Wrinkled Hornbill Cockatoos Are More "Needy" Than Oth Aceros Corrugatus Ers, Meaning That They Require Lots of Attention
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Umbrellas and Moluccans, though the Zoo BIRD PROFILES cuddliest of the larger species, are loud I enough that no one in an apartment or townhouse should consider owning one. The quietest of the cockatoos that we raise is the Citron, which is small and is a good talker. Cockatoos are not famous for their talking ability. I have been amazed to find that all my babies talk. ow as adults, many of the babies that I have raised and kept over the years talk so much and so clearly that they fre quently are mistaken for people hav ing a conversation. They seem to know not only what to say, but what inflection to put in their voice to get their point across. "Punkin," of course, is totally unusual in the way he enun ciates his words by moving both The mandibles when he speaks, and he speaks in complete sentences. There are several other potential problems ofcockatoo ownership. Some Wrinkled Hornbill cockatoos are more "needy" than oth Aceros corrugatus ers, meaning that they require lots of attention. A cockatoo that gets constant Josef Lindholm, 11/ attention and then suddenly gets none Keeper/Birds may become a problem bird. The result Fort Worth Zoological Park' could be a plucking bird, a screaming bird, or a depressed bird. This can hap n many ways, the world is a cation and broadening of scope pen with any bird, but seems more much smaller place than it once among the dealers and collectors oper common in cockatoos because they get I was, as far as zoo aviculturists are ating in the handful of countries yet so much cuddling and seem to crave it. concerned. C\1rators in the 1960s had allowing commercial export. Cockatoos are considered "Old access to seemingly endless quantities Nowhere has this been as apparent World" birds, as are Eclectus and the of birds from India, Thailand, Angola, as in the Republic of Indonesia. During African palTots. "Old World" birds kept Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and other the 1960s and most ofthe 1970s, only a in warmer climates such as southern countries which now prohibit commer small fraction of that country's incom Florida, USA, tend to be susceptible to cial export. Such species as quetzals, parably diverse avifauna appeared on a terrible disease called sarcocystis, cocks-of-the-rock, umbrellabirds, bell the market. The riches of Irian Jaya which is a parasite carried by opossums birds, mountain toucans, Rainbow were largely restricted to species from and spread by roaches. It is not conta Buntings, sylphs, sunangels, fishing the West Papuan Islands - primarily gious from bird to bird - only from owls, serpent eagles, and falconets, cassowaries, crowned pigeons, and roaches excreting opossum feces. once widespread, are now seen in only occasional birds of paradise, all now Cockatoos do not show any signs that one or two U.S. collections, or not at all. prohibited, as well as various lories. they are infected until 15 minutes On the other hand, there are many Aside from lorikeets and cockatoos, before they die, when they become birds, undreamed of in American zoos practically nothing was seen from crippled. This occurs more in birds kept in the 1960s and '70s now found in Sulawesi, And despite its close proxim outside and on porches, but contami growing numbers of institutions. ity 10 Java, the seat of Indonesian nated feed can come from anywhere. Some, such as the present assortment administrative offices, Sumatra was There is no pet that is perfect in of fruit doves and bee-eaters are the almost entirely unrepresented. every way. However, the possible neg results of improved understanding of By the end of the 1980s things had ative aspects ofcockatoo ownership are husbandry. Politics has also played a changed dramatically. American Zoos far outweighed by the many positive role-the establishment of trade held an array of taxa endemic to aspects. I hope that everyone will have between the U.S. and the People's Mainland ew Guinea and Sulawesi. the pleasure of meeting a cockatoo at Republic of China has had a definite Green-naped Pheasant Pigeons, some time in their life. Only then, in my effect on zoo aviculture. Another factor Goldie's Lorikeets, Sulawesi Ground opinion, wilt they truly have lived and has been an evolution within the for Doves, Red-knobbed Hornbills, King been loved. ~ eign bird trade, an increased sophisti- Mynahs, and Grosbeak Starlings can be the afa WATCHBIRD 55 seen across the U.S., and all have been TABLE I. propagated. Sumatra is now likewise Asian and Pacific Island Hornbill Species Hatched in U.S. Zoos from 1959 through 1996. rather well represented. Its fauna is (Compiled from Records of Birds bred in Captivity in the International Zoo Yearbook, Vol.'s 1-36 closely linked to the Asian mainland, (Zoological Society of