Wellington zoo celebrated with the birth of a Maroon Conure parrot the other day . I dont know if these parrots are endangered or as common as sparrows , but the birth of any animal is always good newes for zoos . Can any budding ornithologists fill me in ?
conures.. The Maroon-bellied Conure Pyrrhura frontalis, is a small parrot from southern brazil/northern argentina/paraguay/uruguay in south america. conures are very common pet parrots and this species is not listed by the IUCN. i know of only one pair of birds in australia (though i'm sure there are more as many conures species are available as pets here) and they are at the Priam Psittaculture Centre, a company that strangely also produces quality meats and gourmet native foods!. However the bird farm does breed heaps of very rare lories, amazons, conures, cockatoos, macaws and caiques (among others) for conservation, aviculturalists and the pet trade. they are also associate members of ARAZPA and ISIS. check out the website www.priam.com.au
Wellington Zoos bird collection I finally got hold of the news article on this . The newspaper made out that it was a rare breed ( shows how much the media knows , eh ) However , it went on to state that the zoos collection of birds dropped by 30% this last Winter due to some respiratory condition !! Fortunately the zoo has realised that the majority of aviaries are over 80 years old and are in the wrong locations for birds health . Lets hope that they can do something about this issue before Winter sets in again . Wellington Zoo is trying its best to be a decent zoo despite the fact that it is almost a cliff face , and is crumbling into in advanced state of decay , and desperately needs $$s , and quickly !! Which is a pity , as it has shown that at least it can breed primates successfully .
