Zoo animals with self sustaining captive populations

Carl Jones

Carl Jones

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
One of the goals of a modern zoo is to establish self-sustaining captive populations. How many species have populations that have been maintained in captivity for ten or more generations? It would be good to get an idea of what species these are.

Clearly in UK this includes species like Meercats, Coatis, Short-clawed Otters, Ring-tailed Lemurs, Tigers, Lions, Giraffes, Blue and Gold Macaw, Golden Pheasant.... It would be good if the more informed can give us an idea what species do have established populations.
 
I do not have any official information, but my instinct says there are not that many. I am not even sure you could include lions on the list. Maybe in the UK (as you say), but here in the USA the SSP imported founder lions from South Africa very recently. Some of those have now bred to third generation, but that is far off from the ten generations you suggest.
 
Many thanks for the comments. it is not at all easy to quantify what species are self sustaining for ten or more generations because of imports to revitalise some populations. There are of course all the domesticated exotic animals, and well established species like Pere David's Deer, Common Marmosets and Eagle Owl and a host of more recently established species such as Harris Hawk, Saker Falcon, Green-winged Macaw and Golden Lion Tamarin. Although there is also a category of species that do well for a few generations and then die out like many species of parrots and pheasants.

It would be good to have an annotated list of species that are self supporting.
 
According to the third edition of Lemurs of Madagascar (2010) by Mittermeier et al, the European captive population of Lac Alaotra Bamboo Lemur, although relatively small (66 individuals at the time of writing), is deemed to be self-sustaining.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
According to the third edition of Lemurs of Madagascar (2010) by Mittermeier et al, the European captive population of Lac Alaotra Bamboo Lemur, although relatively small (66 individuals at the time of writing), is deemed to be self-sustaining.
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I guess it depends on how many founder animals started the captive population. One would think that given bamboo lemurs do relatively well in captivity that most of that 66 is made up of captive-bred progeny. Doesn't seem big enough to my mind.
 
tetrapod said:
I guess it depends on how many founder animals started the captive population. One would think that given bamboo lemurs do relatively well in captivity that most of that 66 is made up of captive-bred progeny. Doesn't seem big enough to my mind.
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If you look at several suids (red river hog and visayan warty pig) they are doing very well even though the founding population is very small and considered self-sustaining. And there are more species that do quite well but with a very small founder base.
 
Quite sure that already a huge number of zoo-animals have self-sustaining populations ( hoofed animals, primates, carnivores, lots of birds and recently also many reptilians ).
Further most of the SSP and EEP-species are or will be soon self-sustainible, but for many species the 10-generation mark has not reach jet because they simply need more time but I'm sure that most of the animals now in captivity and with a large enough founder-population will become self-sustainible.
 
I think not simply the size of the founder group or number of animals
makes the population self-sustainable or not, but the way the population
is managed. (Exept extreme situations like a founder group of only 2 animals or so)

For example there were once only five black robins left, and due to
a relative succesfull management (I know there were errors) there are now
about 250 alive, and we can all think of species that went extinct (or
at least disapeared from zoos) and had a much larger founder group.
 
Its also important to note that some animals have higher infant mortality than others, or are harder to breed in general.
 
These comments are really useful. Perhaps we should think about populations that have persisted for ten or more generations and have captive populations of over 100.

The classic zoo animals will probably all achieve self sustaining status eventually just because there is a demand for them and it is in people's interest to maintain captive populations. Thus gorilla, orangs and chimps will get there.

It is noted that some species are moving towards self-sustaining status and it is assumed they will achieve this, however what about species that come into and out of fashion? There are less pheasant species around today in UK than there were twenty years ago, and also less private waterfowl breeders, yet more owl keepers. Parrots were very popular and their popularity is waning?

Zoo populations are dynamic and there is a limit to how many self sustaining populations can be maintained. What are those species going to be?

What pheasants have long term self sustaining captive populations?
Peacock,
Golden Pheasant,
Ring-necked Pheasant,
Silver Pheasant,
Reeves Pheasant
Lady Amherst Pheasant
What others meet 10 generations and over 100 birds?
 
vogelcommando said:
Quite sure that already a huge number of zoo-animals have self-sustaining populations ( hoofed animals, primates, carnivores, lots of birds and recently also many reptilians ).

