Animals difficult to breed in captivity

Clouded Leopard 153

Clouded Leopard 153

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In certain conservation programs, Many institutions choose to reproduce certain species of animals (mainly those threatened with extinction). But my question remains: Which species are more difficult to achieve some success in their reproduction?
 
Giant pandas are of course the most famous example of a species that is extremely difficult to breed in captivity. Others include Lesser flamingos, cheetahs, clouded leopards, dolphins and elephants.
 
Those species have posed a challenge in the past, but all can be bred in zoos, generally with increasing regularity. If you told a carnivore keeper from thirty years in the past what kind of reproductive success we'd be having with clouded leopards and cheetahs these days, they'd be shocked. The major problem that elephants have had to deal with is that, for many years, no one was even willing to try breeding them due to fears of having to work with bulls (a transition to protected contact has certainly helped reduce concerns about that). I remember reading a book from the 1970s that dismissed the possibility of giant otters ever being bred in zoos, and gorillas used to be considered impossible to even keep alive for more than a few weeks!

Even pandas breed more reliably than they used to - if the US were given a sufficient number of founders - full ownership, not on loan to China and required to be returned, no multimillion dollar price tag that puts them out of the reach of 99% of facilities - I'm convinced we could have a stable giant panda population in American zoos.

There are some species which we can't breed in zoos at this point because we haven't worked out a good system for even keeping them at this point. There are other species which we can keep alive and healthy for years and years, but aren't able to get reproduction out of. Many fish species fit that category, especially species that have lifecycles in which they might travel great distances through different habitats as part of their reproductive cycle, which can't be replicated in a zoo or aquarium setting... at least not at this time. Who knows what might be possible down the road?
 
Pangolins of any species, Red Howler Monkeys, Mangshan Pit-Vipers, Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloths, and even Aldabra Giant Tortoises and Jaguars can be difficult to breed. Sun Bears are also a well known hard to breed animal
 
A cheating answer to this would be baleen whales, as no one’s managed to keep them in captivity beyond their juvenile years, let alone breed them. Cetaceans in general are difficult to breed (interesting article on the topic here).

Echidnas also used to have a reputation for being difficult to breed, less so in recent years.

Also difficult to breed species with sexual cannibalism. In their case, you also run the risk of losing the male without his genes having been passed on.
 
Clownfish are also pretty hard to breed due to the conditions they need, their symbiotic relationship with anemones and their mating behaviour.
 
Many many smaller species in the private trade are extremely hard to breed such as most tangs and many angelfish, most botias and other fish species have not been bred even with many attempts like leafy sea dragons, african arowanas and many more. Many invertebrates are hard to breed or have not been bred due to their life cycles, juvenile care differing from adult care (needing different foods or water parameters) and other reasons, such as some roaches, Metabetaeus lohena shrimp, purple tiger shrimp, most pill millipedes, bloody belly comb jellies, nerite snails and more.
 
OstrichMania said:
Clownfish are also pretty hard to breed due to the conditions they need, their symbiotic relationship with anemones and their mating behaviour.
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Clownfish breed just fine with or without an anemone in captivity - many private aquarists spawn and raise them, to say nothing of the many thousands raised by major aquaculturists. I've no idea what you're referring to about their mating behavior being a problem...

splendens said:
Many many smaller species in the private trade are extremely hard to breed such as most tangs and many angelfish,
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Assuming you mean the Pomacanthidae, a great many species have been bred successfully and an increasing number of them are coming routinely available as captive bred individuals.
Several of the surgeonfish have also seen successful captive breeding - it's not the easiest due to the pelagic stage, but for the Zebrasoma in particular they too are starting to see more and more captive bred individuals entering the market.

A lot of progress continues to be made in the marine fish area, many species are now readily available captive bred and new successes are coming in on a regular basis. There is still much to be done, but it's significantly improved from where it was 20 or 30 years ago. Managing the pelagic larval stage and successfully feeding the larvae continues to be the biggest obstacle in many cases.
 
I would actually love to hear more stories about the processes by which we discovered how to achieve breeding -- my historical book on Lincoln Park Zoo discusses how there was an eager desire to breed Bushman, as he was one of few gorillas in captivity at that point, but by the time I grew up, breeding gorillas feels almost routine. I also believe some older sources sometimes suggested Komodo dragon were difficult to breed.

Dasyurids, including tasmanian devils and quolls, are difficult to breed for a few reasons. Most infamously recently is northern quolls, the males usually only breed once and die. Tiger Quoll also only live 3-4 years. It isn't impossible to breed these animals so much as it requires a lot of commitment, more than many zoos are willing to go through, at least from my incomplete understanding. In addition, @MRJ explained in the North American Tasmanian Devil Population Thread that dasyurids such as devils need to be bred in their first year in order to be subsequently fertile, which means that they have

if they produce several offspring, they must continue this cycle leading to a large population; and when breeding is halted for space concern, they age and die.

Most zoochatters are abundantly aware of this, but for new lurkers and those coming off a Google search, elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus has interfered significantly over many years with the breeding of Asian elephants and is a constant threat and fear with young baby elephants now.

A less discussed problem is that some animals require even more specialized diets for breeding than they do to survive in captivity. Brookfield has been able to provide pangolins with a suitable diet to live, but has continued to alter the diet in hopes of promoting breeding. I believe I read something similar about another insectivorous species?
 
Great Argus said:
Clownfish breed just fine with or without an anemone in captivity - many private aquarists spawn and raise them, to say nothing of the many thousands raised by major aquaculturists. I've no idea what you're referring to about their mating behavior being a problem...



