As news from Walsrode seems to be so far and few between i thought i would add this that i found. Walsrode Birdpark Bird News Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News And news from July. July Bird News from VogelPark Walsrode Birdpark Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News Hunting for red billed hornbill. VogelPark Walsrode Birdpark Hunting for Red billed Hornbills Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News Asian oriole. VogelPark Walsrode Birdpark's Asian Orioles Zoo and Aquarium Visitor News
Walsrode has imported 192 greater flamingos into their park from Belgium and now boast the largest captive flock in Europe. 192 Flamingos ziehen in Weltvogelpark Walsrode
Recent arrivals at the park are The red billed curassow (Crax blumenbachi, an EEP species) and black-fronted piping guan (Pipile jacutinga)
Considering they are now under the same owners as the Cracid Breeding Center in Belgium, they're probably coming from them and might well be not the only cracids to be moved to Walsrode...?
News from Walsrode - They came to NOP Veldhoven and collected a Papuan Cassowary. If I tracked these animals correctly, 0.2 papuan and 0.1 Hecks cassowary where at one point left at Avifauna, who tried to get a male but couldn't. All three of them moved to Walsrode, who also attempted to get a mate but also failed. They where then moved to NOP Veldhoven to sit and wait there. The 0.1 Hecks cassowary has disappeared somewhere end 2009/start 2010. 0.1 was transported back to Walsrode recently, so here's hoping they did track down a male for her... 0.1 is left at NOP. - 1.1 twelve-wired BoP is now on show! Finally the BoP's are back at Walsrode!
Here is hoping for a renaissance in rare cassowaries and BoP's at Walsrode as a vanguard bird collection it must strive to be
Birds currently being hand reared at the park include. A Steller's sea eagle A little bittern A golden conure A bare faced currasow. Highlights from last year include. A parent reared Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria beccarii) One kagu hatched. Blue necked tanager hatched 2 Asian fairy bluebird (Irena puella) hatched and reared one Madagascan sacred ibis parent reared. one Madagascar pond heron (Ardeola idae idea ) hatched and reared A single Beautiful fruit pigeon (Ptilinopus pulchellus p) reared 2 Madagascar blue pigeon (Alectroenas madagascariensis ) reared off show 1 southern caracara (caracara plancus) parent reared Single black necked, wattled, red crowned and Siberian white cranes being parent reared 2 keas handraised 1 roadrunner handreared
3 turkey vultures are being trained at the park for use by German police to hunt for dead bodies. Miss Marple and Columbo came from a zoo in Austria, joined Sherlock for the exercise. BBC News - German police train vulture 'detectives' to find bodies
0.0.2 blue-billed curassow (Crax alberti) have been hatched 0.0.1 red billed curassow (Crax blumenbachii) has also hatched 0.0.4 Black-necked aracari (Pteroglossus aracari) are being reared by their parents 0.0.2 toco toucan are being parent reared 0.0.2 African wattled lapwing (Vanellus senegallus) (Vanellus senegallus) are being hand raised 0.0.2 black necked crane are being parent raised
I found this an interesting concept. But I was always under the impression most birds don't have any(or a very poor)sense of smell- apart from the Kiwi whose nostrils are located at the tip of the bill. Am I wrong here? Maybe I'll ask on the General Forum too...
I think turkey vultures are quite unusual in having a good sense of smell. Typically they're first to the scene (perhaps along with yellow-headed vultures) and are followed by black, king vultures and any bigger birds around.
@Pertinax: As for the avian sense of smell: Silke S Steiger, Andrew E Fidler, Mihai Valcu, and Bart Kempenaers Avian olfactory receptor gene repertoires: evidence for a well-developed sense of smell in birds? Proc. R. Soc. B October 22, 2008 275:2309-2317; doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0607
Do you have a list for Walsrode, specifically the two tropical free-flight halls? The most recent one I have is from September 2010 and I've heard they rotate species frequently. I will be visiting in 2-3 weeks and want to know exactly what to look for.
