Studbook nr. 5, December 2008

EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
5.4 Housing conditions
Crowned pigeons are not reproducing very well in captivity. Due to a lack of knowledge of the
ecology of crowned pigeons in the wild there is a lot of variation in husbandry in the different
institutions. For that reason it is investigated under which circumstances crowned pigeons are kept
in captivity and if they are reproducing or not. There also has been contributed a research project in
Papua New Guinea. The complete researches can be found in the European Studbook of Crowned
Pigeons number 4. In this paragraph only a summary of the conclusions of the ex situ research will
be given.
Ex situ research project
The research project was carried out in four public institutions: Amsterdam Zoo (Artis), Rotterdam
Zoo (Blijdorp), Arnhem Zoo (Burgers Zoo) and Alphen a/d Rijn Bird park (Avifauna). If Burgers
Zoo is considered to be the most natural situation in captivity, it can be concluded that a restriction
in the variation in the enclosure, leads to an increase in care behaviour: the crowned pigeons spend
more time preening their feathers and so on. If the environment of the birds is even more restricted,
the birds also spend more time conducting metabolic behaviour. Time budget in this case is a
measure for wellbeing.
The enclosure also needs to have as many different elements as possible to enable the birds
to conduct the behaviour they want. From the project into preferences for a type of substrate it
turned out that crowned pigeons needed both sand as well as mould. They use the sand to conduct
care behaviour (preening) and the mould to conduct foraging. If there is no mould and only sand,
they start preening that much, that the plumage gets damaged. By supplying the birds with some
parts of mould (preferably planted), the foraging behaviour increases, the behaviour in time
decreases and the birds are more active and also more attractive to the visitors, and the enclosure
looks more ‘natural’ to the visitors. The mould can be separated from the sand with use of trunks.
If watered regularly the maintenance of the mould does not cost more time than the sand.
This research project mainly focused on the use of substrate and the preference for a type of perch.
Two out of six pigeons preferred a thick perch. Also changes in substrate did not result in the
expected change in behaviour. One of the major conclusions, which can be drawn from this
experiment, is that crowned pigeons are very susceptible for changes in their environment. They
are used to the daily routine of the keepers, but as soon as something unexpected happens, like
catching other birds or replacing some shrubs, they need several days or more to behave like they
did before. Also the replacement of perches or substrate caused a lot of stress and it became
necessary to wait for days before observing the birds, to get comparable results. But this still
influences the reliability of the results.
Crowned pigeons are typical ground dwellers and the best is to keep them solitary, eventually with
some other small species, which lives in the trees, because they can be very aggressive. To get
them incubating an egg, there should not be any other large birds in the aviary. For example
turacos and kookaburras are that curious and cheeky that they start emptying the nest if they have
the possibility.
Although, crowned pigeons kept under the most natural circumstances in the Netherlands
(Burgers Zoo) have a preference for thin perches (diameter maximum 3 centimetres) to rest and
sleep on, in this research project it could not be proved that also other crowned pigeons have a
preference for thin perches.
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