You shouldnt be glad they are breeding them @UngulateNerd92. If it was a genetically diverse herd sure happy is the word. But this is a very inbred herd. Survival rate on kids is not great. Mothers seem to abandon their kids at a much higher rate then should be normal. If a kid is abandoned and its male the zoo will not intervene because they dont need males and let the kid die. If its female they might hand rear but even then the kids havent always fared well with that. If the zoo wont commit 100% to every life they create and stop inbreeding then I personally wish they would just stop breeding them all together. We can replace them with markhor or takin easily enough. By the way I wouldnt expect you to know all this. You couldn't unless told.
@TZFan oh wasn't aware of the whole situation. Thank you for letting me know. I see the reasoning now... What would the plausibility be for them to import West Caucasian tur from say Europe?
@UngulateNerd92, the zoo doesn't like to advertise their dirty secrets in the tur exhibit so it makes it hard to know. No idea about imports but I think the genetic damage is done. Let this herd die out and be replaced by something were we can be part of a conservation program. Even if they did import they would just be back to inbreeding in a generation or two because we have nowhere to send the kids they have. No one wants tur. None have been placed outside the zoo in forever. They are just breeding to replace losses of older animals which if they stopped we could complete the planned phase out and move on to another species. All the zoos hoofstock in Eurasia is on phase out except the Bactrian camels and Przewalski's horse, if you want to call either hoofstock. The chamois are down to 1 or 2. The barbary sheep, 2. The yaks have I think 8 or 9. The mouflon... many but the zoo did take in a rescue group which ballooned the numbers because they were down to like 6. The tur unfortunately is a big herd of probably about 20. And though they dont live in Eurasia the tahr because they could live over here are down to 5. The current plan is to bring in takin and markhor to replace some of them. No firm plans on what fills other exhibits.
