Socorro doves step in as foster parents to raise Vulnerable pink pigeon at Bristol Zoo Project

A pair of Extinct in the Wild Socorro doves have successfully fostered a Vulnerable pink pigeon at Bristol Zoo Project, in a UK conservation first!

Our Animal team at the zoo has previously been successful in fostering species of threatened doves using domesticated species like barbary doves, however this is the first time Socorro doves have incubated and reared an egg and squab that was not originally theirs.

The adult pink pigeon pair at Bristol Zoo Project have been together during the breeding season for the past four years, regularly producing fertile eggs, but struggling to incubate them or successfully rear a squab.

Our Animal team has worked hard to provide multiple nest options for the pink pigeons, but due to continued difficulties it was decided that any fertile eggs produced would be partially artificially incubated by the team. This led to breeding success in June when a partially hatched egg was returned to the pink pigeon nest and reared successfully by the brooding parents before fledging at 26 days old.

Soon after this, the pair laid another fertile egg, but unfortunately the parents abandoned the nest after a week. Preferring not to hand rear, the Animal team decided to move the egg to a foster pair of Socorro doves who had been sitting on infertile eggs. It was incubated successfully by the foster parents and fledged at 26 days old, in a huge triumph for the species and the process of fostering using different species.

The Mauritian pink pigeon was a Critically Endangered species in 2000, but downlisted to Endangered in 2018 before being classified as Vulnerable with less than 1,000 existing in the wild. Endemic to Mauritius, and the only surviving pigeon native to the Mascarene Islands, the species continues to face threats due to habitat degradation, non-native predators and wildlife diseases. Socorro doves were native to an island on the other side of the world, Socorro Island off the west coast of Mexico, but became Extinct in the Wild during the 1970s due to human developments and the introduction of non-native species, as well as domestic cats, which hunted the native wildlife and wiped out populations.

Bristol Zoological Society’s Curator of Birds, Sheldon Wetton, said: “This breeding season and the fostering process has been a great success here at Bristol Zoo Project, which is a true testament to the Animal team.

“We have moved the pink pigeon squab out of the Socorro dove aviary now, and it has joined the first squab in a separate habitat. When these male and female juvenile pink pigeons are old enough, they will hopefully move on to other zoos to continue the collaborative breeding programmes within the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA).

“Here at Bristol Zoological Society, we are proud to be long-standing breeders of threatened bird species and to play a key role in their conservation. Our ongoing research and implementation of different breeding processes is a promising step forward in safeguarding the future of these birds and these new hatchlings are fantastic ambassadors for their species.”

We are currently undergoing an exciting transformation with the creation of a new conservation zoo. Currently, 78% of the animals we have are both threatened and part of targeted conservation programmes. Our aim is for this to rise to 90% of species by 2035.

Work is ongoing to create a new Central African Forest habitat which will become home to our existing troop of Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas, along with other highly threatened species including cherry-crowned mangabeys, slender snouted crocodiles, African grey parrots and several species of West African freshwater fish. The development will also include new visitor facilities and a conservation campus for students, vets and the breeding of threatened animals.