pigmy is an older spelling. Almost everybody spells it pygmy nowadays. Myself, I always spell it pigmy. Both are correct (or rather, neither is incorrect 
)
)jentiks duiker
- Thread starter thor
- Start date
The white tailed deer are gone and the exhibit is a demolished dirt pile. A docent I spoke with said she doesn't know what will be done there.
This just happened, it is still in the planning stage (and will soon be in the fundraising stage). I would say a couple years out. According to our latest newsletter, it will NOT be open to the public (my guess is because it would cost too much to build the infrastructure to accomodate them).
When our curator gave a brief presentation on it to a zoo donor group I belong to, the only two species he showed specifically were addax and grevys zebra. But nothing has been decided for sure yet.
I will be visiting the ranch this Saturday with a board member that I know and will post a report and photos when I get back (as well as any additional information I can squeeze out of her
).
When our curator gave a brief presentation on it to a zoo donor group I belong to, the only two species he showed specifically were addax and grevys zebra. But nothing has been decided for sure yet.
I will be visiting the ranch this Saturday with a board member that I know and will post a report and photos when I get back (as well as any additional information I can squeeze out of her
).
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Total population of Jentink's duiker is probably around 2000 individuals and falling IUCN 2008
If someone has newer information that suggests the population is growing I would be interested in a source.
Did anybody really let Jentink's duiker die out in zoos? Wasn't it more a case of far too few founders to have a chance of really becoming established? I'm sure the few zoos that have kept it in recent decades would have been very happy if there had been a lot of breeding.
But on the other hand I'm not convinced bringing a bunch into captivity is the best option for its survival at this point. Has there historically been frequent zoo breedings of this species? Certainly not in recent decades. If -as I suspect- there never has been reasonable levels of breeding in this species it would be a big risk to catch a bunch and then hope it turned out well. You would probably need at least 5 unrelated pairs from the beginning to be reasonably sure of avoiding inbreeding depression in the long term and that's only if all pairs breed successfully.
Also worth keeping in a mind that if the Jentink's disappears it's only the tip of the iceberg. There are many equally threatened (but for the most part less charismatic) species in the same region that face many of the same risks but receive less attention from conservationists. Only found there are almost 2000 plant species and more than 400 animal species (without counting insects that if anyone knew probably would bring the animal number to thousands) Biodiversity Hotspots
The best chance for many of the Upper Guinea endemics is probably the recent move by Sierra Leone and Liberia to combine their effort in Gola Liberia and Sierra Leone move to designate Gola Rainforest as National Park
A lot of positive work is being done at Gola right now but if it starts to fail, then yes trying to establish a Jentink's duiker zoo population is a good idea. With the political instability in Côte d'Ivoire I wouldn't bet on the safety of Taï National Park.
If someone has newer information that suggests the population is growing I would be interested in a source.
Did anybody really let Jentink's duiker die out in zoos? Wasn't it more a case of far too few founders to have a chance of really becoming established? I'm sure the few zoos that have kept it in recent decades would have been very happy if there had been a lot of breeding.
But on the other hand I'm not convinced bringing a bunch into captivity is the best option for its survival at this point. Has there historically been frequent zoo breedings of this species? Certainly not in recent decades. If -as I suspect- there never has been reasonable levels of breeding in this species it would be a big risk to catch a bunch and then hope it turned out well. You would probably need at least 5 unrelated pairs from the beginning to be reasonably sure of avoiding inbreeding depression in the long term and that's only if all pairs breed successfully.
Also worth keeping in a mind that if the Jentink's disappears it's only the tip of the iceberg. There are many equally threatened (but for the most part less charismatic) species in the same region that face many of the same risks but receive less attention from conservationists. Only found there are almost 2000 plant species and more than 400 animal species (without counting insects that if anyone knew probably would bring the animal number to thousands) Biodiversity Hotspots
The best chance for many of the Upper Guinea endemics is probably the recent move by Sierra Leone and Liberia to combine their effort in Gola Liberia and Sierra Leone move to designate Gola Rainforest as National Park
A lot of positive work is being done at Gola right now but if it starts to fail, then yes trying to establish a Jentink's duiker zoo population is a good idea. With the political instability in Côte d'Ivoire I wouldn't bet on the safety of Taï National Park.
