African Manatees in China

As far as i know, some African country's have been selling these animals for the last few years to Japan as well, so I'm not surprised...

Hopefully they won't just die for nothing, but perhaps they can get an asian breeding program going.
 
It remains to be seen whether the African manatees will turn out to have just novelty value (like unfortunately many exotic species still have in P.R. of China) or that a serious conservation education or even a breeding scheme is coming up (allthough I doubt that 2 manatees will even make a difference).

I have to check back whether the Hangzhou facility actually has had sought advice elsewhere on management of manatees or acquatic mammals at all? :confused:
 
Another pair of African manatees have just arrived at Nanning Zoo this November. This zoo locates in the tropical area of China, I have been there in 2008. The acquatic mammals, including spotted dolphin, California sea-lion and African fur-seal, are all kept outdoor, as well as tropical fishes. Thus I guess the manatees may also be kept in an outdoor pool year round. Meanwhile, Nanning Zoo is the only zoo in the world that keeps and breeds White-eared Night-heron, a critical endangered bird endemic to China.
 
I was hoping for some rather more seirous reporting. It is the usual stuff. :(

Make no bones about them: it is exemplary of some realities in Chinese govt. run zoos. The reason: inadequate funding for State owned zoos - whereas the commercials depend on private capital and do not make ends meet either (if you would think that that was any different ..., dream on) - and hence State owned zoos are driven to think up schemes to bring in extra cash to make zoo operation income needs.

The only good book on Chinese zoos I found was in traditional Chinese characters.
 
Thank you very much, Kifaru Bwana! I am also shamed to see the animal abuse in almost all the Chinese zoos. But now, in China, it is illegal to force animals to perform and interact with tourists in zoos, according to a new-published law. Thus the situation will be improved.
When I went to Nanning Zoo in 2008, the big-felid enclosure, the medium-sized carnivores enclosure and the African primates enclosure were under construction, thus I didn't see many animals. But the primate collection seemed great, which included douc langurs, silver langurs, Francois's langur, three kinds of Chinese gibbons; the instruction plate inside the gibbon house said that there were Javan silver gibbons on display, but I didn't see them came out. Meanwhile, there were over a hundred hornbills: The Indian, the wreathed and the Malayan pied hornbills; they were displayed inside a enterable huge aviary.
 
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@baboon

Thanks! I - for one - would be very interested in any review of Nanning Zoo. Perhaps you could open a separate thread on reviews of Chinese Zoos.

Personally: I am familiar with photographic material from locations like Kunming and Chengdu and Wuhu/Wuxi Zoos (I am not sure on the latter it is where they have loads of native langur species including Francois and white headeds) - so correct me if I am wrong here -.

As for animal welfare, there is a certain element of that ... (alas!). However, now this practice of showcasing animals for profit has been outlawed has the funding base and budget required to at least run State or Municipal owned zoos been adequately improved? Cause to my mind, that is THE MAJOR ISSUE here!
 
Hi, Kifaru Bwana, first, I have not been to Wuxi Zoo, but it is said to be a small zoo. And it seems that there is no zoo in Wuhu~~ The "zoo" you metioned must be Wuzhou Primate Breeding Center, where is also in Guangxi Province, just as Nanning Zoo. This center focuses on the breeding and research of Francois's langur and white-headed langur. There may be only two zoos in China still display white-headed langur now: Shanghai Zoo and Xiangjiang Wild Animal Park near Guangzhou. Beijing Zoo used to keep white-headed langur, capped langur and Phayre's langur, but now there are only Francois's langurs in Beijing Zoo now.
I didn't see many species in Nanning Zoo due to the reconstruction. But it has the largest captive population of northern white-cheeked gibbon, and there are also eastern hoolock gibbons and lar gibbons, and maybe, Javan silver gibbon. Furthermore, this year, the zoo has gotten a whale shark with the length of 5m.
On the other hand, the funding base of the Chinese zoos may be not improved~~ It is said that even Beijing Zoo has to face the shortage of funding, because the support from government is limited.
The most familiar zoo for me is Beijing Zoo, the other zoos I have visited include Chengdu, Nanning and some small zoos. I am afraid that I couldn't write a exhaustive review of Chinese zoos, but I think I can write a brief review of the three large zoos later.
 
Thank you very much for such interesting review and photos! I am especially interested in so many primates and birds which are not seen or almost extinct in Europe.
 
I'd be really interested in reading a review of your experience of Nanning Zoo as well. Your photos were certainly appetite-whetting :)
 
Hi baboon (and Chlidonias),

Thanks for your comments. I had somewhere on my home database a listing of endangered species breeding programmes in P.R. China and
I was citing at the top of my head while travelling. So, I will admit I meant Wuzhou (:D) and Wuxi.

In all fairness though, both Wuhu (Chushan Park) and Wuxi Zoos (Xihui Zoo Park) do exist. P.R. of China as between 150-200 zoo and aquarium facilities right now and expanding at an unprecedented rate.


I checked my listings when I got back today and attached you will find the respective data sets.

P. francoisi
Guiyang Zoo 3.6.7
Nanning Zoo 12.25.25
Wuhan Zoo 3.5.3
Wuzhou Zoo 10.23.34

P. leucocephalus
Guangzhou Zoo 2.5.4 (but this could be a misprint for Nanning Zoo)

These data originate from the Beijing Science and Technology Institute.


A second listing pertains to a mid 80's census report from IZY

P. francoisi
Beijing 1.0
Changxhou 1.1
Qingdao 2.1 (mispelt Chingdao)
Dalian 5.6 (1.2)
Duyun 3.1 (1.0)
Ganzhou no no. listed
Jiangxi 3.1 (1.0)
Guangzhou 2.3
Guilin 1.3 (0.1)
Hangzhou 3.1 (1.1)
Liuzhou 1.1 (0.1)
Nanchang 1.1
Nanning 3.0 (1.0)
Ningbo 0.1 (mispelt Ningpo)
Shanghai 4.7.9 (I personally assume the note 9 infers no. captive-bred
and is an error on entry)
Shenyang 0.2 (0.2)
Tianjin 1.0
Wu-xi 1.1 (the infamous Wuxi)
Wuzhou 0.0.42 (b)
Xian 2.2. (1.1)

P. leucocephalus
Beijing 1.2 (0.1)
Dalian 0.1
Nanning 1.1
Ningbo 0.1
Shanghai 2.1

What is clear to me that both listings were not exhaustive .. ;)

I will sent you a pm for further communications.

Best wishes (for the festive season),

K.B.
 
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They are more African manatees imported from Cameroon to China, including several zoos in China, as I know, at least seven manatees.
 
I have already found information about these manatees. The pair of them are in Hangzhou Polar Ocean World, but not in the zoo
 
So besides HangZhou polar ocean world, does anyone know what other places in China holding the African manatees?
 
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