Animals that have gotten easier to take care of in captivity

[Jana]

I had a read of this and was stunned by this quote about pangolins escaping and swimming Czech rivers :

"pangolins are good swimmers [Sanyal, 1892]. One Manis spp. has been found swimming across a tank 33.5 m wide. Another swimmer was found in the Prague Zoo, Czech Republic, where two Chinese pangolins escaped. One was caught immediately, but the other was caught as a ‘‘crocodile,’’ 10 km from the zoo. It had, in November, swum across the 40-m wide Moldau River."

I am yet to find original witness account, must be from 1960s or older. But I have heard several versions of the story, it´s now sort of urban myth. Basically, the escaped animal got into an upscale property area (for higher establishment and embassies), was mistaken for a crocodile and killed by security forces who though it´s venomous or infectious or whatever, long before the zoo got the news and could save it.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I am yet to find original witness account, must be from 1960s or older. But I have heard several versions of the story, it´s now sort of urban myth. Basically, the escaped animal got into an upscale property area (for higher establishment and embassies), was mistaken for a crocodile and killed by security forces who though it´s venomous or infectious or whatever, long before the zoo got the news and could save it.

It is quite a curious story, I was kind of shocked reading it.

What a shame that the animal was killed !

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

@Westcoastperson this is worth a watch :

 

[StellarChaser]

I think that (like with most challenging species) with the pangolin it has come down to intensive work and research into the diet / nutrition and veterinary requirements of these very sensitive creatures.

Now that both of these issues have been vastly improved in addition to success with captive breeding I'm sure that this will translate into a greater ex-situ / insurance population of a number of pangolin species in US, European and Asian zoos.

I am curious about how many US zoos having successfully bred pangolins for now?
I know Taipei Zoo also breeds pangolins, but they face a big challenge that all the breeding females are rescued one from the wild, none of captivity-born female can breed. Taipei Zoo sends one pair to Ueno Zoo in Japan and another pair to Zoo Leipzig, both pairs have not bred yet although the pair in Leipzig do mate several times.

 

[Jurek7]

It would be interesting to see how this rescue / breeding centre in Taiwan looks like. I think they are mainly rehabilitating wild pangolins. I wonder how many pangolins they keep as permanent residents, and are they suitable for breeding, or simply random animals too injured to be released back.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I am curious about how many US zoos having successfully bred pangolins for now?
I know Taipei Zoo also breeds pangolins, but they face a big challenge that all the breeding females are rescued one from the wild, none of captivity-born female can breed. Taipei Zoo sends one pair to Ueno Zoo in Japan and another pair to Zoo Leipzig, both pairs have not bred yet although the pair in Leipzig do mate several times.

I'm curious about this too but unfortunately I have no answer to that question as I have no idea about what captive breeding programmes for pangolins have achieved in US zoos.

I imagine that someone here on the forum will know and will be able to answer though.

 

[birdsandbats]

I know several US zoos were able to successfully breed pangolins, but I don’t exactly remember which one. I want to say Brookfield and Columbus both did?

 

[Echobeast]

I know several US zoos were able to successfully breed pangolins, but I don’t exactly remember which one. I want to say Brookfield and Columbus both did?

Gladys Porter bred some a year or so ago.

 

[nczoofan]

I know many births occurred in the population in the time period shortly after importation. I believe some births also resulted from breeding after importation but the zoos have been far from transparent on this. Which makes me wonder what the mortality rate is an such because only knowing we have bred pangolins without understanding the other life metrics is a slightly biased assessment.


Gladys Porter did a video during the pandemic of there pangolins. All of them have been off display since the import. As @Echobeast said a female conceived and gave birth to a male in late 2019 at the zoo. More may have been bred though since then.

 

[StellarChaser]

And Uakaris?

Uakaris is very picky on diet,

It would be interesting to see how this rescue / breeding centre in Taiwan looks like. I think they are mainly rehabilitating wild pangolins. I wonder how many pangolins they keep as permanent residents, and are they suitable for breeding, or simply random animals too injured to be released back.

What I hear is that Taipei Zoo currently has 13 pangolins (not 100% sure but around this number). They get a new rescued female a few months ago, but it is too young and not mature enough for breeding yet. Most pangolins are off-displayed, only about 1 to 3 pangolins are brought by the keeper to the exhibit at feeding time in the morning. I have never been to Taipei Zoo and that is just what I hear about the friend who has been there before.

 

[Terry Thomas]

Due to innovation and improving husbandry, some animals have gotten much easier to take care of in captivity, and have gone from being rare to now easily breedable and almost commonplace outside their native ranges in captivity. One example that I have heard of is that the Komodo Dragon used to be quite rare and hard to take care of, whereas now many institutions keep them in their Asian sections without too much fanfare.
I'm sure there are many more examples, but let's set a somewhat arbitrary 'last 3 decades' cutoff point because nearly all animals have 'gotten easier to take care of'.

And, for fun, what animals do you predict or already see becoming easier to keep and expect will become more widely distributed in the next 10-15 years?

The exchange of information has led to many species, that used to be thought of as hard to keep, now thriving in captivity. When I began my career of animal care, information was not readily shared, or available, especially about bird care. Many would not share their knowledge!