Article about the passed away founder of Al Wabra : The Shiekh Who Talked to the Animals: Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al Thani - Eluxe Magazine
Attenborough's Paradise Birds is a special programme being shown tomorrow night at 8:00pm on BBC2. It features a behind the scenes look at the bird of paradise brreding facility at Al Wabra, should be worth a look. BBC Two - Attenborough's Paradise Birds
Species of the week, article about the Erlanger's gazelle ( FB ) : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.560543644049382.1073741859.240937542676662&type=1
I am not sure if this was ever discussed before, but what happened with the alleged pictures of Queen of Sheba Gazelles (Gazella arabica bilkis) that were taken in 1985. I can imagine they were dismissed as an incorrect identification but I can't really find anything on it.
The zoo has just finished doing health checks on two of their cuban flamingo flocks, but instead of going back to their old enclosures, they got to be moved into a brand new aviary at the end of the process. By the end of the health checks, they had moved 90 flamingoes into the aviary! Flamingo catch up, health check and release into a new enclosure
Al Wabra has announced that a Shoebill chick has hatched and is doing well, though it's being hand-reared. According to their FB page "We have had trouble with our pair of Shoebills over the last 2 seasons not rearing their chicks, we decided to take a clutch into the nursery and incubate the eggs. The first egg laid was found to be infertile, but the second egg hatched successfully and we are busy hand rearing it in the nursery. Every season we will give the parents the opportunity to rear a clutch until hopefully soon they will rear them successfully on their own."
Has it been seen flying around Rotherham town centre, by any chance? https://www.zoochat.com/community/posts/893331
According to their FB he has been named 'Croc' and seems to be doing very well, little over a month old now. Staff are wearing special suits to minimize imprint on the little chick.
5 Lear's macaws send to Brazil : After the 3 "P's" Planning, Paperwork and Patience, 5 Lear's macaws successfully landed in Brazil from Qatar last night... A fantastic initiative to start sending the mass of captive bred Lear's macaws bred at Al Wabra, around the world to new institutions and best of all back to Brazil, began with discussions and planing at the Lear's macaw meeting in Brazil in 2015. With the amazing collaboration we have with ICMBio and CEMAVE in Brazil, we were able to get all the paperwork sorted and the birds left Qatar in the early hours of the morning on 30.05.2016 for their 14 hour flight to São Paulo where they were met by The Brazilian team. We would like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work to make this move a reality and a special thanks to Janet and Kelly at Qatar Pet Relocators for their efforts in getting these birds through all the airport processes here in Qatar. Well done to everyone involved in this successful move.
Very good Spix's macaw news ! : 2016 is the new record season for our Spix's at Al Wabra! Last year we produced a record season more than doubling the previous record, by producing 16 Spix's macaw chicks. Last week we equalled the record and got to another milestone of 100 live Spix's at our Al Wabra facility. Yesterday we moved passed the previous record when our 17th Spix's macaw chick of the season hatched. The season is not over yet although it is waning as we near the end. To add to this success, a new era has started, we would also like to announce that we have 2 Spix's macaw chicks been parent reared, they are been monitored and the parents are doing a fantastic job, the parent reared Spix's are now currently 6 weeks old and looking good. We have been training pairs and are hoping over the coming years to have the majority of chicks parent reared. We will update you at the end of the season.
Due to continuing political unrest surrounding Qatar, the decision has been made to send all their Spix and Lear's macaws to ACTP in Germany, where they will stay until a new facility has finished construction in Brazil. Spix Macaw (AWWP)
Seems like they have already been moved to Germany? A surpise really but seemingly necessary for their safety.