výroční zpráva 2009 ( 4,12 MB ) - Zoo Ostrava

Offspring produced in threatened parrot speciesJana Pluháčková and Yveta SvobodováOstrava Zoo is a holder of several rare avifauna species, amongst them being four endangered species ofparrots (the military macaw - Ara militaris mexicana, the golden conure - Guarouba guarouba, the red-frontedmacaw - Ara rubrogenys and the scarlet macaw - Ara macao). Within the projects undertaken in 2008 and2009 and supported by the Czech Ministry of Environment (MoE), four CCTV systems including recorders, twoincubators, one brooder, one candling lamp and weight for precise chick weighing were procured.All four species mentioned above are endangered in the wild and included in European conservationbreeding programmes (EEP) and European Studbooks (ESB). For the golden conure, Ostrava Zoo is even a soleholder of the species within the Czech zoo community.Thanks to the CCTV system installed in nest-boxes, the zoo personnel can now monitor nesting and hatchingbehaviour in breeding pairs of parrots, and the entire parent-rearing process. The camera system allows forevaluating exact egg incubation periods including cooling intervals, feeding frequency, mutual feeding inparents and total length of development period from hatching to flying out of the nest-box. Last but not least,health of chicks and parents can be tracked.Incubators and brooders are also highly important in chick rearing, as they address instability of thebreeding pair if the birds break eggs early upon laying, interrupted sitting in the natural incubation period,failure to rear the chicks normally or death of a partner within the breeding pair, i.e. inability to continue infeeding the chicks or incubating the eggs.Thanks to the CCTV systems acquired through the MoE grant and the new equipment obtained within thesame project, three young golden conures are now in the process of successful rearing, this being the firsthistorical success in this species in the Czech Republic.54