AZA species numbers

S

Safari Park

Well-Known Member
This thread is to let everyone become aware of how much diversity we are losing in our zoos in just recent years.

2002 CATTLE TAG 2009 AZA Numbers

Wisent 5.15 0
Wood Bison 6.18 0 Banteng 39.49 10.15
Anoa 15.22 12.10
Congo Buffalo 3.14 0.4

Phase out species

CERVIDS
Hog deer
Roe deer (gone)
Red deer
MacNeils Deer (gone)
Altai Wapiti (gone)
Tule Elk
Elk
Many species of sika are gone and the rest won't be here long(manchurian)
Javan Rusa (gone)
Sambar
European Fallow Deer
Persian Fallow Deer (gone)
Costa Rican Brockett
Indian Muntjac (dead end)
Formosan Muntjac (gone)
Siberian Musk Deer (gone)

ANTELOPE
Bushbuck
Maxwell Duiker
Bay Duiker
Suni (gone)
Crowned Duiker (gone maybe 1 left)
Blesbok
Cape Hartebeest
Defasa Waterbuck
Mhorr Gazelle
Dorcas Gazelle (gone)
Persian Goitered
Nubian Red Fronted
Beisa Oryx
Rhebok (almost gone)
Topi (basically gone)

Species that will be gone from AZA collections in the next five years are Jacksons Hartebeest, Roan will be very low, klipspringer will be in bad trouble, steenbok, kob, royal antelope, zambian sable, impala will be very low, guenther dik dik, bontebok will be very low, nile lechwe have lost alot of interest and will be just a scattered few, cuvier's/soemmerings/slender horn gazelles will be a scattered few as well.

I know alot of people think "well there are some in the private sector" this is not the way to think. Many of these private collectors of rare species are very old and it takes alot of money keeping these species and most of these collections will be phased out in the future.
 
I have been reading some of your posts with interest, as there seems to be a lot of doom and gloom concerning many species of hoofstock. I think that you are perfectly correct in stating that a once amazing collection of animals has basically disappeared before our very eyes, but is there any hope of a comback for some of these mammals? A zoo like San Diego has all but eliminated many of its deer and antelope enclosures to make way for the 7-acre Elephant Odyssey, the Denver Zoo is going to be offloading many species of hoofstock to make room for its upcoming 10-acre Asian Tropics development, and the Oklahoma City Zoo is also going to be shipping out hoofstock for its Asian zone that opens in a few years. With many other major zoos choosing to showcase what are perceived as more exciting species, will the days of multiple paddocks containing deer and antelope be all but extinct in major collections?

Take a look at this thread. It lists 90 species of hoofstock that Edmonton's Polar Park used to have at one time in the late 1970's, but that establishment has been closed for almost 20 years now. I can remember visiting Al Oeming's park as a kid, and it was an amazing experience. I made a complete list of the species here:

http://www.zoochat.com/223/edmontons-polar-park-11902/index2.html
 
Its scary how many different species and more that i've listed above(about 10 i'm thinking of right now) we have lost but i promise it won't stop. There are many more on there way out the door. The funny thing about zoos is we have all these researchers, scientist, vets, etc. an amazing array of intelligent people and they think birth control is a way to control the population....hahaha. Take for example the Calamian Deer, well they got at capacity for the population so they put them on birth control-many haven't been bred since 2004 and 2005-now they need to breed them. Well sorry to inform all the scientist, hoofstock are not machines you can't shut them down and think they just have a restart button. In fact they will probably get half bred and half of those fawns will probably be c-sections, born dead, and/or the mother won't have anything to do with them.

I always wished i spent more time at the private collections like Al Oemings. I collect all kinds of pictures, magazines, articles from these wonderful places. The only thing with these huge private collections is they never last long but the stories are always neat. It takes a huge amount of passion for animals to keep huge collections like the Alberta and it takes alot of personal wealth to back up these collections. These people that have amassed these huge collections are about 1 in a billion and the chances of one of their families or friends taking over their collection is hardly a chance. That's why i say the private sector is never the answer for species survival becuase in the long run these places come and go very quickly.
 
May I point out that in situ conservation still exists for most of the species you are talking about. Just because they are being phased out in zoos does not mean they are being ignored in the wild. And I agree that the cervid and antelope TAGs have made a few bad decisions; but, when an animal is being phased out it allows more resources to be devoted to other species. Would you rather risk many species are only a few?