Can we start having lists of these that have likely reached 10 generations and 100 individuals please, the most obvious first, and you can leave out the obvious domestics and park animals like Fallow Deer.


Further most of the SSP and EEP-species are or will be soon self-sustainible, but for many species the 10-generation mark has not reach jet because they simply need more time but I'm sure that most of the animals now in captivity and with a large enough founder-population will become self-sustainible.
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Any feel for what percentage will get there and which ones?
 
I imagine Arabian oryx could be considered self sustaining and of course it is one of the great success stories of the zoo world.

There is a secondary consideration in all this that I do not think zoos are addressing. That is maintaining the fitness of the animals for potential release, in the (however unlikely case) that they may one day be able to go back. Specifically I think of carnivores that have no opportunity to hunt. In ten or twenty generations, will they still be able to hunt or will they be semi domesticated?
 
Arizona Docent said:
I imagine Arabian oryx could be considered self sustaining and of course it is one of the great success stories of the zoo world.

There is a secondary consideration in all this that I do not think zoos are addressing. That is maintaining the fitness of the animals for potential release, in the (however unlikely case) that they may one day be able to go back. Specifically I think of carnivores that have no opportunity to hunt. In ten or twenty generations, will they still be able to hunt or will they be semi domesticated?
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This is an excellent point. Many zoo animals become domesticated after a relatively few generations in captivity and their reintroduction potential declines. This is of course not a problem but a distinct advantage if the goal is to establish zoo populations of animals that are docile and well adapted to life in captivity. Animals for conservation purposes and reintroduction need to be considered separate to long-term zoo populations?
 
Carl Jones said:
What pheasants have long term self sustaining captive populations?
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In Europe at least these species:
- blue-eared pheasant
- brown-eared pheasant
- tibetan white-eared pheasant
- edward's pheasant
- elliot's pheasant
- golden pheasant
- himalayan monal
- lady amherst's pheasant (although not pure)
- reeve's pheasant
- satyr tragopan
- (probably) Siamese crested fireback
- silver pheasant
- swinhoe's pheasant
- temminck's tragopan
- (probably) Vietnamese pheasant
- grey peacock-pheasant
- Indian peafowl
- javanese green peafowl
- (probably) palawan peacock-pheasant
- red jungle-fowl
I wonder about the congo peafowl and great argus.

If you count private breeders you can add at least a dozen
(probably even two dozen) species or sub-species.
 
What pheasants have long term self sustaining captive populations?
Peacock,
Golden Pheasant,
Ring-necked Pheasant,
Silver Pheasant,
Reeves Pheasant
Lady Amherst Pheasant
What others meet 10 generations and over 100 birds?



Ring-necked pheasant : if we are talking about the species as a whole then yes surtainly, in Europe it's kept in 197 collections !
When we look however at pure subspecies-level then most of them belong to the most rarely kept taxa and need a lot of attention if we want to save the subspecies in zoo-collections !
For Europe I found the following numbers :
Bianchi's kept in 2 collections
Chinese 6 collections
Khivan 1 collection
Korean 4 collections
Manchurian 5 collections
Mongolian 11 collections
North Caucasian 3 collections
Persian 1 collection
Sichuan 1 collection
Southern Caucasian 6 collections
Taiwan 7 collections
Zarudny's 2 collections
Zerafshan kept at 2 collections so a lot of work for zoos to buid up self sustaineble populations for all these subspecies !
 
Many thanks for the two replies on pheasants. Great information. Presumably because they are favourites of the private keepers there are relatively large numbers. Although it is unrealistic that sub-specific purity will ever be maintained in all but a few taxa. Considering that captive populations change so much after just a few generations there can be little point in trying to keep sub-specific strains of all species.
 
Pheasants ( Ring-necked ) bred for hunting is mainly done by larger-scale breeding farms, the 'normal' keepers/breeders do it for the hobby.
 
Pheasant keeping is popular with private aviculturists, I used to keep pheasants myself as a schoolboy although there are now far fewer big collections in UK. There are, I believe, many private breeders in Europe.
 
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