Incubation and Rearing Room News - May

The Incubation and Rearing Room is a busy place this month!

You must drop by for a look in the Rearing Room windows - see Who's Who in the "Arnie" Tanks on the white board outside. Staff are very busy overseeing the new youngsters in the "I&RR", in our off-show duckery at the back of the Meadow Maze, and in the off-show area at Coastal Creek. Each day,the Keepers feed, clean, and care for 30 types of ducks, geese, swans and waders. They also give two talks at which they publicly feed the diving ducks and Dalmatian Pelicans.

In the Duckery

We have new Nene Goslings! The two nene goslings hatched on May first and are being parent-reared in the off show duckery. They live in their own enclosure. Our older trio of nene goslings, Junior, Jade and Juno are now bumbling teems and still in the duckery. They follow around any staff member who comes in and are very curious trying to get in to see the other families. They also gave the Go-Pro camera in a recent photoshoot a very hard "tap" to see what it was!

Two swan geese gosling hatched on May first and they are being parent -reared by their mum in their own enclosure inside the duckery.

In the Incubators

Why do we put some eggs in incubators? This is assessed by our Keepers on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes if the nesting birds are on a large exhibit, the female sitting could be disturbed when sitting so we may bring the eggs into the incubators to improve their chances.

Head Keeper Sam McKinlay said: "We may bring in the eggs of the birds we have that are critically endangered species, or birds involved in breeding programs again to improve the chances of successful hatches. If we are able we prefer to parent-rear, let the birds sit the nest and raise the youngsters - that is what our off-show netted duckery is for."

This week (wc May 11) in the Incubation Room in the incubators we have eggs from:

• Chiloe Wigeon
• Red Shoveler
• Hooded merganser
• Carolina Wood Duck

The Rearing Room

After they hatch we move goslings and ducklings into the tanks in the rearing rooms. These flexible tanks can be set up in a dry mode for grazing goslings who get a pallet of grass to nibble on as they would outdoors. The tanks can also be set up in wet mode for dabbling and diving ducks to include a small pond where they can bob about!

This week (wc May 11) in the Rearing Room Tanks we have:

• Two swan geese gosling (Morris and Maeve) that hatched on May 10
• Two more swan geese goslings, unnamed, that hatched Maty 12
• Seven Common Goldeneye ducklings, hatched evening of May 10 and early morning May 11

Coastal Creek aviary

The Coastal Creek Aviary has its own off-show where the species of this and our other aviaries can be cared for in close quarters to the exhibit. Currently in tis off-show area are area 9 scaly-sided merganser ducklings that hatched of May 6th. They are in the off-show with their mother, being parented reared. The ducklings are some of the sweetest around lovely striped faces, like the duckling pictured at the top of this article!

Drop by the new Incubation and Rearing Room this spring and summer to see who's new each week. There are many more youngsters on the way this season, many part of national and international breeding programs - eye loads of fluffy cuteness that is conservation in action!

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