This is very good new indeed!
Australasian Sumatran Tiger Population
- Thread starter Zoofan15
- Start date
This is very good new indeed!
It’s so great to finally have these tigers arrive after years of planning.
Given their genetic value and the failure to breed of multiple pairs in recent years, I’m confident they’ll be issued an immediate breeding recommendation - with their offspring in turn being paired soon after reaching adulthood, as we’ve seen with the Australia Zoo bred tigers.
Apart from tigers there appears quite a few species that could use an injection of new imported animals including Gorillas, Orangs also many others?.
It’d probably be easier to list the species that aren’t in need of new imports. Just about every ungulate species is inbred, reduced to single figures or both.
With regards to Sumatran tigers, additional founders are still needed. When the cubs of this breeding pair go to be paired, the only potential mates in the region that aren’t descendants of the Nico-Meta line will be Bashi (2007) - if still alive; and Reggie (2016).
At the end of the day where does this responsibility lay?
The worldwide coordinators would coordinate and decide transfers for this species, so ultimately it's up to them if any imports are made. Obviously they've identified Australia dosen't need any yet, but it's good to see two entirely new founders have been imported at Auckland, which will hopefully introduce new genetics into the Australian program via their offspring.
At a minimum, I’d like to see the regional breeding programme import another unrelated breeding pair - or even another two, so we’re not merely pairing imports to the Nico-Meta line each generation.
The challenge with regards to the global captive population of Sumatran tigers is the small founder size, which makes it difficult to find unrelated/distantly related tigers. Most of our imports have been from Europe, so options of sourcing tigers from there are limited.
The North American population will have more variation, but the ideal would be to import direct from Indonesia as Australia Zoo did and Taronga Zoo had plans to do. It’s very regrettable those plans fell through - with Taronga instead pairing two cousins.
Hopefully when Melbourne consider a pair following Hutan and Indrah's deaths down the line; they'll consider importing some from Indonesia (or at least the US). It'll be a shame if they go down the route of pairing up a related pair from within the region; but again, it's really up to the worldwide studbook coordinator.
I believe we do operate out of the European region though too, which would explain the multiple European exports.
No, Sumatran tigers are a ZAA managed programme and have been since 1992. Historically, Taronga Zoo held the studbook - and coincidentally were never without a breeding pair.
Imports from Europe were likely due to North America having a small regional population until about 20 years ago - one of the founders of which was Nico and Meta’s daughter (Kali); as well as tigers from Europe - meaning Europe with the larger founder base was preferential. Throw in the hassle of importing from the US in recent years and therein lies the answer.
Since 2008 the WAZA have been operating the worldwide Sumatran program on a global level with five ex situ breeding programs (AZA, ZAA, EAZA, JAZA and PBSKI) operating as extensions to the global program. Almost 400 tigers are managed apart of the captive populations globally.
Dreamworld in Australia actually hosted one of the initial meetings apart of this program.
The global population is all descended from just 97 founders, and the four populations outside of Indonesia each retain less than 90% gene diversity and are descended, for the most part, from the same founders. This highlights the need for new founders from the wild, and importing tigers from Indonesia was actually widely discussed within the WAZA to combat this issue.
It's also my belief all that the Sumatran tigers in the region are managed by the ZAA.
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Yes, but there’s still species coordinators and advisors for each of those regional breeding programmes who make recommendations at a regional level.
It’s actually 37 founders according to the WAZA site, which is compounded by the short inter-generational gaps of this species. This is the reasoning behind the trend observed in recent years of females breeding later in life as opposed to four years old as was once common practice.
Melbourne currently won't be replacing Hutan and Indrah after they pass.
The region does need more imports
Melbourne Zoo Phase Out
It will truly be the end of an era when Melbourne Zoo phase this species out. They’ve held Sumatran tigers since the arrival of Djambi in 1976 and have bred four litters from 1990-2010.
Melbourne Zoo were the first holder of this species in the region according to the studbook, which doesn’t detail imports of undocumented wild Sumatran tigers by Taronga Zoo in the decades prior - listing Nico and Meta as Taronga’s first Sumatran tigers, when they arrived in 1979.
It will be a shame to see Melbourne’s tigers go and a great loss to the zoo. Hutan and Indrah could live another decade, so hopefully a change of management during this time will revise this regrettable decision.
Actually I find this somewhat a little bit unbelievable. A major zoo without tigers, lions and tigers have been a main stay for many a self respecting zoo for decades, many of the public do expect to see them. Melbourne play a part in the regional breeding program and losing them will be a big loss. I hope this does not have anything to do with the new board which is made up of almost no animal savvy people its a backwards step in my view
It’d be interesting to know the reasoning behind this decision if you can find out more @Babirusa.
In 2020, Melbourne Zoo updated their criteria for maintaining species in their collection to five categories (of which species must fall into at least two). Sumatran tiger fall into three: Ark (Critically Endangered), Ambassador (palm oil campaign) and Enabling (everybody likes tigers) - so I can’t understand the rationale behind phasing them out.
I am shocked to say the least; Sumatran tigers are one of the most popular zoo animals, and are one of the best suited for city zoos. Alongside being critically endangered and one of the faces for the ‘Don’t Palm Us Off’ campaign - this is an interesting decision if true.
They’ve also just built a new Tiger trail within the Carnivores a few years ago which was meant to assist breeding down the line.
Tigers do need a lot of space to roam though, so I guess I can see the thinking here as a city zoo. Hutan is unfortunately a pacer which a lot of visitors notice and I’ve heard it brung up with keepers a lot of the time which can give the zoo a bad rep for having too small enclosures ect. I hope this isn’t the reason though, as Indrah on the other hand is not a pacer; it really just depends on the individual.
If space at Melbourne is considered to be the reason for phase out - then could they not consider building a (larger) Tiger exhibit at Werribee for them? They'd be able to link them into the upcoming Elephant build with both being South East Asian species...
A very short sighted decision otherwise.
A very short sighted decision otherwise.
I suspect there are other factors involved here and its nothing to do with any space issues