Assuming you mean the Pomacanthidae, a great many species have been bred successfully and an increasing number of them are coming routinely available as captive bred individuals.
Several of the surgeonfish have also seen successful captive breeding - it's not the easiest due to the pelagic stage, but for the Zebrasoma in particular they too are starting to see more and more captive bred individuals entering the market.

A lot of progress continues to be made in the marine fish area, many species are now readily available captive bred and new successes are coming in on a regular basis. There is still much to be done, but it's significantly improved from where it was 20 or 30 years ago. Managing the pelagic larval stage and successfully feeding the larvae continues to be the biggest obstacle in many cases.
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Ah thank you for the information.
 
For those interested, a few links to check out in regards to marine fish breeding/captive bred availability.

Oceans, Reefs, and Aquariums - breeder facility in Florida
ORA Fish | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

DeJong Marinelife - wholesaler in the Netherlands, carrying a wide variety of captive bred species
Tank Bred Fish-Marine Fish

Biota - breeder/supplier, with a number of more uncommon species to their credit
Cultured Fish - The Biota Group

Rising Tide Conservation - A group supporting various breeders/research facilities working with marine fish; articles of various lengths regarding breeding the species on the linked page
Aquacultured Fish – Rising Tide Conservation

I was going to link Bali Aquarich as well, but their website appears to be down. The facility is an absolute juggernaut with Pomacanthidae in particular, and have successfully raised almost every species routinely seen in the trade as well as some rarities. They also breed various tangs as well as batfish (Platax), besides some clownfish and others as well.
 
Multiple people have already pointed out cetaceans in general as difficult species to breed, but I'd like to mention specifically Pilot Whales.
Despite being held in captivity since the 1940's, you can quite literally count on your fingers the number of Pilot whale pregnancies that have happened. To my knowledge there's never been a Pilot Whale calf conceived captivity. There's been a small handful of pregnant animals captured who suffered miscarriages pretty quickly, back in the 50's-80's. There's also been a few hybrids that were conceived in captivity, one in 1981 with a Bottlenose Dolphin at SeaWorld (who was either a near full-term miscarriage or died a few days after birth) and, most recently, one in 2022 with a Pseudorca at the Taiji Whale Museum, who lived to at least 5 months old and MAY still be alive, though the language barrier and the museums tendency to not report deaths makes it very difficult to tell for sure.
(also of note, the mother, a wild-caught Pilot Whale named Gita, did not nurse her calf for at least a month, after which staff stepped in to hand-feed it)
Regardless, this 5 month old Pilot Whale hybrid is the best success anyone has ever gotten at breeding pilot whales in captivity over 80 years.
Despite being species that's pretty commonly kept, that adapts decently well to captivity - for cetaceans, at least - they simply do not breed. There is zero record of any pilot whale ever conceiving a calf in captivity, let alone carrying it to term.
 
Always_Amity said:
one in 2022 with a Pseudorca at the Taiji Whale Museum, who lived to at least 5 months old and MAY still be alive, though the language barrier and the museums tendency to not report deaths makes it very difficult to tell for sure.
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The false killer whale x pilot whale hybrid is still alive. He lives together with a melon-headed whale which looks very similar actually. The only obvious way of telling them apart is the big teeth of the hybrid, coming forth from the false killer whale's DNA.
 
For birds I would say all those that feed on flying insects are practically impossible - swallows and swifts for example. Some bee eaters which also hawk for insects have been bred but very rarely. In fact insectivorous passerines in general are difficult - most are highly territorial and can often kill each other is not in breeding condition and a compatible pair. That is not to say they are impossible - many thrushes are so regularly bred that there are colour mutations in aviculture of European Blackbird, Song Thrush and others - but it is very time consuming and labour intensive.
 
Great Argus said:
For those interested, a few links to check out in regards to marine fish breeding/captive bred availability.

Oceans, Reefs, and Aquariums - breeder facility in Florida
ORA Fish | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

DeJong Marinelife - wholesaler in the Netherlands, carrying a wide variety of captive bred species
Tank Bred Fish-Marine Fish

Biota - breeder/supplier, with a number of more uncommon species to their credit
Cultured Fish - The Biota Group

Rising Tide Conservation - A group supporting various breeders/research facilities working with marine fish; articles of various lengths regarding breeding the species on the linked page
Aquacultured Fish – Rising Tide Conservation

I was going to link Bali Aquarich as well, but their website appears to be down. The facility is an absolute juggernaut with Pomacanthidae in particular, and have successfully raised almost every species routinely seen in the trade as well as some rarities. They also breed various tangs as well as batfish (Platax), besides some clownfish and others as well.
Click to expand...
Great Argus said:
For those interested, a few links to check out in regards to marine fish breeding/captive bred availability.

Oceans, Reefs, and Aquariums - breeder facility in Florida
ORA Fish | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

DeJong Marinelife - wholesaler in the Netherlands, carrying a wide variety of captive bred species
Tank Bred Fish-Marine Fish

Biota - breeder/supplier, with a number of more uncommon species to their credit
Cultured Fish - The Biota Group

Rising Tide Conservation - A group supporting various breeders/research facilities working with marine fish; articles of various lengths regarding breeding the species on the linked page
Aquacultured Fish – Rising Tide Conservation

I was going to link Bali Aquarich as well, but their website appears to be down. The facility is an absolute juggernaut with Pomacanthidae in particular, and have successfully raised almost every species routinely seen in the trade as well as some rarities. They also breed various tangs as well as batfish (Platax), besides some clownfish and others as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links! I was aware these species were bred but assumed species like the tangs were more rarely bred.
 
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