I find it interesting that zoos with large groups of guenons appear to be more successful, I wonder if the 1.1 pairing maybe often won't stimulate any kind of social organising resulting in truly dominant animals.
This certainly seems to be the case, but as guenons are also notoriously difficult to mix, this organization is probably the best option anyway. Two unrelated females seldom accept each other, and with males that's virtually impossible. One would hope that the numbers of bred females would allow more matriarch groups to form, and we could have larger numbers of guenons in each group, possibly (probably?) better breeding.
This certainly seems to be the case, but as guenons are also notoriously difficult to mix, this organization is probably the best option anyway. Two unrelated females seldom accept each other, and with males that's virtually impossible. One would hope that the numbers of bred females would allow more matriarch groups to form, and we could have larger numbers of guenons in each group, possibly (probably?) better breeding.
Good post. Unfortunately it seems very few zoo groups increase in size this way. Too often when a pair is breeding well, the offspring are removed and sent somewhere else giving the group no chance to increase in size. I agree the best way to get an increase is to allow a matrilenial/maternal line to develop as with all the females related there is less/no fighting/rivalry and a clear heirarchy from birth. The same holds good for a number of other Primate species as well. To avoid inbreeding the male can be replaced by a fresh, unrelated one from time to time. Chester have done this very successfully with their Lion-tailed Macaque group, starting with only 1.2 animals.
It would be really nice to see large( e.g. 12- 20 animals) groups of Guenons such as Dianas and De Brazzas exhibited instead of just the familiar breeding pairs and one or two offspring. In the Uk only Howletts/Pl have this and even here the groups remain fairly small as animals are removed to start fresh groups.
This certainly seems to be the case, but as guenons are also notoriously difficult to mix, this organization is probably the best option anyway. Two unrelated females seldom accept each other, and with males that's virtually impossible. One would hope that the numbers of bred females would allow more matriarch groups to form, and we could have larger numbers of guenons in each group, possibly (probably?) better breeding.
Good post. Unfortunately it seems very few zoo groups increase in size this way. Too often when a pair is breeding well, the offspring are removed and sent somewhere else giving the group no chance to increase in size. I agree the best way to get a size increase is to allow a matrilenial/maternal line to develop as with all the females related there isn't no fighting/rivalry and a lear heirarchy from birth. The same holds good for a number of other Primate species as well. To avoid inbreeding the male can be replaced by a fresh, unrelated one from time to time. Chester have done this very successfully with their Lion-tailed Macaque group, starting with only 1.2 animals.
It would be really nice to see large( e.g. 12- 20 animals) groups of Guenons such as Dianas and De Brazzas exhibited instead of just the familiar breeding pairs and one or two offspring. In the Uk only Howletts/Pl approach this style and even here the groups remain fairly small as animals are removed to start fresh groups.
