Keeping The Book Of The Babbler

With so many of the world’s wild bird species facing an uncertain future, co-ordinating captive populations becomes a critical task – and at the centre of one such effort is C&AB columnist CHRIS GREEN, who maintains the European studbook for a rather special species from China.

SOFTBILLS

THE Mount Omei babbler (Liocichla omeiensis), also known as Emei Shan liocichla, is endemic to China with a restricted distribution. On IUCN’s Red List it is classed as Vulnerable. The European Studbook (ESB), which was approved in July 2005, subsumed a Joint Management of Species Plan (JMSP) studbook. The latter had been founded in 1998 to safeguard the captive population of this species, which had a short history in British zoos and, without further co-operation, a short future. A large number of non-European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) institutional and other non-institutional participants were vital when sourcing birds initially, and many UK-based private aviculturists are still co-operating with the studbook today.

The Mount Omei babbler ESB was handed to Cotswold Wildlife Park in October 2014 when I took it over from Nigel Hewston. At that time, 11 zoo/ bird-park collections and three private collections were working with the species; now it’s 20 and seven. I hope that will continue to increase – after I have managed to master the new Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) program (a special software package for managing studbooks).