Tinamous in the Weltvogelpark Walsrode

Tinamous in the Weltvogelpark Walsrode By Simon Bruslund and Wolfgang Magnus “Tinamou”—No it is not a fancy des- sert that has been spelled wrong. Even though they remain little known they are indeed an important group of birds with their own taxonomic order; the Tinami- formes. They may look a little bit like dull chickens and often show a retired and shy behavior in the wild, but they are so much more than just that. The Tinamous belongs to a group of birds that everyone knows, they are Pal- aeognaths! A group of birds which is different than all other living birds and compromises, in addition to the tinamous, also ostriches, rheas, emus, cas- sowaries and kiwis. These birds are the remaining survivors of a once larger group of birds and shares several ana- tomical features, notably in jaw and foot structure. Distribution The Tinamous are very successful in South America with more than 46 species they are distributed in almost all habitats from mountain desert to low- land rainforest. But why do they only exist in South-America? Fossil-remains do indicate that tinamous where once distributed throughout the southern hemisphere. Primitive looking tinamou- like fossils with full wings have been found in the European and North Amer- ican region suggesting that the ancestors of tinamous and ratites may have devel- oped in the north and then dispersed SIMON BRUSLUND/An Elegant-crested Tinamou with eggs. south throughout the Gondwanaland. environment do have a larger portion of Social Life Diet berries and fruit in their diet. It almost looks like the tinamous are Tinamous are not fussy when it comes Water is important for the tinamous experimenting with different social struc- to food and they will feed on almost any- that seem to be drinking at least once tures; between the different species of thing from insects to roots and leaves. daily and they love to bathe together in a tinamous you find all kinds of differ- A majority of the diet for most spe- small group. Also sun- and sand-bathing ent mating structures and hierarchies. cies is small seeds, particularly grass is very much enjoyed which they seem to A few species live in monogamous pairs seeds but the species living in a forested extend this for as long as possible. and aggressively chase others away at least AFA Watchbird 51 itizing Watchb ig We now have all previous issues ird D of Watchbird, including issues that are out of print! Each issue contains optical character recognition that allows for sorting by key words, as well as language translation. Digitization of these articles helps to preserve the history of the AFA and the history of aviculture since the start of Watchbird in 1974. For more information, go to www.afawatchbird.com. The American Federation of Aviculture Inc. is a 501(c)3 educational organization. While authors and photographers grant AFA publishing rights when If you have contributed articles and/or photographs that have been they submit their articles and pictures for publication in Watchbird, as an published in Watchbird, or if you know of anyone who has, please contact additional courtesy we are attempting to contact all contributors to secure the author or photographer immediately and have them contact Mary their authorization to digitize and republish their articles and photographs. Ellen LePage at [email protected]. for part of the year, others live in large ing Wa groups where a seemingly equal num- itiz tchb bers of males and females live and breed ig ir together without aggression, a so called D d polygynandry. Many species form polygynous harems where the male will attract several females in his area until he has a nest full with eggs and starts incubating. There- after the females will generally leave the area and mate with another male. There is also the polyandrous version where the female will mate with different males between each egg. In general the female tinamous are larger and more colorful than the males and it is always the males that care for the household business of caring for eggs and young. Eggs of the Tinamuos family of birds, making them particularly Indeed the Tinamous so have a high interesting to that cherished group of reproduction potential and a female can our visitors who has a special interest in lay more than 200 eggs a year. This is one birds. This opens for us the opportunity of the highest reproduction potential to also tell the story of these interesting in any higher vertebrate. For birds this birds to other more generally interested is only surpassed by the selectively bred visitors who quickly learn that there is modern races of the domestic chicken. plenty to discover. The rarest species to be Truly stunning is the structure of tin- seen in the park is the Solitary Tinamou amou eggs, effectively there is nothing (Tinamus solitarius) from the Atlan- else like it in the avian world. The color tic Rainforest of Brazil. They are among varies from species to species from choc- the largest of the tinamous and lay tur- olate brown over emerald green to tur- quoise blue eggs. The mid-sized Elegant- quoise blue. In common is the smooth crested Tinamou (Eudromia elegans) is surface they almost look glazed. Why the unusual among tinamous with its crest. eggs are this colorful remains an enigma They live in groups in dense grasslands in to science. the southern part of South-America in Argentina and Chile. The color of their Tinamous in Zoos eggs is rich emerald green. The Small- Tinamous are rare in zoos and cur- SIMON BRUSLUND/At top, an Elegant-crested billed Tinamou (Crypturellus parviros- rently only 7 species are considered to be Tinamou with a nest. Above, an Elegant- tris) has a large distribution in woodlands kept in European zoos. Concerns have crested Tinamou chick. between Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay been expressed about the risk of future and Argentina. They belong to the small- inbreeding issues as most of these spe- other ground dwelling birds in zoos such est tinamous and lay eggs of a dark choc- cies originate from a very narrow founder as galliforms and waders. olate brown color. pool. In general in times where ever fewer birds are kept in zoos and often losing Tinamous in Walsrode Breeding in Weltvogelpark out in the competition with standard zoo The Weltvogelpark has a tradition in The Elegant-crested Tinamou has animals like big cats, primates or large keeping little known species and devel- been kept at the Weltvogelpark since a herbivores tinamous are facing a difficult oping the needed knowhow for the opti- decade and meanwhile all the individu- time as a zoo animal. Further the tina- mized husbandry. Tinamous are a good als kept here also hatched in here Wal- mous is also competing for space with example of this as it is a little known srode. Although some species like the AFA Watchbird 53 large Solitary Tinamous are known to We have found that the digestion in the cultures in powder form. This is added live for up to 15 years in captivity this is tinamous is very much dependent on a to their normal diet of chicken crumble, not the case in most species. The average healthy intestinal bacteria-flora. In the small seeds and various greens. lifespan of a healthy Elegant-crested Tin- wild it is believed that young tinamous The Solitary Tinamou is a very recent amou seem to be much closer to four to may feed on fecal from adults and this addition to the collection at Walsrode. six years. In Weltvogelpark Walsrode the way becomes “inoculated” with the right They have arrived here as a part of a breeding of the Elegant-crested Tinamou bacteria stems. In captivity this has been long-term research project being run has been most successful, particularly tried but can also lead to other problems. by our partner organization the Cracid in recent years as the methods has been More recently we have been using rela- Breeding- and Conservation Center in optimized. The major issue has been the tively high doses of commercial probi- Zutendaal, Belgium. So far we have only health of the very young tinamou chicks. otics in the form of Lactobacteria spp. made limited experience in regards to breeding results with just two chicks dur- ing 2010. Compared to the dull color- ation of the adults the chicks have very nice colors and patterns in their first down coat. Like all young tinamous they carry a dense down plumage and are very agile soon after hatching. Because most of the eggs laid by the prolific pairs in the aviaries are not incu- bated by the parents they are pulled for artificial incubation and hand-rearing. For the Elegant-crested Tinamou the incubation period is between 19 and 21 days. Fertile eggs have a high hatch rate in the incubator and are less sensitive to disturbance and small fluctuations in temperature and humidity than most other bird eggs. Research in Farming Potential at CBCC in Belgium The potential of Tinamous to serve as food is thanks to their high reproduction rate considerable. Unfortunately wild populations cannot cope with a very high hunting pressure with several examples of local exterminations due to excessive hunting. Therefore, in cooperation with gov- ernment agencies of different countries in Latin-American, the CBCC is among other things investigating the feasibili- ties in using tinamou-culture as a source of food and income for local communi- ties within tinamou ranges and thereby discouraging the need for hunting the wild populations.

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