Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!intercon!news
From: ooblick@intercon.com (Mikki Barry)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Importing parrots for genetic variability
Message-ID: <285D20D1.4189@intercon.com>
Date: 17 Jun 91 20:51:29 GMT
References: <1991Jun17.024522.12693@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au>
Sender: usenet@intercon.com (USENET The Magnificent)
Reply-To: ooblick@intercon.com (Mikki Barry)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA
Lines: 16

In article <1991Jun17.024522.12693@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au>, 
rim@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (Bob McKay) writes:
> This won't work, at least with cockatoos. If you keep them, then you must be 
> aware of how intelligent and social they are. Released birds don't have the
> learned background to survive (and in the case of the flock species, they 
can't
> survive anyway without a flock, and they won't be allowed to join an existing
> flock). Pet sulphur crested cockatoos released or lost in Australia don't go 
out
> and survive in the wild, they just hang around cities trying to get their 
flock
> cousins (people) to look after them, and die when they don't succeed.

You are making the assumption that the birds will be kept as pets before re-
release.  If the parents completely raise the cockatoos, they will be perfectly 
capable of returning to a wild population.