Also, Safari Park, look at it from a business perspective. While zoos are the primary conservation centers for ex situ conservation, they have to stay in business. To a visitor most species of deer and antelope are "just another deer." I've heard guests complain about endless paddocks full of "boring" deer. And even as a zoologist, after walking through Horn and Hoof Mesa at SD I was relieved to go another exhibit that featured things other than ungulates.
 
I suppose your right there are conservation efforts outside the zoos but i just like being able to take friends and family to the zoos and show them exactly the animals i've seen in africa and asia and talk about my experiences with animals in person. Obviously my oppinions are not the majority and i respect that. I'm a hoofstock person and i think when are public zoos use our money to bring these animals from the wild and spend millions i think they have a responsibility to the tax payers and the animals to keep these animals in their collections.

If the business aspect is a variable in keeping diversity zoos could easily cut some dead weight. I've loaded animals at public zoos over the years and if i took count of how many were standing around with their hands in their pockets and watching there would easily be an average of 16-20 people standing around me. The reason for zoos in my mind is to show our children the diversity of the world not just the african elephants, retic giraffes, etc. This is just one man's perspective and again i'm not the majority so don't take it offensive.
 
Thank you Safari Park for posting these startling statistics. I've enjoyed reading your posts and I've always wonder wether you was involved with animals in a zoological setting. Anyways, have you ever been to Tennessee Safari Park in Alamo TN? I have talked to one of the owners here and he is hoping to expand the parks' collection of hoofstock with many of the animals you've mentioned on your earlier post.
 
I went to the owners private collection about 15 years ago or more. Delivered him some gemsbok. He just had a few select "super exotics" back then.

These private collections are great but they never last long. I've seen it alot over the years the animals get to expensive, a bad winter comes along, personal finances cause them to downsize, divorces, start to lose interest, or they just lose their zoo connections. Either way like i said they never last long. Probably the longest privately owned collection was Rolland Lindemann and his daughter took over with her husband. They lasted i think 72 years. I had my first zoo deals with them. Great people but finances set them back and a huge lack of interest in the end. Catskill will probably be the largest and best collection in this country. I guess the best collection now is Peace River and the people running the day to day call it the owners "hobby". This is a new facility started around 1999 so i can't say alot about it. In my oppinion i don't see this place be around for a long time. The owner visits a couple times a year but he's a businessman and there is not telling how much it cost to keep 3 or 4 HUGE facilites up like that. In the end the finances will probably out weigh the personal "hobby".
 
Thank you for your response. It seems like you've seen a number of different facilities start-up only to fold. Suppose someone stills wants to have a zoo or breeding facility, even after reading some of your posts. What sort of advice would you give them?
 
Good management and probably setting up some sort of non profit to keep others involved with the facility even after your gone. A good executive director is imperative and make sure he or she has the same goals and asperations for the future to keep it going. Most of these private facilites closing is lack of interest from the rest of their family and there is nobody there to keep the dream alive and continue the conservation. You have to remember your not going to live forever and the children of these collectors usually see the collection as a burden and not the way you see it or appreciate it.
 
I've thought of a few more species that we have lost in the AZA in recent years.
-Chinese Water Deer(once plentiful in both private and zoos now all gone)
-lowland tapir are phasing out
-kiangs
-kulan
-southern bush pigs
-collared peccarys phasing out
-kuhl's deer
-bearded pigs will be gone by summer 2010 guaranteed in all of AZA
-cauacasian tur
-many ibex

To comment on your post "ColumbusZoo0001" "Would you rather risk many species are only a few?" Space is not the case here. Zoos spend millions on exhibits and could easily buy outside acreage or areas that have no developmental worth. I mean look at your zoos sister zoo "The Wilds" they could easily hold large groups of all kinds of hoofstock and maximize diversity but it looks like its turning into another typical zoo not breeding anything because zoo curators have lacked interest in diversity so they have nowhere to go with the offspring. Example their banteng, goral, vietmanese sika, bharal, elds deer, eland, etc.

