Abstract
There is an ever increasing number of birds that are becoming rare in captive collections. A great variety of birds once commonly seen in zoos and private collections are fast decreasing. We may never again have a chance to work with many of the unusual birds that were here only a few years ago. The Giant Tinamou is an excellent example. The following includes the details on the propagation of the Giant Tinamou at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1971.
The Great" Tinamou is found from Southeastern Mexico through Central America and into South America as far as Bolivia. In 1975 while photographing in Panama with Dr. Nathan Gale, we observed a proud hunter who showed us a recentiy shot Giant Tinamou which was heading for the cooking pot. They are known for their excellent taste.
The tinamou is one of the few species of birds in which the male will incubate the eggs and rear the chicks. Often times one hen will mate with several males, laying several clutches of eggs, and leaving each male to do all the work.
The Los Angeles Zoo acquired three Giant Tinamou in 1966 from the Thomas bird collection that was at one time located on Catalina Island. Another crippled bird was added in 1969. Sexing of these birds was very difficult. Both sexes are similar in size and coloration. In 1970, a known female was received on loan from San Antonio Zoo where she had laid 12 eggs the year before. All of these Giant Tinamou were believed to be around 20 years of age as no records could be found showing any of these birds being imported after 1953.
These Tinamou were housed in a planted ground aviary with a variety of other types of birds which included a pair of Crested Wood Partridge, pigeons, a barbet and other softbills. There were no eggs laid by the loan female in 1970, but a total of nineteen eggs laid in 1971. This female was quite aggressive and was certainly the dominant bird in the group. The crippled bird died and another bird was removed due to her aggression. There was no pairing, courtship, or breeding observed. The brilliant tourquoisine eggs were laid on an average of one every four days over a period of 10 weeks starting on May 19, 1971. A single egg was laid on a clear patch of ground and was then removed and placed in a Humidaire automatic incubator. The dry bulb was placed at 99 .s0 and the wet bulb at 84°. Chart No. II shows details concerning the fertility and hatchability of the eggs. The chicks hatched after an incubation period of 19 days and had a well developed feather structure. They were generally brown in color and white under the lower mandible and a distinctive white stripe running from the back side of the eye down the side of the neck. They loose this stripe around seven to eight weeks when they appear very dark greyishbrown in color. They then have very fine, widely spaced light spots on their bodies. They do not show any of the grey coloration of the adults until after four months.
Very few of the tinamou that hatched were very strong. Our experience with gallinaceous birds hatching from an artificial incubator was that those birds which had no difficulty piping and hatching were robust and survived easily to adulthood and those that did have trouble rarely survived to adulthood. So it was with the....