; chicks 2002: zero
31.12.2003: 13,15,12; chicks 2003: 0,0,6
31.12.2004: 13,15,22; chicks 2004: 0,0,12
31.12.2005: 21,18,19; chicks 2005: 0,0,12
31.12.2006: 20,20,25; chicks 2006: 0,0,13
31.12.2007: 33,25,21; chicks 2007: 0,0,14
31.12.2008: 46,37,2; chicks 2008: 0,0,11
31.12.2009: 35,36,8; chicks 2009: 0,0,16
31.12.2010: 39,36,4; chicks 2010: 0,0,16
31.12.2011: 35,42,19; chicks 2011: 0,0,15
31.12.2012: 35,41,22; chicks 2012: 0,0,13
31.12.2013: 33,40,11; chicks 2013: 0,0,8
31.12.2014: 38,48,11; chicks 2014: 5,8
31.12.2015: 38,46,25; chicks 2015: 0,0,15
31.12.2016: 36,44,25; chicks 2016: zero
31.12.2017: 37,44,46; chicks 2017: 0,0,28
31.12.2018: 37,45,60; chicks 2018: 0,0,29
31.12.2019: 33,42,78; chicks 2019: 0,0,30
They lost 3 birds before the flock started to breed (two of them I think due to really stupid reason - new plastic colored/ numbered leg rings were incorrectly closed and birds caught their bill in them when searching for food in deep pond and they drowned. After second bird was fished out, keepers realized the problem and redid the rings). Nowadays Ohrada keeps a flock of 150 birds, maximum what their winter house can host and sends young birds to other zoos regularly.
Theoretically, if Auckland zoo invested more into initial import, half of NZ/Australia could have their own flamingos today.
While Auckland did only import the bare minimum for a breeding flock, there were different circumstances than for a European zoo obtaining birds.
At the time of the import flamingoes could be imported as eggs or chicks, and they could only come from specific countries. The chicks (which is what they imported) had to come from eggs produced by captive birds (possibly even captive-bred birds which limits it even further - I think from memory the current IHS for flamingo eggs specifies the breeding birds need to be captive-bred themselves), incubated artificially, and then the chicks had to be hand-reared in quarantine before import.
So you need a captive flock in the right country, which is large enough to produce enough eggs at the same time (i.e. so they all have more or less the same hatch dates) to accomplish the import, and the more chicks there are the higher the cost. I imagine Slimbridge was the only feasible candidate.
So it would have been a mix of cost and logistics that limited the number of chicks they could import. And then once they have a flock, even though it is tiny, there is no great "need" for them to incur the expense of further imports.
An interesting side note regarding flamingoes is that several species once lived in Australia, including the modern Greater flamingo. By default Australia could claim to be re-wilding an extinct native species. Same with Komodo dragons...
Flamingo imports were a bandied around argument for years, but as has been alluded to the will of the zoos hasn't been strong. I don't understand it. Can be an impressive display. Auckland is a perfect example of how to get it right. And in addition to the overseas zoos mentioned, I saw huge flocks of various species in South African zoos.
Flamingo imports were a bandied around argument for years, but as has been alluded to the will of the zoos hasn't been strong. I don't understand it. Can be an impressive display. Auckland is a perfect example of how to get it right. And in addition to the overseas zoos mentioned, I saw huge flocks of various species in South African zoos.