Speakers

Biologist with a postgraduate degree in wildlife, breeding, and management, she worked for 26 years in Brazil with breeding under human care, always prioritizing research and the refinement of reproductive techniques. By managing zoos and Brazil’s leading psittacine breeding centres, she achieved excellent results that have been published in various media outlets.

For the past nine years, she has led the bird team at Loro Parque Fundación, after accepting the invitation to become bird curator at both Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundación. There, she has been adapting and applying breeding methodologies to the current context. She believes that, beyond the importance of building a strong and unified team, the development, adaptation, and application of specific methodologies for each breeding situation and species is key to achieving successful outcomes.

She strongly believes that the union of efforts should be valued not only within the Fundación itself but also between teams from different countries and those working directly with birds in the wild—so as to obtain the best possible results for species conservation.

She is the Management Consultant for the Captive Breeding Program of the Lear’s Macaw, Anodorhynchus leari, a native and threatened Brazilian species, property of the Brazilian Government. Loro Parque Fundación has achieved indisputable breeding success with this species—not only due to its accumulated reproductive expertise but also thanks to the birth of four chicks in the Brazilian caatinga, descended from birds born and raised at Loro Parque Fundación and later transferred to Brazil.

In addition, she is part of the expert advisory group that provides technical support and participates in decision-making for the Population Management Program (PMP) of the blue macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, Anodorhynchus leari).

Marcia Weinzettl has given lectures in various parts of the world, sharing her extensive knowledge of complex South American tropical psittacine species, as well as the breeding results obtained at the Fundación and the importance of this knowledge for species conservation.

Marcia will undoubtedly be one of the international references with whom participants will be able to exchange and receive valuable information.

He became an agrégé professor of Life and Earth Sciences in 1977 and has been retired since 2000. He has been involved in the world of parrots since 1972, working as a private breeder of dwarf macaws. Over the years, he has taken part in several field expeditions that resulted in publications on Ara rubrogenys, Ara glaucogularis and Poicephalus flavifrons between 1990 and 2005.

He served as EEP Coordinator and initiated an in situ conservation project for the Red-vented cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia), which he presented at the Loro Parque International Convention in 1998.

He is currently Vice-President of the Conservatoire des Oiseaux Exotiques (CDE), where he oversees both in situ and ex situ conservation programmes focusing on Amazona lilacina, Ara ambiguus guayaquilensis, Ara glaucogularis, Cyanoramphus saisseti, Lathamus discolor, Eunymphicus cornutus and E. uvaeensis.

Prof. Dr med vet, DZooMed, DipECZM, DipECPVS

Michael Lierz graduated in Hanover, Germany and earned his doctorate title by thesis from the Free University of Berlin, Germany working on diseases and rehabilitation of raptors. After being 4 years the director of the Abu Dhabi Falcon Research Hospital in the United Arab Emirates he returned to the Free University of Berlin in 2001, working as a scientific assistant. In 2009 he moved to the University of Giessen as the director of the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish. He holds the European Diplomate status of the European College of Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population Health), the European College of Poultry Veterinary Science, and the RCVS Diplomate status in Zoological Medicine (avian). In Germany he holds the specialist status in Poultry- and Avian Medicine, in Zoo- and Wildlife Medicine, in Microbiology, and in Species Conservation. His maim field of research is assisted reproduction in birds, novel infectious diseases and wildlife conservation. He authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, 41 book chapters and is editor of 2 scientific books.

Michael Lierz leads the Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Giessen, Germany. He is Diplomate of the ECZM (Wildlife Population Health), the ECPVS, and the RCVS in ZooMed (avian). He holds the specialist status in Poultry- and Avian Medicine, in Zoo- and Wildlife Medicine, in Microbiology, and Species Conservation.

Jean-Loup Rault is a Professor of Animal Welfare Science at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. He has 20 years of experience working on animal welfare, with recent work on parrot welfare specifically.

