[Zoovolunteer]

Hi all

I volunteer at weekends at Bristol Zoo, and one of the rarest birds we have here is the Socorro Dove (Zenaida graysoni) now extinct in the wild. We and other zoos are cooperating on a breeding programme for the species with a view to a reintroduction once the cats have been removed from the islands of the coast of Mexico where it used to live. Unfortunately getting through layers of local beaurocracy is taking up a lot of time. Until then, this link has pictures.

http://www.waza.org/virtualzoo/facts...0Columbiformes

Cheers

Alan

[scfmerlin]

Alan,
Sounds interesting to me, perhaps you can keep us up to date with any developments with the doves?
regards
Merlin

[Zoovolunteer]

Sure - we have Bali starlings here as well. There are attempts to reintroduce these but they are not doing well - the last report I read was a wild population of 4(!) - you can see these at several collections

[bkrownd]

Bali starlings... Ooooh, there's a photo of your beautiful white myna on Wikipedia. I guess not all mynas are nasty screeching gutter pests, after all.

[Harold Stiver]

That's interesting, I hadn't realized there were still surviving birds in captivity.

I understand that Socorro Island also has rats which are a problem and harder to eradicate. Perhaps another island without introduced predators could be used.