It is true, some people in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) prefer the Zoo of Antwerp, or Planckendael in Mechelen just because there aren't many Dutchspeaking people in the Walloon part (the French speaking part of Belgium). It is not so easy to move in a part of a country when you don"t speak a language they understand. English is not standard known by the people in Walloon. And French is not always known with the Flemish people. As a flemish person, i had barely some French lessons in my education for example... English i did have... But that the "big problem" of the nation Belgium nowadays, and that is mayby a big offtopic discussion, but it affects Paradisio for sure. There are more people that speak the both languages in the Flemisch Zoo's, then in the Walloon Zoo's. For example, Paradisio even needs to borrow Dutch speaking guides from the Antwerp Zoo. It is stupid, but it is a big fact... But ok, back to the cute little birds?
I got the news yesterday. probably the weather. shoebills are "naturally designed" to cool off their chicks. the last 2 weeks we've had night time lows of 10 -15°C. there was the fear this might happen, but they wanted to know if the parents would care for the chick, because in the future they don't want to hand rear them anymore. this shouldn't be a problem since nesting generally takes place during our summer months and not beginning of autumn. they know now future hatchlings will probably be well cared for by the adults, unfortunately at the expence of this last chick.
Thanks forumbully & Gorilla gust for the news, tragic though. Weather....yes it sounds likely. Seems autumn is too cold for the chick.....but the fact is definetely one of the important information for future breeding. Hope the parents would take care of the chick(s) next time, in the right season. RIP, lovely chick.
Hans v.d. Sluis mentioned on the Aviornis forum that not only the naturebreed youngster died, but also the man of the birdcouple... Parc Paradisio (B)
What I heard is that the father had ha verry big infection on the breast what couldn't be seen by the keepers. (wound verry deep, under the feathers and allways standing with it's back to the fence) Mageds we creeping in the breast. When the chick was found dead, it also was nearly covered with the magets and partly eaten.. so probably the father infected the chick. (warming up the chick) @forumbully: was it something like this?
The breeding mal eis indeed dead. Prague Zoo has two males behind the scenes, I hope, they will send one of them to Paradisio, better both, so the female can choice one of them.
late reply: was on holiday and had no internet access. it's like safariman said, the male had a wound on the chest which was invisible to the keepers. when they noticed it, they cleaned and stitched the wound but the day after he was dead. the chick was indeed partly covered in maggots, but it's unclear whether it died because of this or that it was dead and the corpse attracted the maggots. the female probably won't stay alone, but I have no further details on that.
I was there 2 weeks ago. they're in great health and should find a new home anytime soon (if it hasn't already happened). sorry, no further details known. I'm paying a visit this week. the park closes for winter as of november 2nd. if there's any news, I'll let you guys know
that is greatly weather dependent. but several animals don't have winterproof housing in their display exhibits. Like the reptiles in the oasis greenhouse and the cranes.so they're moved off exhibit. others may spend a lot of time in their winter enclosure which would make exhibits like the pelican pond, the great aviary, the hippo-, siamang- and shoebill-exhibits look deserted because you cannot visit their indoor enclosures. this and the fact they don't have many weatherproof visitor accomodation is the reason the zoo closes in the winter.
Having a look at ISIS and noticed Parc Paradisio is down to 0.1 shoebill, what has happened to the 2 chicks, have they died, or been moved to another collection?
