Touracos: Captive Status

Abstract

For the past ten years, as supervisor
of the Houston Zoo bird section, I have
had the opportunity of working with a
remarkable group of birds- touracos.
Touracos are a distinctive taxon of
softbilled birds which range over portions
of Africa, south of the Sahara.
The Houston Zoo's breeding program
for touracos began in 1973 under
the direction of former curator Robert
J. Berry. Over the last 15 years the program
has expanded due to the team
efforts of former supervisor Trey Todd,
myself, and an outstanding flock of
zookeepers. The program is ongoing
and continues with present curator
Larry Shelton. The zoo currently holds
80 touracos, representing 16 species
and sub-species. Twenty-four are
youngsters raised since February of this
year.
Since 197 3 nearly 300 specimens,
representing 12 species and subspecies,
have been bred in Houston.
During this period a great deal of experience
and information on touracos has
been amassed. Through communications
between other zoos and private
breeders interested in touracos, we
could easily see trends developing
with regard to the captive status of
these species; once commonly bred
species were decreasing, numerical
over-representation of others were
apparent and genetic diversity in the
captive population was becoming significantly
reduced.
When the suggestion of a touraco
studbook arose, these trends in the
captive population could not be substantiated
based on actual data and no
real determination could be made on
which species were in greater need of
management. Obviously, much more
information was required and with this
in mind I was given permission by the
zoo director to initiate a touraco survey
questionnaire on specimens in U.S.
collections.