Zoos are begging to bring in new species Alfreds spotted deer and saiga ring a bell! Yeah, they are trying there best to get them in and trying to bring in large quantities of african hoofstock if the quarantine facilites can be put in place. Many of you are thinking well some of these species that are being phased out because they aren't in need of conservation efforts and we are making room for animals in need of conservation. Well guess what, that isn't the reason and that is what they tell to Joe Shmoe to shut him up. Take a poll of what your zoo curators are looking for right now....nyala cows, sable, sitatunga, reticulated giraffe cows, etc. These animals aren't in danger of becoming endangered or threatened but they are popular with crowds and they are pretty.
 
Blackduiker

Yes, the ever decreasing number of phaseout species in our AZA accredited institutions is depressing. Just a look at my home zoo in Los Angeles is living proof. There is even talk of phasing out the extremely rare Mountain Tapir. We were the first to breed them back in the 70s, and still the only institution that's been doing so on a regular basis since then. Of course, inbreeding appears to be the only future here, and the lack of success with any of their native South American countries to export new bloodlines would be the main excuse. But other species that were first successfully bred here, and seemingly thriving, are no longer to be found; Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Marbled Cat, Dog-toothed Cat Snake, Pesquet's Parrot, to name a few. And with the decision to increase the size of Pachyderm Forest from 3.5 to 6.1 acres, bye, bye went plans for the new space for Hippos and Black and Indian Rhinos. Good for the Elephants, but crushing news for long time patrons like myself. Three Black Rhino yards are now reduced to none, and three Indian Rhino yards reduced to one. That small space now housing only one individual. Recent news now eliminates Jaguars from the much anticipated RainForest of the Americas. A species that was to be a highlight of that exhibit!

How can AZA continue to claim its concern for conservation, when it wants to eliminate hundreds of the most threatened species from its institutions? Seems rather backward if you ask me. :confused::(
 
I have to agree with nearly all comments here, the situation in Europe is very similar, I am a great hoofstock-fan too and what do I see in european collections? The big uniformity, in 70's I was absolutly enthusiastic to see my first bongos in Dvur Kralove and now? They are almost standard zoo animals, if I would have focused on antelope species, what I would have found out? European zoos are full of impalas, nyalas, elands and blessboks, but where are gnus, some gazelle species, kaamas etc? The same situation does concern asian deers and buffalos for example, it is really very sad. The european zoos are interested only in attractive animals which draw the crowds and bring money, everywhere you can see elephants, giraffes, tigers, bears, pinguins, rhinos, great apes, rainforest buildings etc, the zoos are starting to look very similar each other. It is a shame, that for the big majority of people are the rarest antelopes only boring, like goat looking animals... Where are the times I have seen 6 species of hartebeests in Dvur Kralove..These days are gone, zoos would have shown more diversity of species,I would not want to listen to my children saying: Father, why are we travelling around the zoos, we are getting bothered, we are still loooking at the same species, there are not another animals on the Earth? Deers and antelopes are very inetersting animals, if they would have been well presented, in well structured enclosures, with many information for visitors how are they endangered, how necessary is to protect them and support the conservation activities with in and ex-situ programmes, people may start being interested in with these animals.
 
It's not all hopeless though. A lot of people seem to compare a point in time (now) with a periode of time (60 and 70). Over those 20 years, more species where kept then at this exact moment, but that's hardly surprising.

In europe, there seems to be a trend in the decline of hoofstock, but i for one am glad with the importation and seemingly rising interest in animals like otters (with spotted-necked and smooth-coats imported recently), the return of the red-flanked duikers, bairds tapirs, yellow footed rock-wallabies, two new cloud rat species, crab eating raccoons, giant squirrels, import of pangolins, the rise of the population of giant otters, milky and painted storks, imports of shoe-billed storks, rise of narrow-striped and banded mongoose, spreading of sifaka's, tamandua, Alaotran gentle lemurs, gharials and the efforts involved in breeding tree kangaroos.

That's just a quick thinking over, i bet if i tried harder i could come up with even more examples...
 
Coming to why hoofstock are not popular.

They would be very popular if feeding sessions were allowed. In fact, many deer, antelope and goats try to beg from visitors even if it is forbidden!

Also, I would enjoy smaller deer, gazelle, wild sheep and goats in walk-thru exhibits. Maybe at rut season visitors would not be let in. Some walk-thru exhibits exist already in safari parks.
 
