Abstract
Loro Parque, Tenerife
July 2008
The little Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) which is being hand-reared is still developing very well, and is ready to leave the nest. The breeding pair had one more clutch, and now the next chick has hatched out. Because the parents appear to frequently break their eggs, they were given an infertile egg laid by a Blue-andyellow Macaw (Ara ararauna). A Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis) hatchling with the same weight of 2lg was put into the Lear's Macaw empty eggshell and placed the nest of the Lear's Macaws. At the same time the infertile egg of the Ara ararauna was removed from the nest. After 4 days, with the weight at SSg the foster chick was changed for the Lear's Macaw chick. This shows once again that the Lear's Macaws are best for the rearing.
Furthermore another pair of the Lear's Macaw started breeding, and two eggs have already hatched in the nest of the Green-winged Macaw (Ara chloroptera) adoptive parents. One chick is still being reared by its adoptive parents, and the other is being reared by hand.
However, we have not yet finished breeding for this year. If we have luck we will get two more chicks, because the parents are already occupied with their next two eggs. This time we leave the eggs in the nest with their parents, and hope to see these as real parents, too.
After a break of many years we were able to stimulate our Austral Parakeets (Enicognathus ferrugineus) to breed again. After several unsuccessful changes of aviaries for pairing, in spring we put the birds into a communal aviary, with one additional male Austral Parakeet. From the outset, three birds formed their own group and distanced themselves constantly from the other birds there, from the pair of Eclectus Parrots (Eclectus roratus vosmaeri) and from Red-vented Cockatoos ( Cacatuahaematuropygia). Suddenly one pair of the Austral Parakeets showed interest in nesting, and the third bird had to distance itself from them. The aviary, with its size of lOm x lOm and height of 3.Sm offers enough space for this. Three eggs were laid in the nest, two of them fertile. To avoid any risk, one of the fertile eggs was put into the incubator. Now the chick has hatched and it is still growing well in the baby station. From the other fertile egg the hatched chick is being rearing by its parents in the communal aviary.
On three days in June, the EAZA Parrot Meeting took place, hosted by Loro Parque Fundacion. Eight international parrot specialists from the association for all scientificbased European zoos came together to paln a common future strategy on the holding of parrots in all zoos of the European region.
Loro Parque Fundacion is grateful time and again for all donations given to protect endangered parrots. Mrs Ruth Kiihbander, the public illustrator of the national zoological collection in Munich, made a donation of 650 euros. She took as an example the type specimen collected by Baptist Ritter of Spix on the Rio San Francisco in Brazil, which gave the first description of the Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). Herr Heinz Weschenfelder, producer of the professional incubators, presented to the Loro Parque Fundacion a high precision machine for breeding rare parrots and made by his firm. Many thanks to all the donors!