Ex Situ

Sacramento Zoo Thick-billed Parrot Exhibit  

The goal of the SSP is to have 200 spaces available to this species, which is currently not an issue. The master plan would like to keep over 90% gene diversity for the next 100 years. This is possible with the current collection where the managed population is descended from 37 founders and 18 potential founders remaining. Genetic diversity in the known pedigree population is (97.43%) relatively high. Because there is the possibility that gene diversity could fall below 90% in 42 years the SSP has made it its goal to find out the pedigree on all the unknown birds. This can be accomplished by doing genetic work on all the captive birds as well as some in the wild. The potential gene diversity is high (98.98%) through careful management. There is always the possibility of bringing in new founder birds from the private sector.

    The age structure of the population deviates from a stable distribution because of the management issues we have addressed over the years. There have been short periods of high production interspersed by short periods of low production. These are the result of the moving of birds from one institution to another, and into different setups. The goals of the SSP have changed over the years with more emphasis on the natural behaviors of this species. Group cages were developed to insure group stability and increased reproduction. Since we are nearing our goal of 200 there will be many birds who are designated non breeders

Sac Zoo Thick-billed Parrots  

Another Exhibit Photo