An interesting piece from the Guardian, putting the boot into the ACTP in Germany, and its “colourful” owner Martin Guth... ‘A legitimate zoo?’ How an obscure German group cornered global trade in endangered parrots ...they’re making quite a big thing out of this. It would be an enormous pity if the apparent greed and dodginess of this individual gave the Australian government cause to question the trickle of exports of animals....
I can't make a good opinion for myself as I don't know much about this facility. What are your thoughts on ACTP?
I just read this after I woke up. The problem seems to be that almost no-one who reads (and dare I say writes) this will have a true grasp of the contents, including, it turns out, me. The whole tone of the article suggests that because the ACTP isn't a public zoo its aims and purposes could only be nefarious, something which is patently ridiculous. There is similarly no mention of the very valuable conservation work the ACTP does that has been widely reported on this site. However, the central allegations that the conditions of the export licenses have been breached are clearly serious and need to be answered.
Can't say I know anywhere nearly enough on the situation to comment at length; however, regarding the following: ACTP told the Australian government that tours of its Brandenburg facility were available by private appointment only and it had about 1,200 visitors a year. It did not respond to a request for more detailed visitor records, or information on how the public could arrange a visit. The local authority that issued the zoo licence, the Landkreis Märkisch-Oderland, said the public could view ACTP’s birds if visitors were “accompanied”. Up until spring this year, the homepage for ACTP contained a link to a page discussing their breeding facilities, which contained the explicit statement that "tours of the facility can be carried out by appointment." However, around the time when the organisation was receiving bad press regarding their Dominican imports, the link to this page was removed (although the page itself still exists as can be seen if one already has the URL bookmarked) - which certainly would suggest they are no longer openly encouraging people to contact them for tours..... especially when one considers the fact that I know of at least three individuals in the zoo enthusiast community who contacted ACTP this year to ask if a tour was possible, only to find their emails and/or messages read but ignored. It would quite possibly have been more than that, had I not decided during the planning stages for my own recent trip to Berlin in September that I wouldn't even bother contacting them knowing the above had happened to others
There are several levels here. Firstly it must be stated that there is no conservation value in exporting Australian animals, especially birds, due to our strict quarantine requirements. Broadly speaking the only legitimate reason for exporting Australian animals is for exhibit in a public zoo. The accusation here is that ACTP has "scammed" Australian authorities to allow the export of birds, then onsold them or their offspring privately, against the terms of the export agreements. I don't know what the ramifications will be for ACTP, however if this gains traction in Australia 9and there is a lot else going on in politics in Australia) it will certainly make zoo exports, especially to smaller institutions, more difficult in the future.
Applications to export mutation king parrots and galahs should have been an enormous red flag to the bureaucrats involved that this was not an import intended for zoological display.
"“They are sourcing large numbers of mutations, which is an absolute no-no from a zoo’s perspective." Yeah, unlike white tigers, black panthers, albino crocodilians/burmese pythons etc. etc.
The question of whether ACTP is a zoo is secondary in my opinion. I think that the crucial points are: ACTP's links with BfN (Bundesamt für Naturschutz), the German federal agency for nature conservation, whose inspectors seem to be the only officials who are known to have visited at least tone of their facilities possible irregularities in the completion of licence applications the paragraph in the article which states "But the precise nature of ACTP’s activities is opaque. The organisation publishes no information on its website about its board or governance, no annual financial reports detailing donors or other funding, and no scientific peer-reviewed research about its conservation work. Even establishing the addresses where it operates is challenging." Surely there ought to be complete transparency about the ownership and care of such a large number of rare and valuable birds.
I should say that when I contacted them last year I was invited to visit, but only outside the main breeding season for most of their birds. It was also said that I would only see the young birds that weren't old enough to breed yet. Unfortunately I never went there after all. I did see the Spix' macaws - my main reason to go there - this year in Pairi Daiza.
Recent tweet from Senator Sarah Hanson-Brown of the Australian Greens: ‘Today I’ve called for an immediate halt to the export of native animals & an independent investigation into how on earth 100s of rare & endangered Australian birds were sold to international criminals with the approval of the Environment Minister’
Am I right in assuming they now hold the only pair of Imperial Amazon parrots(Sisserou) at least of any known ones, in captivity? I researched a bit and found the female was hatched in the wild in 2000 and rescued as a fledgling, and then paired with an already captive male(the one with the overgrown/deformed beak) at the Botanic Garden Aviaries on Dominica. They bred in 2010 and hatched a single chick which was handraised after being found close to death, and which was relocated to Florida where it still lives. The pair that have gone to ACPT are this female and a rescued male(?) from Hurricane Maria. Her previous partner, the original deformed beak male, presumably died? Total birds in captivity- 3?
After all the negative news, here some good news about the work done by ACTP ( from Facebook ) : "During the last weeks a lot of rumors about ACTPs work were seen all over the media. Today we would like to show you what we actually did: We were busy organizing export permits for Spix’s macaws, which will go to Brazil in the near future! Together with the Brazilian Government and the German BfN (Cites authority) we were able to create this little Christmas miracle, having all paper work ready to make the next huge step towards the reintroduction of a species, which is extinct in the wild. Having 61 (!) export paper for one of the most endangered parrots in our hands,is the result of the successful cooperation between governments, NGOs and international partners. 2019 will be another big year for the Spix’s Macaw! But for now we take a few days to relax and enjoy the holiday season. We would like to say thank you, to everybody who is following our projects, all our supporters and friends. We are proud to have you on our side! "
Well... I'm sure some Australians are questioning the exports since the beginning and certainly some more joined after the bettong fiasco in Berlin, so it's not a new issue/danger for Europe, it's more a case of adding fuel to the fire although that might be a bit strong as "the fire" is not really big right now...but it has to be handled well or it will get worse in the future. And if I'll be a bit selfish and maybe overly ambitious, I really don't want Australia to stop the imports as once I become head zoologist/mammal curator somewhere I want to have a nice marsupial collection there
Apparently, some years ago, Berlin found itself in situation when they had too many bettongs and couldn't place them, because there aren't that much zoos who wants to keep them...So they started giving them to private sector and didn't bother to check the conditions the animal will live in. Let's just say, some Australians weren't exactly happy when they saw photos of bettong being kept in an aquarium.
More Australian parrots send to Germany : 'Beggars belief': more endangered parrots exported from Australia
The responsible local department of public persecution failed to find any evidence for illegal animal trafficking permitted by the ACTP and has reassured the charitable character of the organization. Kein illegaler Papageienhandel
Investigation into the export of Australian parrots to ACTP : Australia's environment minister orders investigation into export of hundreds of endangered parrots
