What's involved in Australian zoos importing birds?

C

CGSwans

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I've seen references to the process being possible, but too demanding in time and money for Australian zoos to bother importing birds.

I'm wondering if any of the wise heads here could fill me in on what is involved in importing, for argument's sake, a flock of flamingoes or a few pairs of hornbills.
 
I think a lot of it has to do with interest.. and many people aren't all that interested in them, so the money spent on them would've been better spent on something else.. I do recall something about disease.. for example, bird flu caused a lot of issues, makes things harder.. and effort vs. result isn't worth it..
 
In theory importation of birds is possible but an organisation wanting to do so would need a large amount of money, a good legal team to unravel all the red tape (rules and regulations involving federal and state authorities) and lots of time and patience.

When restrictions were eased for a short while during the early 1990's, a few of the wealthier private aviculturists formed syndicates to import birds from Britain (one of the only countries which the Australian govt. would consider.) Syndicates were formed because the expense was greater than most individuals could afford. The process involved buying birds which had been bred in Britain; keeping them in isolation in Britain for many months; Vet accreditation as to their health then flying them to Australia where they were quarantined for many more months in a closed facility (no natural light or fresh air); further vet checks after which they were allowed to go to their new owners aviaries.

After the syndicates bought their birds in Britain the Aust. govt. changed the rules so that only species already in Australia could be imported. The syndicates then had to sell off many of the birds they had acquired and started quarantining.

The big win for Australian aviculture/zoos was that macaws were brought in (of species already here but which had almost died out.)

The whole process was explained in an avicultural magazine article written by a member of one of the syndicates and titled, "How To Age 30 Years in 18 Months"!
 
Well, after trolling around the AQIS website, I found the import conditions involved to bring in domestic pigeons. I'm guessing these are the same as the conditions when parrots were brought in 15 or so years ago.

Import Conditions Database - ICON - AQIS

And as for zoos importing flamingos, I came upon this document (the Technical Issues paper) on the Biosecurity Australia website. Interestingly, it also said that the macaws imported in the 1990's introduced a disease to Australia despite the strict quarantine controls.

Birds: Flamingoes (Live) - DAFF

Happy reading!

:p

Hix
 
a while back a consortium of the major australian zoos were considering an import of exotics - all birds that had perviously been here and had died out or were functionally extinct.

that still would have given us some nice birds including - flamingoes, touracos, shama, condor, curassow and vic crested pigeon
 
phoenix said:
a while back a consortium of the major australian zoos were considering an import of exotics - all birds that had perviously been here and had died out or were functionally extinct.

that still would have given us some nice birds including - flamingoes, touracos, shama, condor, curassow and vic crested pigeon
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Toucans?

To my mind, priority species for importation, if it were to happen, should be the following:
- Flamingoes and Crowned Cranes
- Toucans
- Hornbills
- Birds of Paradise
- Hyacinth Macaws
- A variety of African species for mixed aviaries at the open range zoos.

Is there any way anyone could estimate, for me, the rough cost of importing a viable population of an exotic bird species? Are we talking five, six or seven figures?
 
Well, that syndicate I was talking about a few posts back imported 66 macaws and the cost was, to quote the article, "several hundred thousand dollars" up front (both for the birds and for use of the quarantine facility) and a keeping, feeding, insurance and electricity bill during the quarantine period of $1600 per month.
 
And it would have to be a long time, wouldn't it? I know quarantine is usually something like 24 months.
 
CGSwans said:
I've seen references to the process being possible, but too demanding in time and money for Australian zoos to bother importing birds.

I'm wondering if any of the wise heads here could fill me in on what is involved in importing, for argument's sake, a flock of flamingoes or a few pairs of hornbills.
Click to expand...

As I understand it:

1. Gain approval for importation of a species, satisfying authorities it will not become a pest species It is unlikely that it would be possible to import a species that has not previously been in Australia.

2. Convince authorities that the species cannot carry any untestable disease.

3. Locate aviary-bred birds in a country of origin satisfactory to authorities, and satisfy the authorities that the birds are avairy bred in a CITES registered facility.

