This ten-year-old female is sexually mature and the park's technical team hopes to be able to form a successful couple with the specimens that already live there. This transfer has been arranged by the EAZA EEP coordinator, a decision made as a consequence of the incompatibility of the previous female with neither of the two males that she houses. BIOPARC Fuengirola.

Now the park keeps the female in a quarantine area in which they are developing an approach protocol with the younger male, with the aim of gradually getting to know each other. As the adaptation is successful, this specimen can be seen in one of the park's outdoor aviaries.

“It is a quite complicated process. Since females depend so much on males in their reproduction, because it will be the male who feeds the female while she broods the young until they can leave the nest and fly, they are very selective. Sometimes, it is normal that the centers that work on their conservation have to try to pair several individuals until acceptance is achieved,” explains Jesús Recuero, veterinarian at BIOPARC Fuengirola.

The great challenge of hornbills: their reproduction

Part of the challenge with these birds is their reproduction, a process full of particularities. Here the females are very selective, the stimulation that the male achieves is essential for her to ovulate and lay fertilized eggs. The courtship begins with a game of flapping wings and getting closer to each other. During the days that this process lasts, the male flirts with the female, plays with her and gives her small 'gifts' in the form of food. Once the female accepts the male, they will mate.

The male has to convince the female that he is the right one. In the event that there is finally a clutch, his life and that of the chicks will depend one hundred percent on him. He will be responsible for feeding and protecting the female and the young.

After copulating, the female hornbill takes refuge in the cavity of a tree to lay eggs and does not leave until the chicks have grown. The exit is completely sealed by the pair, except for a small gap through which the male feeds the female and her young. In nature, if the male dies, so will these.

Seed dispersers and forest regenerators

Seed dispersal by animals is a crucial step in the development of up to 90% of tropical plants. Among vertebrates, birds assume an important role as dispersers of these seeds.

Hornbills are large birds that possess several unique traits in the avian world, such as cooperative reproduction, that self-imprisonment of females during nesting explained above, and mostly monogamous mating. Largely frugivorous, Hornbills play an important role in fruit seed dispersal in the tropical forests of Africa and Asia.to. In doing so, they collaborate by ensuring the survival and regeneration of forest ecosystems. In some communities they are affectionately known as “forest farmers.”

Four different conservation programs dedicated to hornbills

In 2018, Bioparc Fuengirola expanded the number of 'ex situ' conservation programs in which it participated within the EAZA with three EEPs dedicated to the preservation and protection of three species of hornbills: the Great Horned Hornbill, the Papuan Hornbill, the Black-throated Hornbill, and the Visayan Hornbill. In this way, the Malaga animal park is one of the most active in Spain in the conservation of these exotic birds, housing four of the sixteen species described today, all of them threatened.

In the case of bicorned hornbills, according to data provided by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in recent decades, this species has disappeared in dozens of enclaves; even in protected spaces. This organization classifies them as 'vulnerable'. With a population in continuous decline due mainly to poaching of specimens and the disappearance of the forest mass that gives them home due to indiscriminate logging and burning, the hope of hornbills now lies in conservation programs such as the one Bioparc Fuengirola carries out. just.