Ibisring

From the inventory you send us each year, we learn a lot. It gives us a lot of work, but it is the only way to see how populations evolve. We noticed that the American White ibis was going backwards, mainly due to export and being not as popular as other species. Therefore we decided to take action.

Photo by Brad & Lynn Weinert

It was no use putting remaining birds together, without knowledge of their origine. We learned from other projects that another address does not necessarily mean other blood. Those random breeding in a new mixed group, can deliver nice offspring. But we would never know father, mother or even worse: destination of the new bird. A full DNA analysis of the remaining birds was not possible because of financial reasons. (hey hey, anyone sponsoring?) So we only took those birds of whom we were sure of their origin into the studbook, and placed them in combinations so all offspring would be recognisable. No unknown mixture was allowed.

The long run? Yes, maybe. But certainly longer running. A quick result may be popular for a while, but we are most of all interested in the future of this bird, ex situ sustainable populations; all members are free to join, or go their own way, for whatever reason. As usual, most important groups within ibisring where added to this studbook. Pure and known birds from an original source. So we feel that, again, we arrived at an amazing result towards a simple bird. It is unlikely that they will need our birds for in-situ. But we proved it can work, set an example for more important species to work on later. This knowledge can save other birds in future, no need to take risks.

The studbook, always work in progress, is expanding each year. We give you an overview here, and we will add the next generations and changes in the future.

We will need more places and aviaries to put birds, so if you are interested, please send a request toD5@ibisring.org If you look at the column newborn, you will see there are a lot of options.

We are on the way to save a bird population in ex situ, by working together and by taking action at the right moment.

Let us hope this is an example of how it can be done, for other birds in need in aviculture. If it works on a big bird like an ibis, it should be possible to work on a little pigeon, a small duck, etc...

At your service,

ibisring

Photo by Brad & Lynn Weinert

Studbook American White Ibis

• each colour presents a bloodline, also a letter is given
• nr on left is place where they are (member nr ibisring)
• our internal studbook has ring numbers and more data
• each of participants has a Gentlemens agreement, not to place newborn elsewhere than the studbook advises