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Background
This project was started in 1988 by the first inspiration from a hill mynah which was kept in an individual cage for its life time without any chance to breed. Due to its ability to mimic any sound especially human languages, hill mynah becomes a very popular pet worldwide. However, it hardly breeds in captivity and people keep on taking the young from their nests. This threatens the decline of the wild population.
At that time in Thailand, there was no report about the biology of Thai hill mynah, particularly reproductive biology. Several research projects, both in the field and in the laboratory, on anatomy, physiology, ecology, ethology, hematology, endocrinology, parasitology and natural reproductive biology of hill mynah have been conducted since then.
With a persistent aim to conserve this kind of wildlife, the works have been carried on to acquire the most information fundamental to captive breeding.
Subspecies of hill mynahs in Thailand
There are two species of hill mynahs in the world, Gracula religiosa and G. ptilogenys. Ten subspecies of Gracula religiosa distribute all over Asia from India, China, Burma,Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.Two of these are found in Thailand (latitude 5°37'N - 20°27'N, longitude 97°22'E - 105°37'E) , one of which is the northern race, Gracula religiosa intermedia inhabiting from north India, China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the northern through central part of Thailand and the other is the southern race,G. r. religiosa spreading from the southern part of Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesia.
Gracula religiosa intermedia
Gracula religiosa religiosa
From morphology study, the differences between the northern and the southern races of Thai hill mynahs are obvious. The northern birds have smaller sizes of bill, head and body than the southern ones. Moreover, the wattle shape of the former comprises a yellow connection line between front and rear parts which does not appear in the latter.
Both of them have glossy black feathers which turn purple blue when exposed to the sunshine with white patches at the tips of both wings, orange big bills with yellow tips and yellow legs. Males and females are alike, i.e. they are monomorphic birds.
Breeding season is January through July. Being monogamous birds , both male and female make nest, incubate and feed their young. Between August and December we find them living in flock about 7-50 birds. They forage, perch, sun bathe and fly together in group.
Eight years of field study (1991-1998) revealed that, on average, out of every 100 eggs there were only 12 independent fledglings which could survive. Most of the rest were caught for caged pets. Thus, breeding in captivity is undoubtedly urgent for the c
Success in captive breeding
After ten years (1988-1997) of successive endeavor, including data collection from the forest all over Thailand and the commencement of hill mynah breeding in captivity in 1996, we succeeded in breeding 52 younglings in 1997 from 8 pairs of breeders all year round even during nonbreeding season in August through December and 27 younglings in 1998 (up to May 1998). We provide a couple of breeder with a nest which is 1.5 meters in height from the ground.
They lay 2-3 blue eggs and incubate for 15 days. Food comprises fruits and vegetables such as papaya, watermelon, banana, figs, pepper and tomato; in addition they get protein from meal worm and mynah pellets. Water for drinking and bathing is changed everyday.
Nestlings are taken from the nests on the day of hatching. Hand-rearing is preferable. Thirty-day-old fledglings are trained to perch, fly, and eat by themselves and they can do well when they become older than 45 days.
Vocal imitation talent
The most significant desire for having hill mynah as pet birds comes from their ability to mimic any sound especially human speech. Some call them the talking bird. In fact, they can neither talk nor converse. The result from one of our projects indicated that what they could do was to mimic and repeated the words and phrases they have heard since an age of less than 6 months. The vocal imitation in hill mynah represented learning behavior.
People think hill mynahs are very good company especially in big cities where people like to live alone in apartment or condominium. They enjoy talking to the birds even though they are only birds that can mimic their voice. Thai hill mynahs are very popular among hill mynahs in the world. People are impressed with the ability of hill mynahs originating from Thailand to learn more words or phrases and to imitate voice more frequently than those from elsewhere. Successful captive breeding as a result of this project will solve the problem of extinction.
Persuant Projects
Past efforts have manifested the goal to breed hill mynah in captivity in order to release them back to the nature which is one method of the conservation management for threatened or endangered species. Therefore, projects to be followed will focus on increasing the captive population and training the young to survive in the wild regard to foraging, predation and propagation their genes.
Pursuant projects are to be submitted and we hope that the conservation of this kind of wildlife will not be an impossible dream.
MANEE ARCHAWARANON
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ramkhamhaeng University Huamark, Bangkok 10240, Thailand 66-2-3190801 ext. 142 Fax 66-2-7296176 manee@ram1.ru.ac.th
Education
- 1983-1987 Ph.D. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.
(supervised by Professor Dr. R.Haven Wiley)
- 1974-1976 M.Sc. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
(supervised by Professor Dr. M.R. Puttipongse Varavudhi)
- 1970-1974 B.Sc. (Gold Medal Award)
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Academic Positions
- 1982-present Associate Professor of Biology, Ramkhamhaeng University
- 1979-1982 Assistant Professor of Biology, Ramkhamhaeng University
- 1976-1979 Lecturer, Ramkhamhaeng University
Major Research Interests
Animal Behavior especially reproductive behavior, ecology, evolution and physiology.
Recent Studies
• 1988-present Several projects on biology of Thai hill mynah.
Social Service
• 1999 - present Save Thai Birds for Kids Project |
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我歌月徘徊 我舞影零乱
发表于 2007-11-23 20:37:33
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