Hornbills,pheasants, Birds of Paradise and those odd looking parrots » Jurong Bird Park

26-03-2008

Dinosaur Descendants will open in June, and it will house the flightless birds that used to occupy the area previously, including the cassowaries (single-wattled and double-wattled; the dwarfs had gone 'missing' before the renovation) of course. I have no idea if it will introduce any new species, but hoatzins look unlikely considering only Bronx Zoo has them and I'm sure they're not willing to let go of any.

27-03-2008

So I will be able to see single wattled cassowaries in August!!!

27-03-2008

Pedro and Zooish,

Why is it an ego and politics thingy with Malaysian zoos and Singapore? Is it racial in origin (Chinese versus Malay)? Or do you 2 mean something entirely different and am I way off ... the mark? Please elaborate!!!!

Thanx,

Jelle

28-03-2008

To answer your question Jelle, i need to go into a bit of history (just a little):

Singapore used to be a state of Malaysia until 1965 when it gained independence and broke away on rather bad terms. Surprisingly, puny Singapore developed faster than Malaysia and quickly became a richer and more credible nation. All this while, Malaysia has been slightly jealous of Singapore's success and the animosity of the split remains till today. There are still frequent spats regarding territorial boundaries and such.

Hope this answers it

28-03-2008

Allright you meant the history of Singapore. Well, fine ... I could have also sensed a bit of a China vs Malay divide somehow (allthough the Peranakan happily co-exist with true Chinese immigrants in Singapore)?

Back on topic: what plans are in the works for Singapore Zoo this year? Any indication how this partnership with Singapore Airlines will shape the collection in future and exchange programmes intercontinental?

28-03-2008

That too jelle, but the bitter separation and economic disparity cause somewhat more tension than the race issue. The separation was motivated by racial differences btw Chinese and Malays though.

Back to the Zoo: Its looking to export its young bull elephant this year, last I heard to S.Korea. That would be the most major move this year i'm predicting. A Malayan tapir export looks likely too as there are now surplus animals.

All I can say is that the Singapore Zoo's collection plan is VERY fluid, it changes all the time. The deal with SIA gives it more options to source for animals further away from Asia. Expecting more exchanges with European/American zoos in the next 3 years.

28-03-2008

Any tapir pregnancies?
Any manatee pregnancies?

29-03-2008

Should be in the other thread but i'll just answer it here;

There was a baby tapir born just 1 month ago at the Night Safari! The Zoo and Night Safari each has a breeding group.

The adult female manatee could be pregnant again, but even if so, it would be still early stage as it just gave birth less than a year ago.

29-03-2008

Zooish, do you know which private breeder in Singapore is keeping the bornean peacock pheasants? They are on the picture gallery you told me about, but I can't find anything else. I'd love to see these birds!

If you could find contact details, could you PM me those too?

Thanks for all the help

29-03-2008

I'm also interested by this contact, for the bornean peacock-pheasants!

30-03-2008

Which young bull are you talking about?

If I dig out my data set for Elephas maximus at Singapore:
Zoo
0.1 Komali (38)
0.1 Jati (24) 1984
0.1 Gambir (19)
0.1 Intan (13, arrived 2005 ex Bogor)
0.1 Aprila (13, arrived 2005 ex Bogor)

Night Safari
1.0 Chawang (28)
1.0 Sang Wira (born ?, mother Sri Nandong)
0.1 Jamilah (age? - breeder)
0.1 Tun (18)
0.1 Sri Nandong (age? - breeder)
0.1 Sri Utama (born 1998, mother Jamilah)

If the young bull is sent away to South Korea, does that mean new calves are on the way at Singapore? Why is South Korea chosen as a destination as it is not exactly big on elephant breeding?

30-03-2008

The largest local breeder I'm familiar with is called Avifauna Breeding and Research which is a CITES member. Its a commercial company which breeds mainly exotic SE Asian species. Its official website is down so I don't know how to contact them.

30-03-2008

Sang Wira, he's 7 this year. The main motivation to export him ASAP is because he will get too big to fit on a plane; he could always travel by sea but its always better to have more than one option to move him, especially so since the deal with SIA Cargo was struck.

At the moment, none of the females are believed to be pregnant.

S.Korea is not confirmed, but if it is, its probably because of several factors:
- They might be willing to bear export costs
- They might have some animal(s) we want
- They are beginning to seriously look into breeding with the new male

01-04-2008

If you want to know more about Bornean Peacock Pheasants I suggest you speak to Sebastian Tan.

There is still a lot of scepticism as to whether the Bornean Peacock Pheasant is the same species as the Malayan Peacock Pheasant. Genetic analysis is very open to interpretation and many geneticists interpret their results in the favour of discovering new species when sometimes they are not valid. There are many examples of scientists disagreeing the status of a species and many still argue over the definition of what a species is.

01-04-2008

Thanks very much Peacock pheasant.

Even if it is not a full species, it is still an amazing subspecies, and I would love to see it.