Keeping love in the air at Jurong BirdPark

What does it take to get lovebirds to court, mate and hatch their young in captivity? In the second of a three-part series on animal breeding, CHANG AI-LIEN checks out the chemistry behind the Jurong BirdPark's successful programme.

INFRA-RED cameras will be set up in nesting boxes at Jurong BirdPark, so staff can keep an unobtrusive eye on mothers and chicks.

HOW CHIC: The park uses high-tech breeding techniques to ensure that more chicks, like this two-week-old Ecelectus parrot, are born. -- PICTURES: TAN SUAN ANN

This will help them ensure that the babies are progressing normally without having to open the boxes.

It will give them an exclusive peek into the nesting behaviour of the different species as well, something which they could not observe in the past.

The park is also looking into establishing its own DNA lab, where researchers will be able to confirm the birds' sex from tiny blood samples - something which can be near impossible to do just by looking at some species.

Both are high-tech ways to help the park collect data on the birds and improve on its already impressive breeding record, which boasts successes in several species that have never been bred anywhere else in the world.

LUCKY CHICK: A baby Ecelectus parrot nestles against its mother. Some babies are abandoned by their parents and have to be reared by hand.

One in four of the 600 species of birds in the park was born and bred there.

About 500 eggs are hatched in Jurong BirdPark every year.

And half of these are endangered species bred at the park's Breeding and Research Centre.

The centre was set up in 1988, but has been kept strictly out of bounds to the public to protect the privacy of the birds, which are either abandoned chicks or breeding pairs.

The Straits Times' visit last week was the first time any media had been allowed into the facility.

Speaking about the infra-red cameras, the park's executive director, Dr Wong Hon Mun, said: 'We sometimes learn the hard way that the mothers, especially first-timers, do not tolerate being peeped at.

'They get too agitated and sometimes harm their chicks by mistake.'

 

BIRD'S EYE VIEW: The bird park breeds species such as the Hyacinth macaws (above), which lie down instinctively when they are disturbed, and South Africa's Vonderdecken hornbill, perched on Ms Nyunt's arm (below).

He said that successful breeding depends on both the birds and their keepers.

'The science of breeding birds is still uncommon in certain cases.

'So we need good staff to keep an eye on the birds and identify what they need, as well as good healthy birds which get along with each other.'

He added: 'Just like humans, most birds have to find their own mate.'

The centre houses a nursery and a breeding area.

Assistant curator (projects) Nyunt Mee Mee said that the nursery is home to up to 100 babies at a time. These are birds which are rejected by their parents, abandoned or whose parents are too inexperienced to take care of their young.

Eggs which have been rejected by adult birds are also incubated there, and the chicks reared by hand, she added.

The centre's staff have built their own special cages for the abandoned birds, with different sections within each cage for chicks of different ages, lights to warm the area and hygro- meters to measure temperature and humidity.

The breeding area comprises three blocks of individual aviaries where 200 birds - 40 different species in all - are kept in breeding pairs.

And plans are constantly in the works to keep the birds happy and comfortable.

For example, the centre already has its own cricket-breeding programme, but plans to expand this to other bird delicacies, such as grasshoppers, meal-worms and 'superworms'. The last is a type of monster meal-worm.