4. Convince authorities that the birds are disease free.

5. Enter into required period of home-country quarantine.

6. Tranship to Australia and enter quarantine in the Spotswood facility for I think 6 months(?).

7. Hope the birds don't drop dead on the way.

Michael
 
Hix, im pretty sure two, not one diseases were later identified. realistically, there is very little conservation value in importing birds into this country because of the quarantine regualtions which would make it hard for our zoos to play any valid role in an intenrational program.
however, if zoos ever do consider doing it, id go with long lived species with long generation spans, like cranes, condors, hornbills, vultures and crowned pigeons. sorry, but small softbills would miss out!
 
CGSwans said:
Not just any parrot.
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Maybe not, but what makes them a "priority species for importation"? Actually, why are toucans and hornbills "priorities"?

MRJ said:
7. Hope the birds don't drop dead on the way.
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That's the other thing many people don't realise. When your birds are in Quarantine here in Australia, if just one is found to have nasty quarantinable disease, then the entire shipment can be destroyed - tens of thousands of dollars (or more) euthanased and no compensation.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
Maybe not, but what makes them a "priority species for importation"? Actually, why are toucans and hornbills "priorities"?
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*Shrugs* Because they're large, impressive species and that's what makes for a popular zoo exhibit. My list was more what I *want* to see than anything else.
 
glyn said:
sorry, but small softbills would miss out!
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To make it worthwhile to bring in a species you would need to bring in enough to create a viable population to prevent genetic bottlenecks, as you probably wouldn't be able to do so again. With the long lived species like macaws they brought in over sixty. For short lived species like many soft bills you would probably need a base population of over a hundred individuals, all of which would have to breed at least once.
 
A while back I was talking to a Adelaide zoo keeper and they said for a chilean flamingo it would cost $500 a day for quarantine. That is a massive amount if you are importing a flock which needs to spend months in quarantine.
 
jay said:
To make it worthwhile to bring in a species you would need to bring in enough to create a viable population to prevent genetic bottlenecks, as you probably wouldn't be able to do so again. With the long lived species like macaws they brought in over sixty. For short lived species like many soft bills you would probably need a base population of over a hundred individuals, all of which would have to breed at least once.
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The more than 60 macaws were not all the one species.

As for the short-lived softbills, you will find they breed rapidly - multiple clutches with several young reared out of each clutch. Species that breed rapidly have an increased genetic diversity per generation and therefore tend to live much longer as the gene pool is effectively larger (at a genetic level). Plus, the greater number of offspring produced means a greater chance of natural mutation, which further increases the diversity.

Fifty orange-breasted waxbills will produce a population that will survive much longer than a population derived from fifty blue-and-gold macaws.

:p

Hix
 
But everyone of those 50 have to survive for six months in a camped cheap aviary without a single one getting sick
 
across all taxa zoo programs, particularly in Australian and New Zealand zoos the longer the generation span the easier it is to manage a population. this becomes the case even more so with birds due to the quarantine laws-if our zoos were to import a decent number of founders for new species then it would be better to do it for relatively long lived and slow breeding species which wouldnt need fresh genetic top-ups all the time.
 
Hix said:
The more than 60 macaws were not all the one species.
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Sorry didn't realise that.
Hix said:
As for the short-lived softbills, you will find they breed rapidly - multiple clutches with several young reared out of each clutch. Species that breed rapidly have an increased genetic diversity per generation and therefore tend to live much longer as the gene pool is effectively larger (at a genetic level). Plus, the greater number of offspring produced means a greater chance of natural mutation, which further increases the diversity.

Fifty orange-breasted waxbills will produce a population that will survive much longer than a population derived from fifty blue-and-gold macaws.

:p

Hix
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That's all true but also with linger lived species they might only need to breed once a decade and the species will still last for a century before you need to look at breeding relations but with shorter lived species you would need to breed at least once every other year. How many years would it take in that case before inbreeding has to occur. Of course with greater number of mutations occuring it wouldn't be as much of a problem.
 
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