KEEPING AND BREEDING THE GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE Paradisaea apoda AT AL WABRA WILDLIFE PRESERVATION, QATAR AND WALSRODE BIRDPARK, GERMANY

摘要

The Greater Bird of Paradise was bred in captivity for the first time at Walsrode in Germany in 2001, unfortunately the female was later lost and the breeding success was not repeated. However, methods first developed at Walsrode were implemented at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) in 2002 and resulted in successful breeding that same year and to date 22 chicks have been hatched at AWWP in Qatar. At Walsrode initially massive problems were encountered in the effort to breed birds of paradise. Eggs were destroyed and/or were infertile. However, much experience was gained over a period of three years and it was learned that the males, when kept together with the females, would consistently destroy the nests and eggs. When the males were separatedfrom the females, the females would lay eggs and incubate them, but these often proved infertile due to the difficulty of judging the right time to place the pairs together and quite frequently the female would destroy the nest and eggs herself. Important lessons were learned on timing and in particular the birds' sensitivity to disturbance. In June 2001 a single chick hatched in an off-exhibit breeding aviary. It was successfully reared by the female and proved to be a male. Unfortunately, the death of the female the following winter ended any further hope of breeding the Greater Bird of Paradise at Walsrode.