Male, Bernardo is currently mixed with both females (the female pictured is the older female, Franka) in the hope of producing Chester's first breeding of the species in 2016 - 22 March 2015
Male, Bernardo is currently mixed with both females (the female pictured is the older one, Franka) in the hope of producing Chester\'s first breeding of the species in 2016 - 22 March 2015
Male, Bernardo is currently mixed with both females (the female pictured is the older one, Franka) in the hope of producing Chester\'s first breeding of the species in 2016 - 22 March 2015
I wonder if 'Franka' is too old to successfully breed now? It would be excellent if Chester can get a successful birth from one or other female. As GL says, luck hasn't been on their side so far with this species. And its now many years since any Spectacled Bears were born in the UK- twenty years ago at Jersey- and the last breeding at Belfast, when?
I think this is very likely to be the case, particularly as she has not been in the best of health. As far as I know, she didn't breed before she arrived at Chester either.
The last successful UK births were at Jersey and Belfast, both in 1993/1994
Franka hasn't bred before - at Dortmund (her birthplace) she spent several years living in a none breeding situation after being wrongly sexed as a male! It was over 10 years before the mistake was realised and she was moved to Artis before Chester received her in 2009
The last successful UK births were at Jersey and Belfast, both in 1993/1994
Franka hasn't bred before - at Dortmund (her birthplace) she spent several years living in a none breeding situation after being wrongly sexed as a male! It was over 10 years before the mistake was realised and she was moved to Artis before Chester received her in 2009
She must be at/toward the upper limit of their breeding life expectancy, but that said, its still a possibility. The fact she has not bred before also means the odds are perhaps greater still but if she is still cycling.......