He grew up keeping and breeding parakeets and parrots and attended the 6^th International Parrot Convention in Tenerife back in 2006. He has a PhD in Animal Behavior and Well-Being from Purdue University (USA) and has become an internationally recognized scientist in the field of animal welfare science (Profile), having published more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles on the topic, particularly on animal social interactions and human-animal relationships.

Given his passion for parrots, he published an innovative study on assessing parrot welfare from social media videos (Study). This was followed by a series of studies led by PhD student Andrea Piseddu and in collaboration with parrot veterinary expert Dr. Yvonne van Zeeland (Utrecht University) to develop a parrot welfare assessment tool, based on science and with the help of international parrot experts. For this project, the team screened the scientific literature to identify indicators of parrot welfare (Study), involved parrot experts internationally to assess the validity and practicality of the proposed indicators (Study), and ultimately established a list of the most important parrot welfare indicators as a science-based parrot welfare assessment tool (paper in preparation). This tool can be used in practice by parrot owners, caretakers, veterinarians, behavioural consultants or anyone interested in assessing the welfare of their parrots, monitoring it over time, or identifying possible room for improvement.

Bjarne Østergård Rasmussen (DVM) is a Danish veterinary surgeon and lifelong aviculturist with more than four decades of experience in the care and breeding of companion and exotic birds. He earned his Master of Veterinary Science from the Danish Veterinary University in Copenhagen in 1982 and has practised continuously ever since, specialising in avian medicine, exotic species and other small animals.

Rasmussen is the proprietor of Hårlev Dyreklinik and has long been a recognised local veterinary figure in Stevns Municipality, where he has also been active in community and municipal affairs.

An avid breeder since youth, Rasmussen has worked with a wide variety of parrot species — historically keeping African Greys and several cockatoo taxa — and for the past two decades has focussed on the successful breeding and distribution of Guarouba guarouba to private collections and institutions in several countries. His name appears in Danish aviculture breeder indexes, reflecting long-term involvement in organised birdkeeping.

He is a lifetime member of Loro Parque Fundación and a frequent attendee of the International Parrot Conventions held in Tenerife, connecting with the global conservation and aviculture community. Public social posts and convention material referencing him confirm his long-standing links with Loro Parque and its events.

Throughout his career Rasmussen has combined clinical practice with hands-on husbandry and breeding work, bringing veterinary rigour to aviary management and reinforcing the bridge between clinical avian medicine and ex-situ conservation breeding.

With a degree in Biology specialising in Zoology, a Master’s in Ethology with a specialisation in Primatology, and a PhD in Psychology, she has devoted her research career to understanding animal behaviour from an evolutionary and comparative perspective. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Personality, Wellbeing and Mental Disorders in Chimpanzees and Orcas: An Evolutionary and Comparative Perspective”, led to pioneering and high-impact scientific contributions, including the first diagnosis of the repertoire of mental disorders in a non-human species (chimpanzees) and the first assessment of personality structure in a cetacean (orcas).

Her research has focused on the qualitative analysis of animal personality, the study of its correlations with wellbeing and cognitive indicators, as well as the design of innovative tools for assessing animal welfare. She has conducted research primarily with chimpanzees, but also with orcas and Iberian lynxes.

In the academic sphere, she has lectured at several Spanish universities, teaching subjects related to primatology, animal personality, mental disorders in animals, and qualitative methodologies for studying animal behaviour. She currently teaches on a Master’s Degree in Primatology, actively contributing to the training of new researchers in the field of animal behaviour.

At present, she serves as Animal Welfare Coordinator at Loro Parque, where, among other responsibilities, she oversees the systematic observation of animal behaviour, staff training in best husbandry practices, and the management of documentation and regulations in relation to professional associations, audits, and inspections. However, one of the department’s main areas of work is the design and implementation of environmental enrichment programmes for all animals at Loro Parque. This aspect is particularly significant in the case of psittacines, not only because of the large number and diversity of individuals housed in the park, but also due to the high cognitive abilities, complex social lives, and constant need for stimulation exhibited by many of these species. These factors require highly specialised enrichment strategies to ensure their wellbeing in controlled environments.