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Dallas World Aquarium Birds, Birds, Birds

Discussion in 'United States' started by jayjds2, 11 Jan 2016.

  1. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The Dallas World Aquarium is an excellent aviary with a few fish located in Dallas. It basically has the largest concentration of South American things that isn't located in South America. This being said, I would like to see such things. I don't know how many people have been to it, but if anyone can help with rare things, I'd appreciate it. I will contribute what I know:
    The aquarium has five eagle species. These are black hawk eagle, black and white hawk eagle (only specimen in captivity), Guianan crested eagle, harpy eagle, and ornate hawk eagle. From what I've read about the aquarium (website, history book, forums) they are not all on display at once. Some rotate between their exhibits and the behind the scenes (bts) breeding aviary. Most of the aquarium's hummingbirds are also in Mundo Maya. Crested and golden headed quetzals are both here also. Speaking of quetzals:

    The DWA has the only resplendent quetzals in the USA. They have four that were imported from Mexico. One male, three females (1.3? Did I do that right?). Two were from ZooMAT, two from a private breeder. They are in an extremely lushly planted habitat, with a real dirt floor, and on a rain system. They are camera monitored 24/7. The DWA has seen potential nesting behavior recently. Source: the second time I went to the aquarium I went with a friend. We asked lots of staff about the resplendent quetzals. When we were about to give up hope, we asked one more staff member. And one very special millionaire was standing next to that staff member: Daryl Richardson, the owner (yes, owner) of the aquarium. He was about to explain how they were off exhibit, and then said "Never mind, I'll just show you." He took us through a door near the jaguar exhibit (hate that... It is sad) and through a staff cafeteria, and up some stairs. Once up the stairs, there was a large aviary for a breeding colony of one insanely rare bird: Guianan cock of the rock. I counted at least five. In the center of the room was a large cylindrical tank with at least one leafy sea dragon. There were a few in the walls with freshwater stingrays. There were desks and offices in adjoining rooms. Up more stairs, opposite a balcony overlooking the earlier mentioned tanks, were lots of aviaries. The second one held the quetzals. I'll upload a picture later (warning: terrible quality) that has the owner and a female in it. He went over and shook a branch to make the male quetzal fly (which was an amazing experience). My day was made a lot better by that.

    Horned guans are behind the scenes.
    All (or most) of the manakins are in an Orinoco exhibit called The Lek.
    Brown throated three toed sloth (something rare that isn't a bird) is hard to miss in its Orinoco exhibit.
    Shoebill stork and Asian Arowana are in the "Borneo" entrance exhibit, as well as Pesquet's parrots.
    Six species of toucans (toco, Swainson's, red breasted, Ariel, plate billed mountain, and one other) are distributed through the top floor of Orinoco, with lots of aracaris and toucanets
    Red howler monkeys are easy to miss in Orinoco. Look up and around.

    I will list more later.
     
  2. carlos55

    carlos55 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Xcaret park recently recieved a pair of resplendent quetzal from zoomat.According to xcaret press releases the only public animal collections with possible breeding pairs of resplendent quetzals are zoomat and xcaret. They mentioned that the male resplendent quetzal at DWA had died and that it only has females at the moment. You can find this information under press releases at the xcaret website. It is unlikely that the mexican government will allow the export of a single male under the present administration.
     
  3. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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    "..an excellent aviary with a few fish.." This made me laugh. You need to do more research or stop regurgitating yelp reviews. hehe
     
  4. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    @Carlos: couldn't find anything about the DWA (probably read wrong article) but at least they're on display at multiple places now. It is possible that more may be imported (regardless of country, but for captive bred it must be Mexico) as the DWA is a leader in birds and is the facility that got ZooMAT's pair breeding.

    @Gulo gulo: maybe I should say "aquarium with extensive rainforest exhibit"? The aquarium actually holds lots of jewels, but it's still kind of small in comparison to the other main areas.
     
  5. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Thanks for all this information jayjds2 ! Esp. the Quetzal-information. Hopefully DWA will be more succesfully with this species as Walsrode was. I took care of the last 1.2 specimens in Europe and althrough a young was hatched, it wasn't raised :(......
     
  6. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    No problem. Awesome that you took care of one (or more). I plan to email them (multiple times if necessary) and get more information. I'll get more about the crested as well, because it is also very rare.
     
