Specialist incubation machines are helping to bring some of the world's rarest birds back from the brink of extinction. Endangered species in North America, Asia,
Australia and Africa are among those whose chances of survival have been boosted by AB Incubators (ABI).
Run by experts in avian reproductive biology, ABI combines their knowledge with the latest technology to make equipment that can incubate any egg · from one as small as a pea laid by a hummingbird to
an ostrich egg weighing 1.6 kilograms. The same machines can be adapted to nurture reptile eggs and have been used in Indonesia for conservation-based research on the largest of all lizards, the
three-metre-long Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis).
ABI, which also manufactures separate units for hatching and brooding chicks, has recently shown its most sophisticated incubator yet. The new model heads a range of machines that have been vastly
improved since ABI's origins in the early 1970s. Dr Anderson-Brown's pioneering products were among the first of their kind to use electricity instead of paraffin for heating but they had no
facilities for regulating humidity · an important influence on successful hatching · and the eggs had to be turned by hand to promote healthy development of embryos.
Today's machines feature automatic egg-turning, a moving-air heating system, precise control of temperature and humidity, and maximum hygiene with easy-to-clean, thermally efficient cabinets. Clean
water for the humidifier is pumped from outside the incubator to minimize the build-up of harmful bacteria.
Captive rearing and subsequent release into suitable habitat, under strict legal protection, offers some species their only hope of continued existence in the wild. For many parrots, hawks and other
popular birds, artificial incubation was a means of increasing aviary-housed stock and therefore reducing the demand from the pet trade, zoos and falconers for wild-caught specimens.
One of the rarest birds to benefit from ABI's work is the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), a giant vulture with a wingspan of up to 2.7 metres. Although long revered by native Americans
the condor's population suffered in modern times as a result of shooting, poisoning and environmental problems.
By 1987 only 27 were left and all were brought into captivity for their own safety. Special breeding facilities were set up in San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the World Center
for Birds of Prey at Boise, Idaho. The California condor normally raises only one chick every other year but the female lays again if she loses an egg. By removing eggs for artificial incubation as
soon as they were laid, zookeepers were able to increase the reproduction rate to as many as six young per female in a two-year period. This manipulation of nature was the key to the condor's steady
recovery. In 1992, when the population had reached 63, seven were released into protected areas. By September 1999 there were 161 condors, 48 of which were soaring free above their native hills.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand's Department of Conservation is using the machines in its efforts to save
the black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae), a critically endangered wading bird, and the kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a flightless, nocturnal parrot whose numbers have been reduced to around 60 by
rats, feral cats and stoats. The battery-powered portable brooders have formed travelling homes for kakapo eggs and chicks on their way to captive breeding centres or to comparative safety on small
islands cleared of alien predators.
In Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the equipment is helping the turkey-like houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata), a traditional quarry of falconers and shooters. ABI is also in
service with government wildlife departments in Malaysia and Thailand which, together with members of the UK-based World Pheasant Association, are implementing measures to safeguard rare pheasants in
south-east Asia.
The tiny eggs of Hawaiian honeycreepers are incubated in similar machines as part of a programme funded by the Peregrine Foundation in the United States. Russian aviculturists at Moscow and
Novosibirsk zoos are breeding endangered cranes.(E-Mail: gesr@abincub.demon.co.uk)
Freitag, 31. März 2000