Pairi Daiza the worlds first!!!

as all shoebills in captivity are wildcaught as adults or subadults, I don't really think your theory goes.

it's a fact that parent reared is always a better option than hand reared, but as I said before. they've had a lot of experience in hand rearing several other species like raptors, but cranes as well. and most of those chicks turned out fine and reproduced when kept with their own kind. (allthough I'm not sure about the cranes)

either way, it's quite certain that all future nests will be parent reared if they prove themselves with these new eggs.
 
From what I have been told, all shoebills in captivity exept the birds in Prague and Paradiso have been wild-caught as chicks and handraised and are not interested in mating with other shoebills. The birds in Paradiso and Prague are not imprinted and know who their sexual partners are because they have been wildcaught as subadults. But with the handraised chicks, the same may happen like with the wildcaught chicks.

I really hope not!!

With just one breeding pair and not many more potential breeding birds, it might be a good idea to take the first clutch away from the pair each year to boost the number of chicks produced from a possible 2 to 4. But this makes only sense when the handraised chicks will breed...

You are correct that most other species of birds breed naturally even when handraised, but it seems shoebills are different or this wouldn`t be a world`s first.
 
I don't know about all zoos, but those I know of really have brought them in as adult or subadult animals. and I haven't seen any writings anywhere about hand raising shoebills in the past.

all I know is that in the past the animals were often kept alone. but that was when zoos were'nt thinking of breeding yet and merely showed as many animals as possible. even now several zoos have only 1 shoebill in the collection.

during the more recent breeding attempts birds were often thrown in the mix together. that was the case in walsrode, which exchanged one of their animals not to long ago, because their pair didn't really like each other.

there are several bird species that are pretty picky when it comes to partners. so with the scenario I described above, it seems to me that this more than anything is responsible for the long wait we had for breeding results.

paradisio gave their birds the choise of partner. zoos like prague, san diego and lowry have several animals of both sexes. apparently they too think the animals should chose their mate themselves.

I only hope that if more pairs start to reproduce, the zoos will work well together in establishing an nice strong genetic pool.
 
forumbully said:
either way, it's quite certain that all future nests will be parent reared if they prove themselves with these new eggs.
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Perhaps when the two handraised chicks are safely reared they can be put within sight or contact of the parents (and hopefully their naturally -reared young) as a way of improving their 'stork' skills?
 
The shoebils in prague are not living in best conditions behind the scenes , I've seen all five animals last year. They are being kept in the quarantine station and have access to outside aviarays, which are not very big. I think, the shoebills there can fly.

I don't know, what will happen to the shoebills, the first plan was to build an own house with a breeding section for them, so the people could see them, but this was never build and someone at the zoo told me, that the zoodirector has lost the interest in them.

That's sad, he has very precious animals and is not trying to breed with them. So the best for the shoebillss would be, to send them to other facillitys, Paradiso would make sense now.

There is a thread now about the world first breeding of shoebills in a german forum, and last friday, it was published in a web zoo magzine, called " Zoopresseschau", but it was not published in other magazines or newspapers, maybe Paradiso has not send out a press information.

There is only one shoebill left at the Frankfurt Zoo. Altough they have an outside exhibit, it is not used for the shoebills since many years,I don't know the reason for that, but because the last shoebill is all the time inside, he maybe can fly now.
 
I think I've seen part of the shoebill facility in prague, but am not sure. you could see low aviaries through the trees. I always found it strange they never built an nice enclosure for these animals. they most certainly have the space and an aviary isn't all that expensive.

frankfurt has had only one female for several years now. don't know how old she is. there were plans to send the 2nd male from paradisio there. but this never went through and the animal died later on.

thx for the update on german sites. paradisio did send press information in 3 languages, but I have absolutely no idea how international they sent it. all I know is that zoos as far as japan know the news.

@pertinax: no chance they can put the chicks in sight of the parents unless the put them in a portable cage inside the enclosure.
 
