Talarak Foundation TFI Monthly report - August 2014

5.8. We would like to share very happy news. One of the females of Philippine Eagle-Owl (Bubo philippensis) laid an egg and now it is staying in the nest box. For these owls it is typical to have just one egg in the clutch and the incubation period is 35 days. According to IUCN Red List this species is categorized as Vulnerable and its major threat is habitat loss due to cutting of forests.

Nest box

8.8. TFI has the opportunity to cooperate with Rafael Salas Park and Nature Center. So we made a trip to the park and met there with Mrs. Carmelita Salas, the wife of an important statesman Rafael Salas. This 296-hectare nature park was developed for ecotourism as a project of the Bago City local government, the province of Negros Occidental and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The main building, which would serve for sustaining ecotourism activities like seminaries, conferences etc. and as accommodation for volunteers, is being constructed now. In the park, the complex biodiversity survey is planned with the cooperation of international partners (ZOO Plzen). Bago city is sponsoring the basic survey for setting the boundaries of the park.

9.8. In Talarak, we hosted important visitors Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission Mr. Jan Vytopil and his family. They took a look around the Centre with the expert commentary of Pavel Hospodarsky.

12.8. The young female of Visayan Writhed Hornbill (Aceros waldeni) is colouring more and more. On the previously yellow non-feathered ocular and throat part of the skin blue spots start to show more clearly. Therefore she is becoming more visually distinctive from young males, to whom yellow colour remains. Also on her head we can see growth of black feathers, which is another sign of sexual dimorphism. Young females have brown feathers on their head but at the age of 3,5 months they start to change to black colour.

27.7.

12.8.

15.8. Some of the females of Philippine spotted deer have reached sexual maturity and had to be separated from the family group with relative male. They joined the group with unrelated male MJ from NFEFI-BCC. Bringing together started with sniffing, then continued with chasing around the enclosure and it was obvious that older former females predominates the new ones. The male MJ was just watching all this from distance. The hierarchy in the herd is already settled and we hope that the young females will soon have offspring.

20.8. We gave rings, dewormed, deloused and transferred to the new enclosure the two young Palawan Peacock Pheasants (Polyplectron napoleonis), that were born on 12th April. This species is endemic to Pilipino island Palawan. Due to ongoing habitat loss, hunting and capture for trade, the Palawan peacock-pheasant is classified as Vulnerable species.

Ringing

Deworming and delousing

25.8. We are happy to say that the piglet of sow Jirina gets better. One months ago we realised that it was injured, probably bitten by other sow Dana. It is still in the separation enclusure but we hope that it will soon join the rest of the herd.

28.8. Two breeding pairs of Pied Imperial-pigeons (Ducula bicolor) are currently kept in the Centre. The fifth born young of this species was cought and got a ring.

Ringing

Unfortunately we have two pieces of sad news at the end. One of them is that during August more birds than usual died and some of them were very rare species that are nearly extinct in the Philippines like Blue-backed Parrot (Tanygnathus sumatranus everetti). During August deworming took place in Talarak and some birds died because the worms were not expelled out of their bodies. Like this we lost a six year old female of Blue-backed Parrot and round worms were also found during the necropsy of a four year old female of Blue-naped Parrot (Tanygnathus lucionensis salvadorii). Whole pair of Philippine Ducks (Anas luzonica) died during one day of unknown causes. We suspect that the ducks died due to poisoning because the female was dazed and limping. We also lost one of the males of Palawan Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa palawanensis).

Blue-backed Parrot - round worms in the intestines

The second sad piece of news is that more than half of our keepers are sick. Symptoms are muscle ache and some of them have rash on their bodies. We hope that all of them get better soon and will continue to work in full strength.

Report compiled By: Pavel Hospodarsky and Zuzana Panovska Talarak Foundation Inc. 52 Coloso Street, Kabankalan City 6111 Negros Occidental, Philippines