SOFTBILL PROPAGATION IN U.S. ZOOS: A Thirty Year Perspective Part I – The ‘70’s Josef Lindholm, III Senior Aviculturist Dallas World Aquarium This is one of the fi ve he three decades following the Plate-billed Mountain establishment of the American Toucans (Andigena TFederation of Aviculture have seen lamnirostris) at The remarkable developments in the manage- Dallas World Aquarium, ment of captive birds in North America. presently the only ones Several species of macaws and cocka- in a North American toos, as well as a variety of other parrots, Zoo. The fi rst fully are now maintained as self-sustaining successful captive populations, chiefl y in the private sector. breeding of this bird Species of waterfowl, such as Ringed Teal, took place at the Los Hooded Mergansers, and North American Angeles Zoo in 1974. Ruddy Ducks, formerly considered rari- Further chicks were ties, have now become standard features reared in 1975. Photo in collections. A number of pheasants once Plate-billed Mountain Toucans by Natalie Lindholm unobtainable in America can now be pro- cured from breeders. The dream of creating a stable population of critically endangered species, then re-establishing them in the wild from been maintained. When breeding did take place, it captive-bred stock is being achieved with California was a matter of interest and congratulation, but, in Condors and Whooping Cranes, and appears to be most cases, the goal of predictably repeated success- on the verge of success for other birds. es, culminating in a stable population, did not exist for softbills. More often than not, as soon as one spe- The role of soft-billed birds as U. S. zoo animals has cies had bred (and sometimes been written about), changed profoundly over this period. Through 1972, institutional interest might focus on the next species to when import restrictions to combat Exotic Newcastle’s do so. Thus, in 1970, when the San Diego Zoo held Disease were imposed, softbills were essentially over a thousand taxa of birds, 34 species and sub- unmanaged. When imported birds were ridiculously species of birds (mostly psittacines) were fully reared. inexpensive and easy to replace, the expenditure of The most successful U.S. Zoo in 1970 was St. Louis, paid time spent meticulously monitoring individual where the total number of bird taxa fully reared was specimens, maintaining their records, and provid- 46, while over 400 were kept there. That year, the ing them with the same standard of veterinary care Bronx Zoo held over 400 taxa and reared 40, Los expected for “Charismatic Megavertebrates” could be Angeles held over 400 and reared 41, San Antonio diffi cult to justify to a municipal Park and Recreation held around 500 and reared 13, and the Lincoln Park Department or a society’s Board of Directors. Literally Zoo held nearly 300 and reared fi ve (Lindholm, 1993). hundreds of birds might be exhibited in one aviary, And very few of those reared were softbills, the major- quite often as single specimens, or, almost as often, ity being aquatic species and gamebirds. as “fl ocks”, when a single pair should ideally have AFA WATCHBIRD • 27 As of 2005, the only Faced with this sudden diffi culty in acquir- U.S zoo maintaining ing birds in the 1970’s, American zoo bird Pale-mandibled staff took an increasing interest in sustained Aracaris (Pteroglossus propagation. Institutional support for captive torquatus breeding was encouraged by the dramatic in- erythropygius) is crease in environmental consciousness that The Dallas World exploded across the country at the beginning Aquarium (where of the ‘70’s. Zoos were quick to add “con- they have bred, and servation” to their mission statements. While where this/these that, in time, translated into an enormous picture(s) was/were range of research and in situ projects around taken). In the 70’s the globe, for a great many places in the ‘70’s, and ‘80’s however the most immediate expression of “conserva- this Ecuadorian tion” was captive breeding programs. While endemic was rather emphasis, of course, was placed on propagat- commonplace, and Pale-mandibled Aracari ing threatened animals, breeding almost any- was the fi rst taxon thing at all was likely to enhance a zoo’s public in its genus to be image, especially to potential benefactors or an bred in captivity. From electorate contemplating a funds increase. 