@ forumbully.The quarantine station with the shoebills at Prague zoo is across the street behind the giraffe house, you can't see it from the vistors area.

One of next big projekts at the zoo is ( of course ) a new elephant house, so I think they have to save money and have no money for a shoebill house.

The shoebill aviary at Paradiso isn't a walk-through, exhihit, or ? Do the vistors have access to the exhibit, or will they close the access to them if the chicks has hatched ?
 
then it's another quarantaine station I saw. just thought it resembled your description

at paradisio it isn't walk through. they have a large boat that houses reptiles and in the lower section are the winter/night enclosures of siamang, hippo, tapir and shoebill. not accessible by visitors. the outdoor enclosures of all animals mentioned are islands around this boat.

people can see the animals either from the shore of the lake or from the boats deck. the shoebill enclosures nets are right next to the deck, but while the female is nesting, an extra barrier has been placed to minimize stress.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jurek7 View Post
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.
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San Diego Wild Animal Park currently has 2.3 birds.

1.2 are clipped, and have been or are currently hand fed. All three of these were kept on exhibit at some point. Currently of these 1.1 are on exhibit and 0.1 is now housed in another location.

Additionally, they have 1.1 wild caught adults in a very large flight. These two birds are full flight. There is little interaction between these birds and the keeper staff.

Additionally, a few years back when these wild caught adults were brought into the US, other US zoos also acquired adults in hopes to breed them in captivity.
 
RE:shoebills in Prague
There is a new aviary and a small house for one shoebill pair planned to be built next year. The accual number of birds is 2,2.

offtopic
RE:new elephant house in Prague
The zoo director tried to phase out the elephants, but the city council (the owner) has not allowed it. The old house is not acceptable any longer so a decision to build a new one had to be made. This investment is 100% funded by Prague city council so it does not affect the economic condition of the zoo at all.
 
There is a wide variety of ways of hand rearing birds; creche reared, social imprint, food imprint, dual raised, sibling assocation, puppet feed, foster reared etc. The age from which hand rearing starts also has a large effect; egg,hatch, week, pre-flegde etc

Done for various reasons. Mass production being often the key factor. Many are hand reared to be used potentially for AI or for as trained flying birds.

Parent reared raptors (not owls) that are then trained using falconry based methods are usually the best breeders and parents. These birds have the benefits of knowing exactly what they are and being calm birds in close proximity to people. In general the worst natural breeders are full food imprints, however enough examples occur of these imprints breeding. Followed by untrained wild caught adults. Many commercial breeders will strongly talk up the benefits of creche reared birds for breeding as this is the simpliest method for mass production.

In my limited opinion the ideal situation here would be for the 2 chicks to be raised 10-14 days and as long as strong and healthy returned to parents. With the 2nd clutch being taken away for artificial incubation. Clearly this puts the chicks at risk from their inexperienced parents. However, these young would hopefully grow up knowing exactly what they are and great future potential breeders. It could be possible at later date to swap the nearly fledged 1st clutch chicks (these would go into isolation til independence) for the potential 2nd clutch chicks.
 
I thought, San DIEGO WAP has send a shoebill to tampa a few years ago, is that correct ?
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They sent 1.0 out about 4-5 years ago, but I do not remember the institution. The 2.3 number is current. The wild caught adult free flight female in the breeding cage is from another zoo.
 
Zebraduiker said:
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 ?
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If you see how long it taked for the "ordinary" Belgian people to read about this, (several newspapers have it still not published) am I not surprised. It seems that the most people of the press don"t see anything special in these birds...

I am not into birds or Paradisio, but even I see that it was something special within the birdscollection of Paradisio :)
 
Coua said:
any updates or new pictures?
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updates yes, pics no.

both chicks are doing fine. they're actually starting to look like shoebills.
the parents are caring very well for the 2 new eggs, so this too is looking good.

Haven't been to the park myself. bit of a lack of time and no professional reason to go there. but you'll get new pics as soon as they're available.
 
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