More hoofstock to add to the list we have lost in North America
-Cretan Wild Goat
-White Lipped Peccaries
-Burmese Muntjac
-Nakheila Gazelle
-Himalayn Tahr are almost gone and no breeding
-Morracan Dorcas Gazelle
-Mishmi Takin i think Denvers are to be placed before Spring 2010
-Sind Wild Goat
-Nilgiri Tahr
-Allen's Bighorn Sheep
-Lesser Malayan Chevrotain
-Northern Gerenuk I believe were once held by San Antonio and Fort Worth
-Rosevelt's subspecies of Grant's Gazelle
-Gayal never held in AZA but gone from the US anyways

Keep in mind these animals could be found no longer than 10 years ago! I have really suprised myself once i wrote them all down.....unbelievable!!!!!!!!!
 
From Safari Park:

"2002 CATTLE TAG 2009 AZA Numbers

Wisent 5.15 0
Wood Bison 6.18 0 Banteng 39.49 10.15
Anoa 15.22 12.10
Congo Buffalo 3.14 0.4

Phase out species

CERVIDS
Hog deer
Roe deer (gone)
Red deer
MacNeils Deer (gone)
Altai Wapiti (gone)
Tule Elk
Elk
Many species of sika are gone and the rest won't be here long(manchurian)
Javan Rusa (gone)
Sambar
European Fallow Deer
Persian Fallow Deer (gone)
Costa Rican Brockett
Indian Muntjac (dead end)
Formosan Muntjac (gone)
Siberian Musk Deer (gone)

ANTELOPE
Bushbuck
Maxwell Duiker
Bay Duiker
Suni (gone)
Crowned Duiker (gone maybe 1 left)
Blesbok
Cape Hartebeest
Defasa Waterbuck
Mhorr Gazelle
Dorcas Gazelle (gone)
Persian Goitered
Nubian Red Fronted
Beisa Oryx
Rhebok (almost gone)
Topi (basically gone)

Jacksons Hartebeest, Roan will be very low, klipspringer will be in bad trouble, steenbok, kob, royal antelope, zambian sable, impala will be very low, guenther dik dik, bontebok will be very low, nile lechwe have lost alot of interest and will be just a scattered few, cuvier's/soemmerings/slender horn gazelles will be a scattered few as well.

-Chinese Water Deer(once plentiful in both private and zoos now all gone)
-lowland tapir are phasing out
-kiangs
-kulan
-southern bush pigs
-collared peccarys phasing out
-kuhl's deer
-bearded pigs will be gone by summer 2010 guaranteed in all of AZA
-cauacasian tur
-many ibex

-Cretan Wild Goat
-White Lipped Peccaries
-Burmese Muntjac
-Nakheila Gazelle
-Himalayn Tahr are almost gone and no breeding
-Morracan Dorcas Gazelle
-Mishmi Takin i think Denvers are to be placed before Spring 2010
-Sind Wild Goat
-Nilgiri Tahr
-Allen's Bighorn Sheep
-Lesser Malayan Chevrotain
-Northern Gerenuk I believe were once held by San Antonio and Fort Worth
-Rosevelt's subspecies of Grant's Gazelle
-Gayal never held in AZA but gone from the US anyways"

This is unbelievable. There are around seventy-five species that are gone or going from american zoos. Granted some species continue to exist in large numbers in the private sector (elk, fallow deer, sika deer, etc), but I've never even heard of half the ungulates heard here. Unfortunately, this is also happening with old-world monkeys in many AZA facilities as well.

I hope someone, wether the AZA, ZAA, USZA, or any other enty (public or private) recognize this growing problem and curb back these trends with a combination of improved management, capitve breeding, importation, and greater international cooperation amongst zoos.
 
From Jurek7 Coming to why hoofstock are not popular.

They would be very popular if feeding sessions were allowed. In fact, many deer, antelope and goats try to beg from visitors even if it is forbidden!

Also, I would enjoy smaller deer, gazelle, wild sheep and goats in walk-thru exhibits. Maybe at rut season visitors would not be let in. Some walk-thru exhibits exist already in safari parks.

Not to stray too much on this thread, but can you tell me in detail some successful examples of zoos having ungulate feeding sessions and walk-thru exhibits.
 
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