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I understand your point of protecting the biodiversity hotspot of which Jentink's duiker are a part of. However I thought the whole point of the modern zoo was to propagate a species that was on the edge. If there are less than 2000 in the wild, why not have at least a small captive population just in case. If it were not for some of these captive populations we wouldn't have some ot the hoofstock today. Such as Scimitar,Addax, Pere Davids deer,etc...Yes we need to protect these hotspots but I also think we need to have captive populations of endangered species to insure they don't go extinct altogether. I know that there genetic diversity won't be optimal but it's better than nothing?
You missed my main point:
Condor said:
Every single Jentink's duiker that has been brought into captivity until now has been a waste (one left in USA = no chance of breeding. Others dead). Like I said in the above you need a lot of founders to even have a chance of avoiding inbreeding depression on the long term. And if -as I suspect- there historically never has been reasonable levels of breeding it is a big chance to take that many into captivity. With the level of experiance I believe we have until now they could all easily die without any breeding, meaning that another 10+ animals were lost from the wild where they still have a reasonable chance of surviving (see my last post on positive work in Gola). Bringing new species into captivity for conservation is a last resort, not first. Unless it is the last resort, it is also impossible to justify from an economical point of view. The many thousand dollars it requires to import a new population into zoos could protect huge sections of rainforest.
Surely I am not the only person who remember how bad the Sumatran rhino programme turned out.
An example of an ungulate that I believe would be a good candidate for starting a captive population now is the giant sable antelope. Much rarer (200-400 individuals and declining) and closer to last chance than Jentink's duiker. We also know there is a very good chance the giant sable antelope can be maintained with success in zoos because of the long experiance with the other common sable antelope races (most sables in zoos are probably not even pure common races but a mix). With a successful programme for giant sable antelope you could also justify slowly phasing out the normal sables that many zoos keep and instead replace them with giant. A big additional plus because most zoos don't have much space and a breeding population of a common animal is arguably taking space that could be used for a breeding population of an endangered animal.
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Interesting to know, a few years ago, an animal dealer from africa offered some jentinks duiker to the zoos, but nobody wanted them. UsA ha phased them out, for europe, the animals and the transport was to expensive, only two private facillities in japan bought jentink duikers. So these animals are a good hope to build there a captive population. A Zoo staff member at one of these facillities told me, the wild population of jentinks duiker is much better now and its a little bit growing.
you still haven't said which "private facilities" these are yet....Tarsius said:
I'm looking forward to seeing any external source supporting this. It would certainly enlighten me as I was completely unaware of new Jentink's having entered the zoo world (even if private facilities) within the last few years. Searching via various sources has not resulted in anything either but my knowledge of Japanese facilities is limitied and I could have missed something. I also hope to see an external source for the claim that
However, even if an external confirmation was found for that, I have to admit that when it comes to this sort of info, I certainly trust IUCN data far more than the claim of a zoo staff member at some private Japanese facility. Just like I would trust a zoo source more than the IUCN if it was about the number of a species in captivity.
The only information newer than IUCN´s from 2008 that I have been able to dig out is Ganas and Lindsell 2010 and they don't mention anything about the population doing much better or a population growth.
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same here. Tarsius is well-known on here for deliberately spreading false information (apparently he finds it amusing), and I would like to see some proof of his claim.condor said:
Worth mentioning that Jentink's duiker is on CITES I and Japan and the 3 countries where it is found (Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone) are all CITES members. Exports/imports would only be legal with documentation. A check of CITES reports for these countries hasn't resulted in anything but this was only a fast check.
well, that answers that then I guess....Tarsius said:
Now have checked 10 years back: No mention of Jentink's duiker.
