Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2019

Why? They could have died of old age or a known ailment.
The zoo had 2 babirusa pairs. Question is: old pair or newest pairing.
(I would rather assume and expect it is ... the old pair)
Can anyone find out?

What struck me on the minutes: There is an ad interim Zoo Director (!???).
What is the story on or around the Interim Zoo Director, Denise Verret.
 
Why? They could have died of old age or a known ailment.

Because both populations sort of need all the breeding females they can get, especially the duiker. Breeding animals have mostly all been transferred to LA in hopes of getting the program back on track and the loss of a female is not good news. The babirusa program is doing better but it's by no means safe from failure, especially with zoos shipping animals off to Europe where they're very unlikely to return.

~Thylo
 
Because both populations sort of need all the breeding females they can get, especially the duiker. Breeding animals have mostly all been transferred to LA in hopes of getting the program back on track and the loss of a female is not good news. The babirusa program is doing better but it's by no means safe from failure, especially with zoos shipping animals off to Europe where they're very unlikely to return.

~Thylo[/QUOTE
Again did the old babirusa die .... please confirm!!????!
 
Because both populations sort of need all the breeding females they can get, especially the duiker. Breeding animals have mostly all been transferred to LA in hopes of getting the program back on track and the loss of a female is not good news.

Fortunately, there are three other species of duiker in North American zoos whose populations are (probably) in much better shape. I doubt North American zoos can manage that many species of duiker long-term anyway. Considering that black duikers also aren't listed as threatened and aren't particularly unique, I'm not sure why the effort needs to be invested.

The babirusa program is doing better but it's by no means safe from failure, especially with zoos shipping animals off to Europe where they're very unlikely to return.

Again did the old babirusa die .... please confirm!!????!

Last I heard babirusas were breeding just fine here; so much in fact that the zoos breeding them were running out of space and new zoos to send them to, which was probably a factor in sending a few of them to Europe. Even if it was the young female that died, that's obviously not great but I doubt it will have a significant impact on the population.
 
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