Studbook nr. 5, December 2008

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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 <strong>Studbook</strong> 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. 166
EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS 5.5 Reproduction Information on reproduction in crowned pigeons presented in this section has to be considered as preliminary. Some values are estimated, due to insufficient data. The data is derived from 116 dams and 108 sires with more than 630 offspring which are registered in the European <strong>Studbook</strong>. The offspring of unknown dams are not included. Table 5.3: average age at first reproduction of captive born crowned pigeons Average age at Goura Goura Goura first reproduction cristata scheepmakeri victoria Female 5y, 7m, 10d 4y, 2m, 7d 5y, 4m, 16d Male 6y, 8m, 10d 4y, 9m, 30d 5y, 1m, 27d The average age at first reproduction of females in captivity is around 5 years (see table 5.3). However, it occurs that dams lay their first egg at an age of 1.5 – 2 years. The oldest dam to have clutched was over 26 years old. The average age of breeding males at dam conception is circa 5.5 years. Crowned pigeons reach sexual maturity at the age of about 1.5 years, and are reproductive till at least 15 years. The estimated generation time varies between 2 and 8 years in captive born generations. Given the long reproductive life-span, a generation time of 8 years is more likely than of 2 years. The incubation period of all three species is about 28 days. 167
Page 2 and 3:
EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS E
Page 4 and 5:
EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS 5
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS S
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117: EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS 4
Page 118 and 119: EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS S
Page 162 and 163: EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS "
Page 174 and 175: EUROPEAN STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS -
show all

Studbook nr. 5, December 2008

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?