EAZA news magazine

Also now available is the EAZA yearbook covering 2007/2008, the first time all the tag reports have been put online, and makes for fascinating reading.

EAZA - yearbook
 
There are some fascinating articles on Ape management within the EEP in the latest EAZA Magazine .

There is likely to be a higher emphasis on the Sumatran Orang in future as it is much more endangered and it is unlikely to be possible to split the Borneans into the 3 or 4 sub-species recently identified . The ideal captive set-up would give females the choice of mate from more than one separately housed adult male .

The suggested solution for surplus male Chimps and Gorillas is to castrate them at a young age so that they can then remain in their maternal group . Gorilla holders are far more resistant to this idea than Chimp holders .

There is the possibility that there are a few Cross River sub-species Gorillas within the Western Lowland Gorilla population . There is no reliable test to identify the sub-species of Chimps that are not West African . They intend to identify pure sub-species Lar Gibbons and Siamangs and to phase out subspecific hybrids and generic animals . This would make space available for rarer Gibbons .

For Bonobos there is the need to finalise the transfers in the Master Plan , stabilise new groups and focus on 'Fission-Fusion' housing . I assume that is how the group at Twycross is now being managed - I wonder if they are able to work out which animals in a group want to be together/apart at any particular time .

The Northern White-cheeked Gibbon is now considered to be Critically Endangered with a wild population of only a few 100's . Unfortunately the EEP population of 46.21.8 is highy skewed towards males - I think all the recent Twycross births have been male .

There is a fascinating article on the effects on Gorillas on how they are treated by Zoo staff and visitors . A young Melbourne male brought to Hannover to replace their silverback caused many problems . When the keeping staff started treating him as group leader , giving him more attention with defference and ignoring the females/youngsters more the rest of the group started to accept him . A female visitor who spent a lot of time watching the group caused problems , it was found that she was antagonistic towards the new male .

I hope I have interpreted the above correctly and can highly recommend anyone with an interest in primates to read the full articles .
 
I did subscribe but decided not too after it became available on-line , do rather regret the decision now !
 
Bele said:
There are some fascinating articles on Ape management within the EEP in the latest EAZA Magazine .

There is likely to be a higher emphasis on the Sumatran Orang in future as it is much more endangered and it is unlikely to be possible to split the Borneans into the 3 or 4 sub-species recently identified . The ideal captive set-up would give females the choice of mate from more than one separately housed adult male .

The suggested solution for surplus male Chimps and Gorillas is to castrate them at a young age so that they can then remain in their maternal group . Gorilla holders are far more resistant to this idea than Chimp holders .

There is the possibility that there are a few Cross River sub-species Gorillas within the Western Lowland Gorilla population . There is no reliable test to identify the sub-species of Chimps that are not West African . They intend to identify pure sub-species Lar Gibbons and Siamangs and to phase out subspecific hybrids and generic animals . This would make space available for rarer Gibbons .

For Bonobos there is the need to finalise the transfers in the Master Plan , stabilise new groups and focus on 'Fission-Fusion' housing . I assume that is how the group at Twycross is now being managed - I wonder if they are able to work out which animals in a group want to be together/apart at any particular time .

The Northern White-cheeked Gibbon is now considered to be Critically Endangered with a wild population of only a few 100's . Unfortunately the EEP population of 46.21.8 is highy skewed towards males - I think all the recent Twycross births have been male .

There is a fascinating article on the effects on Gorillas on how they are treated by Zoo staff and visitors . A young Melbourne male brought to Hannover to replace their silverback caused many problems . When the keeping staff started treating him as group leader , giving him more attention with defference and ignoring the females/youngsters more the rest of the group started to accept him . A female visitor who spent a lot of time watching the group caused problems , it was found that she was antagonistic towards the new male .

I hope I have interpreted the above correctly and can highly recommend anyone with an interest in primates to read the full articles .
Click to expand...