London, 1960-98)). and many of its birds are shared with Hatched the Malay Peninsula (from which com Years bred Institutions (Juvenile mortalities) mercial shipments have long been banned). Tarictic Hornbill 1974-76 6(3) (Penelopides sp.) Among Sumatran birds acquired and bred by U.S. Zoos in the last Luzon Tarictic Hornbill 1981-82, 1986-90 28(16) decade have been Crestless Fire (Penelopides manillae) backed Pheasants, Pink-necked Fruit Samar Tarictic Hornbill 1993 Doves, Rhinoceros Hornbills, Gaudy (Penelopides samarensis) and Fire-tufted Barbets, Lesser Green Broadbills, and the distinctive red Sulawesi Hornbill 1993-94, 1996 2 9(3) (Penelopides exarhatus) throated subspecies of the Silver-eared Mesia. All of these had been previous White-crowned Hornbill 1994 ly scarce, or absent, in American avi (Aceros comatus) culture for years. Wrinkled Hornbill 1988-96 5 39(20) Among these Sumatran importations (Aceros corrugatus) was a large and spectacular bird which appears to have never been previously Writhed Hornbill 1992-94 2 5(3) kept in North America. The Wrinkled (Aceros leucocephalus) Hornbill Aceros conugatus was former Red-knobbed Hornbill 1991-96 3 18(13) ly found throughout the southern Malay (Aceros cassidix) Peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra Wreathed Hornbill 1977,1979-84,1991, 3 14(2) and Borneo. It appears to have disap (Aceros undulatus) 1993-96 peared from Singapore more than 50 years ago, is considered close to extinc Papuan Hornbill 1994-96 3 8 tion in the small portion of Thailand (Aceros plicatus) from which it is known, and is rare in Oriental Pied Hornbill 1972-75,1981-94,1996 6 55(4) Peninsular Malaysia. (Anthracoceros albirostris) For the time being however, it remains "fairly common" in Borneo Rhinoceros Hornbill 1985-96 5 28(12) (Buceros rhinoceros) and Sumatra (Kemp, 1995). It is classi fied .as vulnerable by BirdLife Great Hornbill 1979, 1986-95 7 20(4) International and the International (Buceros bicornis) Union for the Conservation of Nature (Collar, et aI, 1994). It is threatened and several subsequent breedings at attempts at the Chester Zoo, in chiefly by habitat destruction, as it is Audubon, are discussed in great detail England, by a pair confiscated by "Her dependent on lowland tropical forests, in Volume 31 of the International Zoo Majesty's Customs & Excise," in 1986. which are of course being extensively Yearbook (Sigler & Myers, 1992). In Summers (997) provides a transcrip logged through most of its range. It addition, Peter Shannon (993) pub tion of his notes from a successful par will breed in selectively logged forest lished further details of double clutch tial hand-rearing at Paultons Park, in (Kemp, 1995). ing there. Hampshire, England. Prior to the Sumatran exports, the Somewhat unusually, there· are It is rather ironic that a hornbill that only captive record of which I am highly detailed published accounts of appears never to have been imported aware is for the London Zoo where captive propagation of Wrinkled to the United States before the 1980s, this species was maintained some time Hornbills in three other institutions, all has now become the second-most fre previous to 1927 (Low, 1929). When in the venerable AviculturalMagazine. quently bred Asian hornbill in this species became commercially Rosemary Low (994), with her famil American zoos (Table I.), being available in the 1980s, it was in some iar insight and style, documents a exceeded only by the Oriental Pied numbers, and several institutions complicated 1993 breeding season at Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris acquired some in short order. Palmitos Park, on the Spanish - admin (which is the first Hornbill species bred The first successful captive breeding istered island of Gran Canaria, result in the Western Hemisphere, at took place at the Audubon Pilrk Zoo in ing in a fully reared chick, followed by Honolulu Zoo, in 1953). This is espe New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1988, from two further unsuccessful clutches. cially so, considering that the Great a pair, believed to be two years old, Wilkinson et al (996) present five sea Hornbill Buceros bicornis, and the acquired in early 1987. This breeding, sons of varyingly successful nesting Wrinkled's close relative, the Malay 56 September/October 1999 TABLE II. always exhibited them in an outdoor planted aviary 25 ft long X 20 ft wide Wrinkled Hornbills (Aceros corrugatus) Hatched in Zoos and Bird Parks through 1996. (Compiled from Records of Birds Bred in Captivity in the International Zoo Yearbook, Vol.'s 1-36 X 8 ft high (with a pool). For more than (1960-1998)). a year, a breeding pair of Ringed Teal Callonetta leucophrys shared the aviary Hatched without incident. Because the female Years bred (Juvenile mortalities) had arrived at the zoo with a mild form North America ofiron storage disorder, no attempt was made to breed these birds in 1996.