Breeding and hand‐rearing the Southern Sulawesi hornbill Penelopides exarhatus sanfordi for the Zoological Society of San Diego

In August 1989 San Diego Wild Animal Park acquired a pair of wild-caught Southern Sulawesi hornbills Penelopides exarhatus sanfordi. At first the ♂ was nervous when incubating and eventually modifications were made to the nestbox to prevent her from damaging her eggs. The addition of an observation door in the side of the nestbox allowed access for the inspection of eggs or chicks or, when necessary, the removal of eggs for artificial incubation. In 1993 and 1994 clutches were transferred to the San Diego Zoo Avian Propagation Center for hand-rearing. In 1993 only one chick survived and post-mortem examinations identified bacterial infection as the cause of death for three other chicks. In 1994 four chicks survived. This paper describes the breeding behaviour, incubation, hand-rearing, diet and development of Southern Sulawesi horn-bills. Information on veterinary treatment is also provided.