STEVENS - PINK-BACKED PELICAN



105



Method


To find out which collections were keeping and breeding this species, I

began my research by visiting the ISIS database on the internet. From that

I was able to select five collections which had bred this species in the past

six months. They were:


Tierpark Berlin, Germany


Odense Zoo, Denmark


Vogelpark Avifauna, Netherlands


San Diego Wild Animal Park, California, USA


Zoo Dvur Kralove, Czech Republic


I wrote to these collections and asked if they hand-reared their chicks,

and also asked for information on the diet they used and details of the chicks’

weight gain, so that this information could be used for comparative analysis.

With the letter I sent out a short questionaire.


I received replies from the first three collections on the list. One in

particular, Tierpark Berlin, was especially helpful and provided me with

information on its hand-rearing diet and a list of weights of eight of its

chicks. I have included this information in the study. I have also included

data collected during past hand-rearing attempts at Longleat Safari Park

and information gained through my own experiences hand-rearing this

species.


Through talking to Mike Curzon, an extremely informative and willing

contact and friend, I learned of an article about breeding the Pink-backed

Pelican written by Paul Wexler and published in the Avicultural Magazine

Vol.103, No.2, pp.80-84 (1997). This article focused on the rearing of a

pelican chick hatched from an egg laid at Longleat Safari Park, and I was able

to extract some relevant information from it. My Senior Head of Section,

Mark Tye, who has 10 years’ experience of hand-rearing this species, also

provided me with much useful information. I also consulted ornithological

and zoological literature.


Results


Reasons for hand-rearing chicks


There are several reasons why the eggs are removed for artificial

incubation and the chicks are hand-reared. At Longleat Safari Park the

Pink-backed Pelicans have been laying fertile eggs since 1994. However,

when these have been left in the nests, after a period of time, they have

disappeared. It is presumed that unpaired pelicans rolled them off the nest

platforms into the water. Brouwer at al. (1994) stated that unpaired birds,



