Edinburgh Zoo Budongo best new exhibit 2008

BIAZA is hiding its light under a bushel. It's not easy to find the results as there is no press release or announcement on its new page. But the full details are in a pdf file at BIAZA Public Access

Alan
 
Interesting.
If zoos are going to take the breeding of chimp subspecies seriously they will need to identify as many wild-caught individuals as possible. It occurs to me that the collection with the largest number of wild-caught chimps is Monkey World. I realise that many of these chimps may not be capable of, or suitable for breeding for physical or psychological reasons. But how would Monkey World respond to requests for genetic testing, transfer of potential breeders to other collections or even setting up their own breeding group?

Alan
 
Don't think they'd be happy as they're "Not a zoo", bit stupid if they don't though. Their chimps are in captivity so why not make use of them in the breeding programme if they're capable of breeding?
 
The male chimps would be a more suitable candiates to transfer to other zoos if their the right sub-species. Hopefully will do the business and the more mental stable females chimps would hopefully raise their babies by themselves.
 
Pity most if not all of the males have had the snip at Monkeyworld so now just totaly useless to any one.
 
Existing West African chimps in 'Budongo'..

Does anyone know which is the other purebed male apart from 'Ricky' (who seems very unlikely to breed now)?

I would also be interested to know exactly how precise the science can be that these are really purebred West African chimps. Is it 100% certainty?

I can foresee big introduction problems too- as stated in the press article -because this is a long establish group which is likely to repel newcomers vigorously. Maybe the purebred animals will have to be initially split into a subgroup to balance the mix of new/old animals better and so make the introductions workable.
 
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Pertinax,

The current DNA tests are precise for the West African verus subspecies only. Further testing is being done to discover how to type all other subspecies more acurately. I do hope at some point we will be able to distinguish between all 4 ssp. and be able to assign some of the current indeterminates back to their wild ancestry. I am confident it can be done, but it requires some more research.

K.B.
 
Pertinax said:
Does anyone know which is the other purebed male apart from 'Ricky' (who seems very unlikely to breed now)?

I would also be interested to know exactly how precise the science can be that these are really purebred West African chimps. Is it 100% certainty?

I can foresee big introduction problems too- as stated in the press article -because this is a long establish group which is likely to repel newcomers vigorously. Maybe the purebred animals will have to be initially split into a subgroup to balance the mix of new/old animals better and so make the introductions workable.
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The current keepers at Edinburgh have experience of introductions, most notably from working at Monkey World
 
glasgowanimal said:
The current keepers at Edinburgh have experience of introductions, most notably from working at Monkey World
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However animals are still unpredictable, you cannot play for the unexpected. And when you’re talking about animals you can never be sure what they will do and you will never cover every possibility.
 
I'm sure they will get the new(when they arrive) and old animals together eventually but it could be quite a long or difficult process. Read the chapters on the introductions to form the Arnhem colony in 'Chimpanzee Politics' to see how complicated it can be....
 
ashley-h said:
Don't think they'd be happy as they're "Not a zoo", bit stupid if they don't though. Their chimps are in captivity so why not make use of them in the breeding programme if they're capable of breeding?
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Exactly, for those reasons exactly I remain not too keen on animal rescue facilities like Monkey World. To address the wildlife trade they operate quite effectively and always media savvy ... so a cutesey story too. Yet when it comes to conservation I feel they remain 35% out of 100 at best ...! :(

If you maintain rare species with known ancestries and these are endangered it is our moral duty to sustain them in a naturally breeding population, even in captivity. To use contraceps or sterilisation is a draconian measure to me ..... surely since most serious zoos into conservation breeding would now make a killing for pure-bred chimps of known ancestry.
 
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