Single wattled casswary I wonder wear walsrode got their single wattled cassowaries? I am trying desperately to find some, there are none in north america except for my female that I have aquired, I have raised double wattled cassowaries for years now. Its ashamed there arent more single wattles in captivity, I would love to help fix that if I could find some to import. Can anyone help? If so, please email [email protected]. Thanks
It's one of the forum's in-jokes from a few years ago. A former member created a hoax where he said he was the owner of a very impressive bird collection in Myanmar. Someone uncovered this hoax by noticing that the images this member was posting were all stolen from another source.
Myanmar is a country in South-east Asia, formerly known as Birma. There's one more facility in Europe that keeps the single-wattled Cassowary, which is the "Europaradise Park" in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. You might wanna ask them where they got theirs from... Walsrode is down to just one bird left, btw...
Papegaaienpark in Veldhoven (Netherlands) keeps 3 bennets cassowaries of two different subspecies (papuanus (2) and hecki (1)). Else, there are now many new bird species on exhibit at the Vogelpark : Lesser shiny mynah (Aplonis minor), King Starling (Basilornis celebensis), golden mynah (Mino anais) and much more...
Perhaps someone (Pedro?) could comment on a statement made on the Wikipedia entry for Walsrode: "visitor numbers dropped in 2008 to 280,000; 50,000 fewer than necessary for a profitable operation. Looming insolvency was averted in March 2009 by the intervention of the Belgian firm, Floralux." What exactly does this firm's 'intervention' consist of? (I'd like to believe it was fueled by pure altruism, but suspect it wasn't!). It would be a disaster if this bird collection was closed, or scaled down, because of financial problems.
I believe that they have bought Walsrode from the previous owners, or so I read in a aviculture magazine.
Floralux is an horticulture company. They're also sponsors of the Ibisring (ibisring.com - Info and photos about the ibis) - a ibis breeder / keepers association, so they might be into birds, and hopefully they'll, at least, keep Walsrode like it is now...
Is this really the attendance figures? This is a real shock, it was only a few years ago their annual attendance figures were 1 million plus. Surely things have not gone that badly?
The decline in visitor numbers does seem pretty extreme. I've now seen a couple of brief press reports (in German) which say the new owners want to maintain the scientific work of the bird park. Good news; but I wonder how they plan to get more punters through the gate?
After the ring-tailed mongoose left for Plzen, Walsrode now sent their female Tree kangaroo over to Duisburg (who lost their Matschi's to an infection in 2008) and their male tree kangaroo went to Dortmund Zoo (who now keep 1.1).
I hope Walsrode will recover! I guess what really hit was bird flu scare and over-the-top ban of visiting bird aviaries for like 2 years.
The new belgian owners are certainly birdlovers. Their company is about 20 km from where i live. From what i've heard they intend to give the park a new boost but the first job will be to retain a good solid financial base. I doubt if Walsrode ever received 1 million visitors.
A few days ago on youtube I watched a film made in Vogelpark Walsrode in August 1987. The film lasts over an hour and you can see what the park and some of its birds looked like at that time. If you look closely, you can see some very interesting species of birds in the film, which are no longer present or are very rare in zoos in Europe. Some of the most interesting species I saw in the video include: - Giant Coot (Fulica gigantea) in Freilughalle, - Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo (Carpococcyx renauldi) in Freiflughalle, - Andean Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus) kept together with Lesser Flamingos, - Little Black Cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) or Indian Cormorants (Phalacrocorax fuscicollis) - in the paddock with pelicans, - Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (Zanda funerea), - Imperial Amazon (Amazona imperialis) in one of the indoor aviaries at Papageienhaus!!! - Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis) - at Papageienhaus!!! - Black-cheeked Woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani) - in Paradieshalle, - Javan Trogon (Apalharpactes reinwardtii) in Paradieshalle, - Diard's Trogon (Harpactes diardii) in Paradieshalle, - Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) in Paradieshalle, - some Paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone spp.) in Paradieshalle, - Lesser Green Broadbill (Calyptomena viridis) in Paradieshalle, - White-bellied Treepie (Dendrocitta leucogastra) in Fasanerie, - White-crowned Hornbill (Berenicornis comatus). As a curiosity, it is also worth adding that there are shots from the now non-existent exhibition presenting bird cages (Deutsche Vogelbauer-Museum). Link to the video:
Some very nice species indeed - only four are still present in European collections (the two flamingos, the black cockatoo and the hornbill) to the best of my knowledge!
And the Andean flamingos are barely present in public collections and rarely bred anymore... I remember seeing the coral-billed ground cuckoo back in 2006, according to research I did at the time of posting this photo they had this species until 2019. https://www.zoochat.com/community/m...-cuckoo-carpococcyx-renauldi-may-2006.604902/
Some lesser green broadbills are present in private collections, but their origin is questionable. And I believe there is one Imperial Amazon in the ACTP in Germany, that arrived there after the hurricane.
Yeah, I was specifically referring to public collections - I suspect some of the other species, such as Paradise-flycatchers, may also be found in private hands. It was definitely still present as of 2016, the one and only time I have seen the species.
I was more flagging it as it means the broadbills could be picked up by a public collection again, but it would cause the same discussions as there with the blue-headed quail-doves. And ACTP is semi-public
