EEP Crowned pigeon number 4

EEP STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
6.3 Reproductive life-span, generation time
and longevity in crowned pigeons
According to the crowned pigeon studbook the first crowned pigeon kept in a western
collection arrived in London Zoo 5 May 1896. It was a common crowned pigeon of an
unknown sex and it died 5 April 1904. This crowned pigeon must have reached an age of over
8 years, which is considerable in comparison to crowned pigeons in London Zoo in the
beginning of this century. This first victoria’s crowned pigeon arrived 15 December 1904 and
died 19 December 1906. The first scheepmaker’s crowned pigeon arrived 1 July 1925 in
London Zoo and died 24 February 1928. Before the beginning of World War II no less than
41 victoria’s crowned pigeons, 7 scheepmaker’s crowned pigeons and 57 common crowned
pigeons arrived at London Zoo, but only 3 victorias and 1 scheepmaker’s crowned pigeons
survived over more than 10 years of captivity in London Zoo.
Crowned pigeons appear to reach sexual maturity at 18 to 24 months of age (AZA, 1996). A
common crowned pigeon, born in Berlin Zoo in 1959, should have laid her first egg already in
1960. Since 1964 she produced, together with a cock-pigeon born in 1961 or 1962, a lot of
offspring (Klös, 1966). Fleay (1963) observed that a male crowned pigeon at an age of 17
months already produced the perch-coo. A pair of common crowned pigeons started
reproducing at an age of 16 months (Nijboer and King, 1996).
They are reproductive even well into their twenties (AZA, 1996). A female scheepmakers
crowned pigeon still produced offspring when she was at least 21 years old. A male victoria’s
crowned pigeon, which came to Amsterdam Zoo (from the wild) in 1969, produced offspring
in Weert (private keeper; The Netherlands) in 1994, at the age of at least 25 (Nijboer and
King, 1996).
Generation time, i.e. the average time between birth of an individual and birth of its offspring
is also about three years. According to the questionnaire from Assink (1988), it varies
between 2 and 8 years in captivity (Goura cristata and Goura victoria respectively), but he
has only very little data, so this can not be considered to be very reliable. Given the long
reproductive life span, a generation time of 8 years is more likely than of 2 years (Assink,
1988). Out in practice it seems to be somewhere in between; like about four years.
Little is known of the total life span of crowned pigeons, but from observations in captivity it
becomes clear that they can reach a reasonable age. Unfortunately due to a lack of
cooperation of some institutions, data published in the International Studbooks and in the EEP
Studbooks are incomplete. A lot of crowned pigeons still seem to be alive, but these
institutions did not reply to questionnaires for a number of years, so these crowned pigeons
might be dead for a long time. Only recorded death data and data of institutions that closely
cooperate within an EEP or SSP are reliable.
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