  7. carlos55

    carlos55 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    estimado jayjds2,
    i will look for the link on xcaret´s quetzals, it is in spanish. Of course, i forgot about the quetzals in Guatemala, it is difficult to find out anything about breeding them over in that country. There are some private aviaries that may have quetzal in Mexico, but due to government restrictions they are not very open about it. I remember some aviary called El Nido once had them too. i also think it is great that Xcaret now has quetzal, because it is much easier to go to Cancun than to Zoomat in Chiapas.
    here are some links on the xcaret quetzals
    http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/sociedad/presentan-proyecto-para-reproduccion-del-quetzal-1.html
    http://www.xcaret.com/quetzales-xcaret.php
     
    Last edited: 12 Jan 2016
  8. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Thanks for the links. If the male at Dallas really did pass, perhaps the females will go on exhibit. The aquarium doesn't post much on social media, so it is hard to tell if something new happens. The rumor from employees is that the next exhibit will be on New Guinea- there are already lots of birds of paradise at the aquarium, and a few other species.
     
  9. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Either African Green Pigeon, Fischer's Turaco, and white-crested turaco are all free flight or I just missed them. Great blue turaco is with the rock hyrax. All of these are in the outdoor African exhibit.
    Does anyone know where the birds of paradise are?
    USA's only Jabiru storks are easily viewable in the last exhibit at the aquarium.
    Clarion angelfish, which are rare in public displays due to their cost ($5000 and up to buy one, more to go catch one) can be found in the first tank in Mundo Maya. Spotted moray eels are found in the lionfish tank.
    Capuchinbirds are free flight in Orinoco.
     
  10. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    @ jayjds : I tookcare for 3 Quetzalts 1 male, 2 females. Also the 2 other species ( Crested and Golden-headed ) were kept at Walsrode at that time ( 1986-1989 ) and I took care for them aswell - from those last 2 species we only had one male each.
    Hope you can find out more about the Bird of paradise because this is another very intresting group of birds which is only rarely seen in captivity!

    @ carlos55 Thanks for theinformation about X-carets Quetzals - a pity they were not there when I was visiting Yuctan in 2013 but next time I come to Mexico ( no actual plans however :( ) I surely will visit X-caret again and also try to visit Zoomat !
     
  11. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    That's lucky for the quetzals. I want to be a keeper for something some day, but I'm not decided on what. In a blog from December 29th, 2013, DWA claims to have Red, Lesser, and Raggiana BOPs. Somewhere on this site somebody said they were also importing 12 wired bop. The only bop that I've seen anytime recently are two groups of raggiana, and one single lesser. I suppose I'll find out, I will be going in one to two weeks. I'll focus on non free flight birds first.

    I also have no plans to go to Mexico, and there isn't a chance my parents would take me. I'd make those two places major destinations, however.
     
  12. MikeG

    MikeG Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    They also have Superb Birds of Paradise (from San Diego).
     
  13. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Perhaps the only Prong Billed Barbet(s) live in their aviary on the Toucan Terrace. Also, the only Curl Crested Jay that isn't in South America is... Somewhere in Orinoco. No clue if it's free flight or not, but if it is, I'll be looking a while.
     
  14. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    If I may give you an advise : try to take as much as possible photos from all these gems, later you will be very happy with that.
    I didn't do it and althrough I've worked 3 years with such rarities like quetzals, trogons, bee-eaters, shrikes, cotingas, spix macaw, jaribus and so on,and so on I hardly have any photos of them.......:(
     
  15. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Sadly on my only visits so far I just had my phone camera, which I despise taking photos on due to low quality. I'm not too worried about capuchinbirds, as I saw them and got a few acceptable photos at San Diego. It's hard to get photos of the river tank with the Antillean manatee(s) as that is, besides the giant otters, the most popular thing at the aquarium.
     
  16. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The uncommon Montezuma quail is in a round nocturnal exhibit shared with burrowing owl and desert cottontail.
    Great tinamou is somewhere in Orinoco.
    The uncommon Orinoco crocodile is also in Orinoco.
    The also uncommon Morelet's crocodile is in Mundo Maya.
    Little tinamou is somewhere.
    The rare Chiriqui quail-dove is in many locations, but the easiest place to see it is in Jungle Jewels with the manakins.
     
  17. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    After I took a break from finding things out about DWA, I am back. I messaged the aquarium on Facebook, as I couldn't find an email on their website. The aquarium replied with this:
    We currently have breeding pairs of all three species, though currently only the Golden-headed are on exhibit, though not in the free-flight portion of our aviary. It is our goal to eventually have all three species on-exhibit. Please let me know if we can be of further assistance.

    I sent a reply asking about Amazonian and long-wattled umbrella birds, as well as ivory billed aracaris, asking if they were on exhibit, and where.
     
  18. jayjds2

    jayjds2 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    If anyone wants me to ask them something, I will.