Kiang.
Thanks for posting these- I have spent a lot of time reading the TAG reports and recommendations, particularly Primates, in the EAZA Yearbook, as well as the 'Ape Issue' of the Magazine. It all makes very interesting reading. A few comments;

1. I would like to see a few more zoos in the UK keep Sumatran Orangutan again. Particularly Edinburgh as historically they were the first to successfully keep and (unsuccessfully) breed them in the 1930's. Unfortunately nearly everywhere else in the UK is currently stocked with Borneans, rather unusually, as elsewhere in Europe the two species are held in a roughly 50/50 ratio.

2. I believe the 'fission/fusion' concept also applies to Orangutans as well as Bonobo. But I can't see many zoos, particularly those with smaller Ape Houses, being able to set this up very easily, or indeed to keep more than one male orangutan which I believe is going to be the recommendation so that females can choose their breeding partners.

3. The Hanover Gorilla article was particularly illuminating. I knew that Buzandi(or Batouri as they call him here) was very aggressive to the existing infants in the group when he was first introduced, but unusually he seems to have had outbursts of more recent aggression to his own offspring too- though 95% of the time he seems nowadays to be a model father/group leader. They should certainly have expected trouble initially though- to bring in a handraised ten-year old male (still immature)and expect him to be able to successfully take over an existing established group of adult females is a tall order- its not surprising they had big problems with his aggression until he matured further.

4. As is mentioned, there appears to be a differential in the treatment of Chimps and Gorillas when it comes to castration, and very few have been performed on Gorillas. One of the first was Kukuma, who has lived most of his life at Belfast and there's another younger one in one of the Dutch groups that I know of. 'Kukuma' at Belfast seems to live happily alongside silverback males without problem- though he has never developed the normal secondary male characteristics.

5. I rather doubt there are have been any Cross River Gorillas in the zoo population in the past, because numerically they are a very tiny wild population and probably they have been for a long time now, though its not impossible of course.
 
Last edited:
From reading this; Hanover Zoo's new 'Yukon Bay' Arctic exhibit also includes Penguins- from the Southern Hemisphere obviously. In order to justify their inclusion in this 'zoned' exhibit they wouldn't naturally be found in, they've come up with a quite bizarre and remarkable explanation- a sort of 'shipwreck' exhibit for the Penguins- of a ship which was carrying penguins as its cargo! :D
 
This 'Yukon Bay' would be a perfect subject for a discussion - whether such a heavy theming is good or bad.

About the rest of the magazine - I would love to read more about stimulating hunting for carnivores at Parken, Przewalski horse projects in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe, and captive management of such unusual animals like sea turtles and bamboo lemurs. In contrast, I found the article about EAZA meeting too long and not interesting, perhaps for those who attended it too, and some field projects lack substance: what really was achieved for conservation.

More about Hannover:
My visitor impression: Hannover zoo is an exercise how many kitschy pseudo-exotic artifacts and food stalls it is possible to put without completely leaving animals out of a zoo. Penguins in the Arctic smell of a fake (20 years ago they would be acceptable, not now) Good points are carefully arranged view of wolf-reindeer and bison exhibits, large pool for sealions and naturalistic polar bear exhibit with lots of grass. Bad points is general small size of other exhibits, dirty water in underwater view (a problem for most underwater exhibits in German zoos - they save on filters or what), vertical reindeer exhibit (when the first one falls and breaks legs?) and incosistent theming (pizza in Yukon? a ship carrying a cargo of Italian chefs run aground too?).
 
Jurek7 said:
and incosistent theming (pizza in Yukon? a ship carrying a cargo of Italian chefs run aground too?).
Click to expand...

HeHe..:D I noticed that too in one of the pictures in the Gallery of this area and comented on that too. Its unfair to comment too much without seeing this whole zoo for myself perhaps, but Hanover does look very heavily dependent on these themed exhibits nowadays. I went here once in 1970 when it was an ordinary zoological park and I'm sure the animal collection was a lot more comprehensive then- but in doing all this they are keeping abreast of the times no doubt. Hanover is maybe the most 'commercial' zoo in Germany nowadays?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top