Understanding Shoebills
Posted at 8:24 am July 19, 2006 by Sara SkillmanCRES offers summer student fellowships to help undergraduates, recent graduates, and graduate students gain research experience. The Fellows enjoy doing research outside of the university without having to juggle class work on the side!
My name is Sara, and I am a recent graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There, I studied animal behavior and was able to design and carry out numerous behavioral research projects with various animal species. This summer, with the help of Caroline Pitt, a Research Fellow in the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES, I will be observing an incredibly fascinating species, the shoebill stork Balaeniceps rex. The opportunity to study this African bird is very important for CRES because the shoebill has never reproduced in captivity. By reading about and studying the behavior of the shoebill, we will hopefully begin to understand their breeding behavior.
Every morning, I observe the birds in an off-exhibit enclosure at the Wild Animal Park from a small observation booth where I can see them but they can't see me. There are also two video cameras set up in the enclosure so that I can watch them more closely on a television set; I can even videotape their behaviors at times when I am not there. By observing the birds, I am able to compile a list of all the behaviors I have witnessed, such as preening, flying, and walking. Extensive background research of wild birds and a behavioral repertoire of captive birds will help us better understand this unique species.
I will be at CRES and working on this project throughout the summer. Check back for updates to see how it's going!
Sara Skillman is a Summer Fellow with the Behavioral Biology Division of CRES.
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July 20th, 2006 at 3:58 am
How many shoebills live at the zoo and how are they kept?
July 20th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Welcome to the Animal Park, Sara! And I hope you have great success in your studies of the fascinating shoebill stork. I enjoy watching the two on exhibit in the big lagoon and have often wondered how the breeding program off-exhibit is going. Please continue to keep us all informed on your progress. And stay cool — it's really hot at the Park in the summer!!
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:02 am
Hi Kelvin & others,
According to Michael Mace, the Curator of Birds who is working closely with us on this project, two other zoological institutions in North America have shoebill storks. We have five birds in the collection: three are on exhibit in the lagoon area of the Wild Animal Park and two are off-exhibit in a breeding enclosure.
Thanks for your interest
Sara
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:07 am
The shoebill is my favorite animal and I love to read about it. One thing in particular I have wanted to know is if shoebills are a hostile or friendly animal to live with.
September 26th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Hi Sara, I live in England. Do you know if there are any Shoebills in any Zoos in Europe and are they working on breeding programmes?
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
quite a late reply, but to those who are interested.
in europe there are several facilities with shoebills: parc paradisio in belgium (1.1) zoo wuppertal in germany (1.0) birdpark walsrode germany (1.1) zoo frankfurt (0.1) zoo praha in czech republic (2.3 allthough not visible for visitors) and zoo zurich switserland (1.0) I have seen all enclosures except for zurich (not been there yet) and praha (been there, but they keep the animals in a separate facility) no breedings in europe so far either. but praha is trying to match some of its animals and also paradisio has had a promising start. the other zoos don't have pairs or the pairs don't match (as is the case for walsrode)
July 28th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Sara- -
What a wonderful creature! The well-circulated photo of a Shoebill lifting an adult duck into the air occasions my two questions: could the bigger bird actually be intending to swallow the smaller one? And is it capable of doing so?
Thank you
Jack
July 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Sara- -
What a wonderful creature! The well-circulated photo of a Shoebill lifting an adult duck into the air occasions my two questions: could the bigger bird actually be intending to swallow the smaller one? And is it capable of doing so?
Thank you
Jack