1974 through 1977, the Los Angeles Zoo hatched 15 specimens, some sent to other collections. Photo by Such was the atmosphere in 1974, the year the Natalie Lindholm American Federation of Aviculture was incorporated. To attain a perspective of how things have gone since then, I will present some of the data on birds bred in When U.S. Newcastle’s restrictions were imposed in captivity collected by the Zoological Society of Lon- 1972, initially bird imports stopped altogether. Even- don, published in its International Zoo Yearbooks tually, imports were allowed, provided the birds under- (Zoological Society of London, 1960-1998). went a quarantine period at a government or commer- For this, the fi rst of a four part examination, I have cial facility (of which there were initially few). Quite naturally selected 1974, the year AFA was founded. aside from the fact that these stations were often not For the second installment, I have chosen to pres- conducive to acclimating more delicate species, the ent the IZY data from1985, as breeding records from quarantine costs drove up the price of birds phenom- the San Diego Zoo for 1984 were inadvertently not enally. Further expense was incurred by the element submitted. (Unfortunately it appears bird breeding of risk during quarantine: Should a single specimen records for the San Diego Wild Park were omitted for in a facility exhibit symptoms of Newcastle’s disease, several years around this time). The third installment all remaining birds present were to be destroyed, re- of this article will present the records for 1996, the last turned to their country of origin, or, more recently, sub- year IZY breeding records were published. In the fi nal jected to another complete quarantine period. Thus, installment of this article series, I will offer in update for example, a pair of Red-eared Waxbills that could with some statistics for 2005 from ISIS (the Interna- be bought at a Woolworth’s for $3.95 in the spring of tional Species Information System). Examining the 1972 might cost $40 in 1974. data from these years, it will be immediately obvious that much has happened and much has changed in Coinciding with Newcastle’s restrictions, a host of three decades. other factors complicating the procurement of birds by zoos came to be in the 1970’s. The United States In 1974, the International Zoo Yearbook records 37 Endangered Species Act and the Convention on Inter- species of softbilled birds hatched among 25 U.S. national Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) were collections. In 1985, 101 species and subspecies created in that decade. At the same time, a number hatched among 56 collections. In 1996, 150 softbill of countries that had been major sources of commer- taxa hatched among 63 institutions. A closer look at cial bird shipments either entirely prohibited their bird these three years should reveal much about the evo- trade, or curtailed it severely. Mexico, Costa Rica, lution of zoo aviculture. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, India, and Thailand come to mind. Having compiled the data for 1974, I was struck by two things. While the total number of species hatched that year is only a fraction of those hatched in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, it includes some highly interesting 28 • Number 3 2005 birds. My other observation is how much of these was the parent-rearing of Northern Ground Hornbills, activities were dominated by a handful of institutions, out in the huge East African enclosure, shared with and that many of these breedings took place in single herds of hoofed-stock. This was also repeated in enclosure or series of exhibits. In particular, of the 37 1974, the same year Los Angeles attained the world species hatched in 1974, ten bred at the San Diego fi rst breeding of Tarictic Hornbills (Jennings, 1976, Wild Animal Park, and for seven of these, it was the Jennings & Rundel, 1976). only place to do so. Eight of the ten Wild Animal Park hatchings took place in the enormous aviary which With seven species, the Bronx Zoo (New York Zoo- marked the entrance, from the Park’s opening in logical Park) comes in second in the number of softbill 1972 until it was replaced by another, smaller one, in species hatched in 1974. Again, this has much to a different spot, several years ago. This aviary was do with the opening of a major exhibit in 1972, in this stocked, in 1971 and ’72 (before the imposition of case the World of Birds, which remains the most elab- Newcastle’s Quarantine) with small fl ocks of African orate indoor bird facility in any zoo. And again, this and Asian birds. This resulted in a fairly high mortal- building was stocked before the imposition of New- ity, but, in those days before safe surgical sexing, also castle’s restrictions. Thus, the 1974 successes in- produced breeding pairs. Thus this exhibit became clude the rearing of the fi rst, and so far only one of the the site, in 1973, of the fi rst breeding in the West- more than 200 species of Antbirds to be fully raised in ern Hemisphere of any African Roller or any Tockus captivity. Not only was the Rufus-faced Ant Pitta one hornbill, when Lilac-breasted Rollers and Red-beaked of the many species gathered especially for the grand Hornbills fl edged there.