Vulturine Guinea Fowl
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Story by Susie Kearley. WHEN I VISITED Cotswold Wildlife Park in England recently, the vulturine guinea fowl caught my attention because of their stunning electric blue plumage and their striking black and white stripes. They’re common in the wilds of Africa, especially Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya, where they roam in flocks of about 25 birds.
Birds of a Feather
The birds are lively and great to watch. In the wild, they live in desert areas where there are areas of tall grass, patches of scrub, and some tree cover. They like to roam, looking for grubs and insects to munch on, but tend to stay near the trees, so they can disappear into the branches or hide in foliage if feeling threatened.
Like other guinea fowl, they roost in the branches of trees and prefer to run when alarmed, rather than fly. They have a loud call — a noisy chink-chink-chink sound — and can be quite vocal at night if they’re disturbed in their roost, so they don’t always make great neighbors.
The species is less common in captivity than other breeds of guinea fowl because of their huge price tag. While you can buy common breeds of guinea fowl keet for around $5 per chick, the more exotic the breed, the higher the price. So, for example, two vulturine guinea fowl keets cost $1,500 from the McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, but you can’t buy them at the time of writing because they’ve sold out.
The Joys of Keeping
I arranged to meet the bird keeper at Cotswold Wildlife Park, Chris Green, who told me about the highlights and challenges of keeping vulturine guinea fowl at the park. “We’ve had vulturine guinea fowl here for three years,” he told me. “They came from a friend who breeds them. He bred 40 birds and put the eggs under broody bantam hens who went on to rear the babies as if they were their own.
“Bantams are great for raising the eggs of almost any species. We’ve put broody Bantam hens over crane eggs, and they’ve hatched nicely. The Bantam mothers are very protective and defensive of the eggs they’re incubating.
“The vulturine guinea fowl are not the same temperamentally as other guinea fowl. We have Kenyan guinea fowl who are very friendly, enjoy lots of interaction, and peck at our shoes and trousers. But the vulturine guinea fowl are much more aloof and have no interest in the keepers. They’ll run away as soon as I get anywhere near them. They’re also more susceptible to cold than the other breeds, so we need to keep them warm, especially when they’re young. The babies are particularly skittish.
There are many other animals in the sanctuary such as:
Warm and Fed
“Keeping them warm and safe through the bad weather, when it’s cold, wet, and drafty, is one of the greatest challenges of caring for these birds. I move them out of their Little Africa enclosure into a heated shed for the winter. It means they’re off-view from the public for a few months, but it’s easier to keep them warm and snug between the cold months of November through January.” During the warmer months, they share their enclosure with hamerkop birds, Kirk’s dik-diks (a species of dwarf antelope), a small group of sacred ibis, and speckled pigeons.
What do they eat? “We feed them chopped lettuce, grated carrot, grated boiled egg, fruit, and live food, including mealworms and crickets. They also have pheasant pellets. They’re a fantastic species but tricky to keep — at least that’s what other keepers say — but we seem to have cracked it and ours are doing well. When they bred, earlier this year, I took the eggs from the nest after a week and put them in an incubator to give them the best chance of survival.”
Birds with Personality
He took me to see the babies in a warm room, where they were clearly thriving. They were a little nervous and backed away from us when he opened the pen so I could photograph them, but they seemed lively and in good health.
“The babies have got quite tame because I’m hand-rearing them,” he said. “But when the babies grow old enough to be put back in with the adults, they’ll grow wild again or ‘untame’ themselves.
“The adults are boisterous birds. They can be a bit aggressive and sometimes chase the other animals in the enclosure. The males have been seen chasing other birds three times their size! The black stork, a big bird, was chased so much that we decided to move him to a different enclosure.”
Chris smiled as he relayed stories of these crazy little birds frightening much bigger birds in their pen. We stood and watched them for a while, and on this occasion, the vulturine guinea fowl were far too busy chasing each other to worry about harassing the other species.
“In America, they keep them in enclosures but not usually running loose,” Chris said. “The vulturine guinea fowl are very expensive to buy compared to other breeds. And they’re quite rare in captivity, so people are less likely to see them available for sale, or to keep them. But if bird keepers wanted to have them as part of their collection, they could raise them in a safe aviary, on densely planted sandy substrate, which would help keep out drafts. Then you feed them dry mealworms, which they enjoy. It’s important to ensure they don’t get too cold.”
I asked him what the highlights were of keeping these impressive creatures. He said, “It’s really fun to get them breeding successfully and now that they’re laying eggs, we’ll breed as many as we can to pass on to other zoos.”
It was time for a quick photo session with the birds. Would we be able to get Chris and these flighty birds in the same shot, I wondered? He went to collect some mealworms to tempt them to come towards him for a photograph.
I watched as he entered the pen, sat on a log, and threw mealworms at them to draw them closer. The exercise was moderately successful. At first, the guinea fowl ran to the other side of the pen, but they did approach him for brief moments to collect some food. Overall, they kept a good distance and cleared up most of it after he’d gone!
It’s very clear that these guinea fowl are not as keen on human company as their namesake the Kenyan guinea fowl elsewhere at the park, but they are a beautiful addition to the collection of exotic birds, with their own unique characteristics.
Meet the Falmingoes!
Chris’s colleague, Issy Wright, told me about her work raising baby Chilean Flamingoes. “It’s the first time in six years they’ve laid eggs,” she said. “But it’s late in the season and cold, so I’ve taken the eggs and incubated them. I’m hand-rearing the babies under heat lamps.”
Issy had lots of juvenile flamingoes in her care, including some that were 50 days old, and others that had only hatched a day or two earlier. “It’s
important the young survive because we’re part of the EAZA breeding program for Chilean flamingoes,” she explained. “I create a formula that replicates their natural diet. It includes fish, eggs, supplements, and flamingo pellets. The older birds move on to pellets as soon as they’re old enough.
“I’ve been taking them out for walks, starting at two weeks old, to strengthen their muscles.” They follow Issy around a yard, staying close to her legs, so there’s no risk of them running off.
The pink plumage starts to show after about a year on the pellets, which contain the element in shrimp that makes them pink. But it can take up to three years for the birds to develop their full adult plumage.
The babies are kept separate for the first few weeks, so they don’t peck each other, then they go into a communal space.
“I love feeding the older ones!” says Issy. “They’re big and fluffy, and we’re developing a great bond. It won’t last when they go back out to the lake and mix with the adults, but I’m enjoying it for now. One of the highlights is watching the adults perform their dance during the mating season. They do a march with jolty movements, which you might have seen on nature programs.
“In a few months these youngsters will go back to the lake and forget all about me!”
SUSIE KEARLEY is a freelance writer and journalist who lives in Great Britain along with two young guinea pigs and an aging husband. In Britain, she has been published in Your Chickens, Cage & Aviary Birds, Small Furry Pets, and Kitchen Garden magazines.
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