Albuquerque zoo works to bring Mexican bird back from extinction in the wild

The Socorro dove may look unassuming. With a fluffy brown coat and pink feet, the dove species could be mistaken for an average city pigeon by the untrained eye. But the Mexican birds are extinct in the wild, and much of the remaining Socorro dove population lives at the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo.

With 26 birds, the BioPark has the biggest breeding program in North America for the island-dwelling doves. The zoo is part of an international effort to save the Socorro dove from extinction so that it can be reintroduced in the wild to its native Socorro Island off of Mexico’s western coast.

“These islands are just really rich in biodiversity, and then getting this dove back just ups it even more,” said Curator of Birds Karen Waterfall.

When cats were introduced to Socorro Island, many of the doves were eaten. When sheep were introduced, much of the birds’ habitat was devoured. The Socorro dove was last spotted in the wild in 1972 and was listed as extinct in 1994.

There are 73 Socorro doves in North and Central America at various wildlife institutions.

“They’ve all descended here in North America from 12 birds we received from Europe in 2008 to start our breeding program here,” Waterfall said. The Albuquerque zoo has 18 male birds and eight females.

The goal is to reach 100 Socorro doves within the next seven years, which means institutions breeding the bird have to work together to breed 15 chicks per year in the coming years.

With a specialized diet, at times fragile health and aggressive males, the birds are difficult to care for. The chicks have a high mortality. In their first year of the life, approximately 40% of the doves die, Waterfall said.

A population biologist helps the zoo determine, based on bird genetics, which doves could be good candidates to pair up, so that genetic diversity is preserved within the population. The birds breed from early spring until November. Sometimes the paired birds aren’t happy together and don’t mate. At times, the male birds are too aggressive toward the females.

“If they’re happy, they start building a nest together,” Waterfall said.

The Albuquerque zoo transfers doves that are not appropriate for breeding, like excess male doves, doves that have difficulty pairing up, or doves that are poor selections for breeding, to one of the 22 zoos involved in the conservation effort. Recently, the zoo has sent Socorro doves to zoos in Cincinnati, Houston and San Diego.

“It’s very helpful to us for them to take some of these males and tell their story,” Waterfall said. “That’s what we want to do: tell their story and potentially get them back to the island.”

Zoos in Europe are also working on the conservation effort, as are researchers in Mexico and the Mexican government.

The doves returned to Mexico in captivity in 2013, when six Socorro doves were moved from the BioPark to a facility in the city of Valsequillo in Puebla, Mexico, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

Many people are trying to prepare Socorro Island by eradicating cats and monitoring the island’s vegetation for the Socorro dove’s eventual return to the wild, Waterfall said.

Cathy Cook is a news reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com.