BIAZA Newsletter | Winter 2017 | Issue 13

BirdWorking Group October 2016

The 2016 annual meeting of the BIAZA Bird Working Group took place at Chester Zoo last October, attracting an audience of around 60 delegates. and reintroducing choughs into the Jersey coastline. Choughs that had been tagged were hence identifiable and could be monitored post-release to see how they were integrating in with the existing free-living birds. (BIAZA members can view the meeting presentations on the proceedings page of the BIAZA website.) Overall, this was a very interesting and very informative meeting. It is always good to catch up with colleagues at different collections, and to find out about new species or new aspects of husbandry that might be transferable to other zoos. The range of species housed at Chester Zoo made for a tour around that had species of interest to all involved, and again, there were plenty of opportunities to glean new information to be used on the birds at each delegate’s own zoo. Research on birds seems to be strong in BIAZA collections. There are many projects around that are adding science to the bird collections in BIAZA zoos right now such as a new collaborative project hosted by Blackpool Zoo on great white pelican behaviour. Other examples include a focus on courtship and breeding activity, and wildfowl welfare research at WWT Arundel, and at Newquay Zoo they are investigating activity patterns and enclosure usage. To get involved with research in the Bird Working Group please contact Paul Rose (paul.rose@sparsholt.ac.uk), see the priority research topics on the research section of the BIAZA website or, if you are a bird keeper in a BIAZA zoo, ask to join the community on the BIAZA Bird Working Group Facebook group. The BIAZA Research Committee has a very active Facebook page that posts and shares relevant research updates, articles and news items with the wider zoo community on social media; like the page and share with your friends to get involved.

By Lewis Rowden, SWEP Paignton Zoo The focus of this meeting was training, and several presentations explained how husbandry training can be employed on a range of bird species from turacos to marabou storks, hornbills to wildfowl. It was good to see new faces present on this important aspect of husbandry, and work by Sparsholt College on their Malayan black hornbill and white-cheeked turacos provided an excellent example of how unsteady or flighty animals can have their welfare and quality of life improved through individually-planned training regimes. Collections new to training were also highlighted, with work on young white-faced whistling ducks at WWT Slimbridge and crate training of Bahama pintail at WWT Castle Espie also explained. Delegates were given a tour around the zoo’s main bird exhibits as well as a peek behind-the-scenes into the incubation and rearing facilities. Highlights included witnessing the courtship display from the zoo’s pair of great Indian hornbills and learning about their nest box requirements, seeing the feeding of the huge flock of grosbeak starlings in the indoor biome in the Islands exhibit, and watching the cassowary being fed outdoors. Behaviour and welfare of flightless birds was a key feature of the second day. Two presentations focused on reproduction of cassowary in captivity, in particular how behavioural observation and endocrine monitoring can work together to provide the best window for introduction of the male and female together. Paignton Zoo also presented on kiwi husbandry, giving particularly interesting insights into how to display a nocturnal bird in the best manner to engage with the public. The winning talk from best novice presenter was given by Durrell Wildlife for a presentation on rearing

Photos: Paul Rose

12 www.biaza.org.uk