Abstract
The seven, arguably eight, species that comprise the genus Brotogeris are in many
respects perfect for the role of avicultural subjects. They have lively, entertaining personalities, a pleasing appearance, refrained vocalization and can become very tame, especially when they have been hand reared. Add to this the virtues of normally showing a strong willingness to breed and to be housed and reproduced on a colony basis, then the Brotogeris parakeets well deserve establishment in aviculture.
At Loro Parque most of the Brotogeris species have been maintained for many years, both on public exhibition and also in breeding cages in our off-exhibit areas. We have continued with our long term plan of replacing most of the older exhibition cages at Loro Parque with new improved accommodations for our birds. Our collection of Brotogeris parakeets has been housed in aviaries that we have wished to change for some time and, in March of 1995, the change was completed.
The new aviaries are of a much larger and more open design than the former exhibit cages. Each of the eight new cages is free standing with plants providing a visual break between the
different cages. As with all of our cages, a shower system is built into the design as standard and this is used daily throughout most of the year, being especially needed during the very hot summer months here in the Canary Islands. Food and water dishes are situated on a revolving door system so that the feeding of the birds can be achieved without the need to physical-
ly enter the cage. Nest boxes of a horizontal design are present on each aviary and even after only a few weeks, we saw the birds' increased interest in their new nesting arrangement.
The new exhibition aviaries are certainly larger, better designed and much more pleasing to the eye. We have already noticed that our Brotogeris are receiving more attention from the many visitors to the Parque each day. The new aviaries also make photographing the birds by the public mor.e easily carried out.
It is now our hope that the birds will continue to enjoy their new accommodation and that improved breeding results will soon be noticed.