CAPTIVE BREEDING PROGRAMME: A SAD STORY FOR JOLO AND BASILAN

Military activity, political instability and insurgency continue to present a serious obstacle to general conservation activity in the region. It’s true that this region has so many things to offer but because of these factors, everything is limited – information, activities, and even control. Unfortunately, Basilan and Jolo, actually the ARMM have no declared protected areas. The implication of this is that, when a certain place has no protected area declared by the government, the community people will abuse the resources, have no control in their actions thus leading to the devastation of the wildlife and their habitat. The same principle is applied why these faunal regions has no records of captive breeding programmes.

Sulu bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba menagei)

Sulu bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba menagei)

 However, there’s a species of bird, the Sulu bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba menagei), under the Critically Endangered (CR) category of IUCN, which is endemic to the Sulu archipelago in the Philippines, (Tawi-Tawi, Jolo, and neighboring islets in Tandubas, was under the Bleeding-Heart Pigeon Conservation Programme. This institution aims to breed the species of which are declared threatened, endangered, critically endangered and extinct in the wild in order to restore the number of the said species. But, Sulu bleeding-heart are very rare and hard to find, so its relatives, G. keayi and G. luzonica are the ones subjected to captive breeding programme.

G. keayi

G. luzonica

Four aviaries intended for development of a properly structured conservation breeding programme for G. keayi were constructed at the NFEFI Biodiversity Conservation Center in 1998, where highly successful breeding trials with G. luzonica have been underway in preparation for the desired future management of the Negros species. In 2007, the first successful captive breeding of the Negros Bleeding-heart was done in Centrop, and later also in NFEFI, where G. luzonica was already breeding actively (Lastica 2012). As of 2013, there are 18 Negros Bleeding-heart pigeons at NFEFI-BCC, of which 14 have been captive-bred (Justo 2013).

This captive breeding programme wouldn’t be made possible without the help of the following institutions and conservation centers:

Ø  Australian Avicultural Federation (Australia)

Ø  Birds International (Philippines)

Ø  Bristol, Clifton and West of England Zoological Society (UK)

Ø  Department of Environment and Natural Resources (Philippines)

Ø   German Avicultural Society (Germany)

Ø  Mari-it Wildlife Conservation Park (Philippines)

Ø  Memphis Zoo (USA)

Ø   Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation, Inc. (Philippines)

Ø   Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany)

Ø   Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations (Germany)