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Ituri

Ituri

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15+ year member
Singapore, February 27, 2009 – Night Safari has opened the first pangolin exhibit in the world; now home to two scaly anteater. The new exhibit boasts an estimated area of 17sqm plus two separate viewing galleries with a total area of 11 sqm and an 8.5 sqm gallery for interpretive. The new exhibit with a generous space for viewing allows ample room for visitors to view the nocturnal species as they go about their nightly routine.
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NIGHT SAFARI OPENS NEW PANGOLIN HABITAT | World Zoo Today
 
the first pangolin exhibit in the world? That sounds like reporter gibberish...;)

on another note, this was in a link at the bottom of the Singapore Night safari article...
Breeding centre for pangolins | World Zoo Today
The Nandan Kanan Zoological Park will soon house a captive breeding centre for Indian pangolins under a rear-and-release project introduced by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA).

The special programme is also aimed at documenting the behavioural pattern and reproductive characteristic of the endangered nocturnal insectivore.

Sources said CZA particularly chose Nandan Kanan Zoological Park for the project as it had successfully carried out a breeding programme of Indian pangolins.

Though the insectivore hardly breeds in captivity, Nandan Kanan achieved the rare feat of breeding the mammal “in a specially designed enclosure”.

“Conservation breeding of endangered species in captivity and then releasing them into the natural habitat to improve their status has always been a priority of the zoo. After successful breeding of white tigers and gharials, captive breeding of Indian pangolin is another step in that direction,” said Ajit Patnaik, the director of Nandan Kanan Zoological Park.

The number of Indian pangolins in captivity is fast declining beacuse of its typical food habit. Being an insectivore, the animal feeds on ants and termites. Hence, while many zoos have failed to keep them alive, Nandan Kanan has been successful.

“It was possible to sustain the insectivore because we had standardised locally available red weaver ants as an alternative feed,” the zoo officials said.

The first baby Indian pangolin was born in captivity in November 2007.

Sources in the government said the special project would require an initial outlay of over Rs 17 lakh.
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That is gibberish. Phoenix Zoo displayed a Chinese pangolin in the early/mid 90's.
 
A bit of sad news, a baby Sunda Pangolin was born at Night Safari for the first time last month, but due to the mother's inexperience the baby did not survive.
 
Zooish said:
A bit of sad news, a baby Sunda Pangolin was born at Night Safari for the first time last month, but due to the mother's inexperience the baby did not survive.
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It is quite commonplace that in primiparous females the offspring succumbs due to motherly inexperience.

I would not look on it to negatively ..., it is a learning curve and on the positive perhaps a first for the Sunda pangolin.

Given the IUCN Red List status of each, it is more than positive that successful captive-breeding can now be demonstrated in several pangolin species (viz India-Nandankan Zoo and Taiwan-National Zoo breeding success).
 
@Kifaru Bwana: Indeed the successes at the other zoos point to captive breeding as a viable conservation option for the pangolin.

Below are links to a 30-minute Singapore-made documentary which takes viewers behind-the-scenes at the Night Safari. A rare glimpse at the park in daylight and also some insight on husbandry for elephants, pangolins, clouded leopards and more. Please note the Parental Guidance advisory due to graphic scenes of a post-mortem (hog deer).

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:
 
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Fossa dude said:
I'm sure San Diego exhibited there Pangolins before this.
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San Diego sure did. Taiwan did too i think. Night Safari clarified that it's the world's first SUNDA Pangolin exhibit. SD exhibited African Pangolin while Taiwan has Chinese Pangolins.

The marketing/publicity folk get carried away sometimes... :rolleyes:
 
Are there anymore details or recent articles on the calf? Are anymore females pregnant or is there anymore breeding attempts? Four of the females at the zoo are at a fertile age.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Are there anymore details or recent articles on the calf? Are anymore females pregnant or is there anymore breeding attempts? Four of the females at the zoo are at a fertile age.
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No further news releases, probably because the calf still hasn't passed the critical survival period (typically such births are announced 1 to 2 months later).

I can't confirm it, but I don't believe any of the other females are pregnant.

Out of the four at the zoo, two are E.m.sumatranus (the rest are E.m.indica) so they won't be part of the breeding programme. The other two have been introduced to the bull but no breeding success yet.

Attempts to mate the two other cows at Night Safari with the bull have also not been successful.
 
Zooish said:
Out of the four at the zoo, two are E.m.sumatranus (the rest are E.m.indica) so they won't be part of the breeding programme. The other two have been introduced to the bull but no breeding success yet.
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Subspecies of asian elephants have been bred together many times before. Two females at Berlin TP are also of the sumatran subspecies but have been bred with a E.m indica bull. I'm just curious if Singapore zoo gives a detailed reason why not to breed Intan and Aprila?
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Subspecies of asian elephants have been bred together many times before. Two females at Berlin TP are also of the sumatran subspecies but have been bred with a E.m indica bull. I'm just curious if Singapore zoo gives a detailed reason why not to breed Intan and Aprila?
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While the zoo has never publicly mentioned that Intan and Aprila won't be part of the breeding programme, it would only be wise of a zoo to maintain genetic purity right down to subspecies level as far as possible. There is less conservation value in perpetuating hybrids.

And you never know, a few years down the road scientists might declare E.m.sumatranus a separate species altogether (as with Pongo abelli).
 
Zooish said:
No further news releases, probably because the calf still hasn't passed the critical survival period (typically such births are announced 1 to 2 months later).

I can't confirm it, but I don't believe any of the other females are pregnant.

Out of the four at the zoo, two are E.m.sumatranus (the rest are E.m.indica) so they won't be part of the breeding programme. The other two have been introduced to the bull but no breeding success yet.

Attempts to mate the two other cows at Night Safari with the bull have also not been successful.
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I do hope the Singapore Zoo become so foresighted as to initiate a separate programme for breeding Sumatran elephants with the evt. introduction of several more individual eles from Sumatra (incl. 1-2 bulls).

I personally deplore the fact that several EU zoos maintain known separate ssp. Asiatic eles with other mainland eles. In order to conserve known ESU's zoos have a duty in that respect too. In the end, their hybridisation will serve no real conservation or educational purpose (viz the zoo mix lion debacle almost everywhere).
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I personally deplore the fact that several EU zoos maintain known separate ssp. Asiatic eles with other mainland eles. In order to conserve known ESU's zoos have a duty in that respect too.
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AFAIK there are indeed two breeding Sumatran famales and two breeding Bornean females. For these, EU needs to import at least one bull of each form!

I agree that both Sumatran and Bornean elephants make very good candidates for separate breeding plans. Both are endangered and habitat degradation means that they no longer can become common in the wild, and are maintained in captivity in Asia now.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I do hope the Singapore Zoo become so foresighted as to initiate a separate programme for breeding Sumatran elephants with the evt. introduction of several more individual eles from Sumatra (incl. 1-2 bulls).
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I don't think that will happen in the near future. The 2 Sumatran females were brought in to the Zoo to take on "working" roles such as giving rides and being in the shows, and therefore freeing up the E.m.indica females to be part of the breeding programme.

The Zoo lacks the space to house a separate Sumatran elephant herd.
 
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