North American Bonobo Population
- Thread starter Valentinoamor
- Start date
apesarecool
New Member
Thank you for the correction, I know there is more than one Congo which is why I must have got confused? Still not sure where I got the data that he came from the bonobos in Mexico.
apesarecool
New Member
Thanks so much for the info Betsy! Much appreciated. The name made me suspect Vernon as the father haha
Your profile picture is of Lisa, Maddie, Belle, and Vic. Are you in San Diego?
apesarecool
New Member
No but I was just there for two weeks as one of the students collecting data for UO! We met, hope you're doing well!
Great! It is nice to connect again. Let me know if you have any more questions.
All of Memphis Zoo's bonobos will be transferred to other facilities, (1.1) Mpingo and Lily were already transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio on August 29th.
Memphis Zoo Announces Departure of Beloved Bonobos
Memphis Zoo Announces Departure of Beloved Bonobos
Does anyone have any information about where the others will be transferred? Jacksonville has the most room but with the Shigella outbreak I am doubtful they will be sent there. San Diego Zoo has room for 2 more but I don't think they will come here.
As someone who doesn’t know every bonobo news out there I do want to know if there are any new zoos that want to get bonobos anywhere within AZA. If not then wouldn’t these transfers just end up taking up space in other holders?
That is one of the biggest issues in our population here. Many individuals but not many holders. We cannot do much breeding due to the lack of space.
While losing a bonobo holder is unfortunate, this likely is in the best interest of these individual bonobos. Looking at the Zoo Chat gallery, Memphis' bonobo exhibit is clearly inadequate by modern standards, and a group of six is smaller than ideal, too. I'm certain the exhibit will be much more appropriate for the lemurs that will soon call it home, as ensuring all individual animals have good welfare should always come before what's best for the population's genetics. Hopefully the Ape TAG can work on recruiting more bonobo holders in the near future too, however, to ensure the population can become more demographically healthy.
Call me a pessimist but I feel like the increasing husbandry requirements might discourage new zoos from having any interest for bonobos.
Another bummer, especially where bonobos with so few holders are crying out for new facilities willing to take on a group of bonobos and help the US population grow and expand.
As it stands after the Tampa Lowry Park cop out, the disease debacle at Jacksonville and now Memphis Zoo pulling out is just almost leaving this program moribund in the US. I just cannot get my head around this .... Really, it is beyond a bizarre.
Well it's not like zoos were lining up to receive bonobos already. Memphis in 2003 was the most recent new holder. However, ensuring that the animals we have in zoos receive excellent husbandry and welfare should still take precedence over what's best for zoo populations. Primates in particular this is true for: historically many zoos have had terrible primate buildings chock full of rare species in subpar habitats. In order to improve the living conditions of these animals, downsizing of collections became a necessity. With less space available, less species are able to be managed. Of course bonobos were never common in zoos to begin with, so most zoos simply opted to keep the species they previously held rather than switching to a new species.
That said, given that bonobos are the smallest of the great apes, if the Ape TAG plays its cards right the population does have the potential to gain new holders who no longer meet the best practices for gorillas or chimpanzees. Plus given how well the gorilla program is doing at the moment, convincing a few zoos to transition an exhibit from a gorilla troop to a bonobo troop should be the best way to improve the standing of the bonobo program without being detrimental to any other programs.
Can't say I agree with your logic here, on either of these points. If a zoo no longer meets best practices for gorilla or chimpanzee, I doubt replacing them with bonobos would be a viable solution; they don't require *that* much less space than the other two species (if at all) and their social and behavioral needs are just as complex. As for the gorillas, the program is presumably doing well in part to zoos *wanting* gorillas, so I'm not sure any zoo - especially not one with high-end facilities - would be willing to replace them with a lesser-known ape...
IMO the most likely new holders for Bonobo would be zoos that 1) are expanding, and 2) don't currently have any chimpanzees (since they seem to be mutually exclusive animals for zoos here). A couple of possible zoos that stand out to me (and to be clear, this is purely speculative on my part) would be Sacramento - a zoo that is building an entirely new campus, plans to have "African apes", and already plans to acquire one rarer primate in geladas - or Nashville, an up-and-coming zoo with lots of space, a great reputation for high-quality exhibits, and currently no great apes at all.
Perhaps that is fair, I may have not thought this point through enough in regards to size. In fact, looking at the EAZA Best Practices Guidelines (AZA doesn't have a care manual for bonobos yet), the example exhibits for bonobos are on average larger than the example exhibits for chimpanzees. Gorillas are if anything less spatially demanding than chimps too given their smaller social groupings.
While I don't expect any zoos to phase out gorillas entirely in favor of bonobos, I was more so thinking about zoos that currently have multiple gorilla troops. There are a number of zoos with two or more gorilla troops which may or may not be open to the possibility of replacing one troop of gorillas with a different ape. Not saying this would work for all these facilities- either based on wants and needs or habitat design, but examples of zoos with multiple gorilla troops and no other African apes include: Atlanta, Disney, Louisville, Bronx, Omaha, Woodland Park, Toronto.
Fair point, hopefully we see some of these expanding, chimpanzee-free zoos decide on bonobos in the future. Another one that jumps out as a possibility for this is Omaha- while they may not be expanding space-wise, they've been doing major exhibit after major exhibit, and chimps are one of the few "ABC" species they lack.
Frankie_number_1_fan
Well-Known Member
It was confirmed by a volunteer that she was named Daisy!