Pairi Daiza the worlds first!!!

we were in the park yesterday, when they were caring for the chicks

this is a pic we took of the 2nd chick, only 1 hour old
schoenbek5.jpg
 
also for whooping cranes in the USA

With Whooping crane chicks did the keepers/feeders dress in white with masks & red caps to look like adult birds? I've sure I've seen this done somewhere for at least one species-it always makes me laugh:D despite it being a rational thing to do if you want to avoid imprinted chicks.
 
Forumbully, phantastic pictures. It's envaible you've sent he chicks in that age....What they feed them ?
I have a few days vacation time in october, so maybe I do a short trip to belgium, maybe I can see the young shoebills at this time, how far away is the park from antwerp, and can I reach it by train ? It's a good reason to visit antwerp and Plankendael again, I was there just one time in 1997.
 
Paradisio is a little over an hour drive from antwerp.
I live north from antwerp and it takes me about an hour and half.

if you want to take the train, the park is about 1 km from the railway station of Cambron Casteau. so that is not much of a problem. you'll probably have to switch trains 1 or 2 times, but that's all.

not a bad idea to combine it with antwerp and planckendael.
both have had some nice new projects recently. the aquarium, the australian waterrats in the nocturnal house, remodelling the rocks in antwerp and of course the new savannah in Planckendael.
 
Many Many Thanks for these great and phantastic pictures. Strange, there is nothing to read about the world first breeding of shoebills in germany, do anybody has read about that in newspapers or magazines ?
 
Can only agree with Zebraduiker-thanks a lot for the pics.

@Pertinax: What do You mean with "did";)? I had to wear such a crane "masquerade" at a crane breeding facility last summer. Feels like running around in a burqa.
 
Can only agree with Zebraduiker-thanks a lot for the pics.

@Pertinax: What do You mean with "did";)? I had to wear such a crane "masquerade" at a crane breeding facility last summer. Feels like running around in a burqa.

I'm glad I wasn't there to see it, I would have split my sides, I can't help it I just find it hilarious....:D
 
Great photos of both chicks and the parent birds with their new egg. I wonder if this one will be left with them. Depends on their behaviour perhaps?
 
Many Many Thanks for these great and phantastic pictures. Strange, there is nothing to read about the world first breeding of shoebills in germany, do anybody has read about that in newspapers or magazines ?

possibly because I'm only active on Dutch, English and French speaking forums
:p

no seriously. they sent out a press review, but I have no idea how international that was. allthough they were called by Japanese zoo (I think Ueno) to congratulate them on the result.

I have no idea how far it travelled through the net. fora and stuff. I only visit 3 or so.
 
Hopefully someone is busy making a Shoebill-like dummy to feed the chicks...

Does anyone know where and when this rearing technique was first adopted? I saw it being used by the Dept of Conservation with handraised Takahe chicks in New Zealand circa 1990.

It's probably not necessary for chicks which will be staying in captivity. The three species mentioned (Californian condors, whooping cranes, takahe) are reared artificially for release into the wild. The puppets are used so that they have no familiarity with humans and therefore do not approach people once released, rather than just to prevent imprinting.
 
It's probably not necessary for chicks which will be staying in captivity. The three species mentioned (Californian condors, whooping cranes, takahe) are reared artificially for release into the wild. The puppets are used so that they have no familiarity with humans and therefore do not approach people once released, rather than just to prevent imprinting.

You are right. I wasn't thinking straight. With Shoebills in captivity, in order to reduce stress levels its probably better if they are as used to people as possible, while not being so imprinted that they won't breed. But two chicks raised together should prevent that.
 
Just of interest: which zoos keep full-winged shoebills and which pinioned ones?

missed this question so far but:
pinioned: wuppertal and walsrode
full winged: paradisio and frankfurt allthough the latter only has an indoor enclosure and can't really fly.
prague and zurich: I have no idea, they were not on display in prague when I was there. but I guess full winged, because I heard they're kept in an aviary and I never visited zurich

outside europe: not sure, but I believe san diegos and uenos are free flying. based on the fact I've seen pics of them in netted enclosures. the other zoos I really wouldn't know.

but there's other news, allthough I almost dare not say it ...
just got the word: the parents are brooding on 2! eggs now!!!

and a questions for the german members here. I'm only active on my own forum (zoosite.nl), this one and a french one. Is this news out on german fora, because from what zebraduiker says, it's still fairly unknown.
 
This is absolutely fantastic news about the 2nd clutch of showbill eggs!!

About the 2 handraised chicks, I do not believe that raising 2 chicks together avoids imprinting. Fact is, animals learn who their parents and therefore their later reproductive partners are very early in life. The being who does the feeding and warming = mum. So these chicks learn now that their parents are humans. And they have no chance to learn shoe-bill storck behavoir since they are not with adult shoebills, and probably won`t be when they`ve grown up a bit. They can`t really learn that from the sibling who hasn`t learned that neither...

Maybe, hopefully being together with the sibling will be enough for the fledgelings to learn that they are birds and not humans. Many species have no problems to reproduce normally when they`re put together with animals of their own species after being handraised if this happens early enough before the animal is fully mature and the window for learning of social behavoir has closed.

The fact that shoebills have never bred before in captivity mainly because the birds were imprinted to humans and never showed any interest in each other does not make me very optimistic for the 2 hand-raised chicks though. If being together with other hand-raised chicks and young adults would be enough for this species to recognise their sexual partners and reproduce sucessfully, breeding would have happenend a lot early, hadn`t it?
 
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