The Cuban amazon parrot ( Amazona leucocephalus ) is a quite uncommon bird in zoo-collections and several of its subspecies are realy rare and endangered ! Afther the closure of Life Fellowship in Seffner I don't know which other collection is working intensively with this species and I hope someone can help me. The subspecies : A. l. leucocephalus I guess the most commonly kept subspecies ( ? ) A. l. palmarum from western Cuba and Isle of Pines, was bred at Life Fellowship but where did their birds went to and who is breeding them ? A . l. caymanensis from Grand Cayman Island also kept and bred ( ? ) at Life Fellowship and also San Diego kept them in the 1980-ties. Where are these birds and who's breeding them ? A. l. hesterna from Little Cayman and Cayman Brac Islands. Bred at Life Fellowship but no clue if it is kept and/or bred anywhere. A. l. bahamensis from the Bahamas, I've heared somewhere that it was succesfully bred in a public collection on the Bahamas but no further information.... Who can help ?????
LPF has caymanensis and palmarum is not considered to be a separate subspecies anymore. A. L. leucocephala is actually quite widely kept by private keepers.
I know Bronx once held A. l. caymanensis but I did not see them my last visit to World of Birds so I don't know if they're still there. I'm revisiting this weekend if weather permits so I'll keep an eye out for them. ~Thylo
My trip may be posponed due to weather but we'll just have to wait and see. According to their website, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo has the nominante subspecies. ~Thylo
I remember only one. Of course things constantly change in World of Birds and animals are always being moved around so the zoo probably has more off-exhibit. ~Thylo
palmarum is questionable. There are some recent taxonomic authorities that recognize it, while other don't. MtDNA has not revealed a clear difference compared to the nominotypical race, but a morphological study has revealed some clear differences: Ottens-Wainright et al 2006: http://biosci-web1.lsu.edu/jeberhard/CaribAmazona.pdf Reynolds and Hayes 2009: http://www.llu.edu/pages/faculty/wh..._parrot_morphology__and__plumage_in_press.pdf Worth pointing out that above evidence also suggests bahamensis, as currently defined, actually comprises more than one subspecies. This isn't much of a surprise when considering the unique breeding behavior of the Abaco birds. On page 29 of Ottens-Wainright et al 2006 they briefly mention a captive breeding program for the Great Inagua Bahaman Amazon at Ardastra Zoo (Nassau, Bahamas), but no details are provided.
Came along an old article in the International Zoo Yearbook ( vol. 24/25 ). In this article its said that the Research Institute for Avian Medicine, Nutrition and Reproduction at Lake Worth - Florida worked with the Cayman Brac amazone ( A. l. hesterna ) and tryed to collected samen for AI which was however unsuccesfull ( at least in 1982 ). I've several questions about this note: Does anybody has some further information about this Research Institute and does it still exist ? Does anybody has some information about the number of Cayman Brac amazones kept at this Institute and if they ever bred it there ( naturaly or with AI ) ?
Searching Zoochat, there's several European facilities holding the species. Far as North America, I can only find reference to them at Bronx and Audubon. San Francisco had them until recently, I don't know where they went. I don't have any information on breeding or subspecies though.
The entire European population is nominate apart from perhaps a Grand Cayman, caymanensis, kept bts at Loro Parque. Currently Bronx keeps 1.1 nominate, but until a couple years ago they kept a single caymanensis. ~Thylo
Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac amazones being kept on the Cayman Islands itself ( keepers can get amnesty is they register their birds ) : https://www.birdscaribbean.org/2020...q98DCUhHrx68aNAQ7040fHn5WM1eYtt69bW0rgNDbaLFo
