Animals that need a captive population

vogelcommando said:
And another species : the Brazilian merganser ( Mergus octosetaceus ). With a wild population of about 250 birds this is among the rarest waterfowl-species.
Luckily there is already a breeding-programm started for the species at the Zooparque Itatiba and the director ( mr. Kooij ) is a famous Dutch waterfowl-breeder / dealer with loads of experience with all kinds of ducks, geese and swans.
During 2 collecting-expeditions in 2011 and 2014 eggs were collected from the wild and from these eggs now 5 adult pairs live at the breeding-center at Itatiba. 2017 another collecting-trip was made ( to enlarge the genetic diversity of the captive population ) and 6 more mergansers could be placed in the breeding-project.
2017 2 pairs started for the first time to lay eggs and from these 5 ducklings were hatched and raised - a world-first-breeding !
Hopefully the breeding-programm will develop succesfull in the future and next to the planned re-introduction to the wild of birds bred at the breeding center, also some pairs can be made aviable for other zoos / breeding centers so the risk of loosing the complete captive population can be reduced.
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Yes , true , and I would hope that more Brazilian zoos are eventually able to participate in the ex-situ conservation program for the species in the future.

In fact as I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum there is a pressing need (which will only become more obvious in time) for Brazilian zoos to move away from keeping exotic species which take up funds and space and to focus heavily (or even better IMO entirely) on endangered native species such as the merganser.

Personally , I've visited the National park Serra da Canastra where the most significant wild population of the species occurs and a friend of mine is eco tourist guide and runs bird watching trips to observe the species, I have yet to see one of these birds in the wild though.

Also on the plus side and worth mentioning is that public awareness towards this species and its conservation is growing (albeit slowly) through environmental education programes in schools , coverage in television reports and social media.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Blond capuchins are already established in Sao Paulo zoo and a few other zoos in Brazil as are the other species.
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Very interesting. Do you know of numbers and breeding cases of Blond and other rare capuchin population in Brazilian zoos?

Over 100 collections breed common species of capuchin monkeys in Europe. They could be potential holders of insurance populations of rare Cebus/Sapajus species.

Macaques are another genus of hardy monkeys which thrives in collections. This space could potentially hold populations of endangered Siberut Macaque Macaca siberu, Nicobar Crab-eating Macaque Macaca fascicularis, Tonkean Macaque Macaca tonkeana, Gorontalo Macaque Macaca nigrescens, Arunachal Macaque Macaca munzala, Pagai Island Macaque Macaca pagensis and Heck's Macaque Macaca hecki. Macaques are commonly killed a crop pests, so problem macaques could theoretically start a population in zoos without any diminishing of the wild population.


 
vogelcommando said:
And another species : the Brazilian merganser ( Mergus octosetaceus ). With a wild population of about 250 birds this is among the rarest waterfowl-species.
Luckily there is already a breeding-programm started for the species at the Zooparque Itatiba and the director ( mr. Kooij ) is a famous Dutch waterfowl-breeder / dealer with loads of experience with all kinds of ducks, geese and swans.
During 2 collecting-expeditions in 2011 and 2014 eggs were collected from the wild and from these eggs now 5 adult pairs live at the breeding-center at Itatiba. 2017 another collecting-trip was made ( to enlarge the genetic diversity of the captive population ) and 6 more mergansers could be placed in the breeding-project.
2017 2 pairs started for the first time to lay eggs and from these 5 ducklings were hatched and raised - a world-first-breeding !
Hopefully the breeding-programm will develop succesfull in the future and next to the planned re-introduction to the wild of birds bred at the breeding center, also some pairs can be made aviable for other zoos / breeding centers so the risk of loosing the complete captive population can be reduced.
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Video of the Breeding-center at Itatiba :

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=3060463300678157
 
DesertRhino150 said:
That just reminded me of this article from the winter edition of the BIAZA magazine - Marc Enderby (a hoofstock keeper from Highland Wildlife Park) writing about the captive care of saiga and the breeding centres for them he visited in Russia and Kazakhstan. He thinks that now is as good a time as any to try and re-establish saiga in Western zoos. I sincerely hope the idea comes to pass.

BIAZA Newsletter | Winter 2018 | Issue 17
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Respondign after years... I worked with Marc on saiga captive management. He helped me with my publication on the topic too, we went to Askania Nova together. He is one of the few people who know a lot about the hands-on care of the species. Is he on Zoochat? Are you Marc? Saiga is a tricky species in captivity. My personal impression is that it is a species not suited for typical zoo setups. Funding and donating expertise to in-situ conservation (or perhaps Askania Nova) is much more effective. That said, it can be kept in zoos, it is possible. But the species has some characteristics that make captive management complicated and ultimately probably not the best conservation tool.
 
Greg G said:
Respondign after years... I worked with Marc on saiga captive management. He helped me with my publication on the topic too, we went to Askania Nova together. He is one of the few people who know a lot about the hands-on care of the species. Is he on Zoochat? Are you Marc? Saiga is a tricky species in captivity. My personal impression is that it is a species not suited for typical zoo setups. Funding and donating expertise to in-situ conservation (or perhaps Askania Nova) is much more effective. That said, it can be kept in zoos, it is possible. But the species has some characteristics that make captive management complicated and ultimately probably not the best conservation tool.
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Hi - first things first, I'm not Marc and am not sure if he is on ZooChat. Having learned more about saiga over the past couple of years, I also agree that zoo breeding probably isn't the best way of conserving saiga.

Just wondering - what is your opinion on the potential reintroduction of saiga in Europe? I did see plans for later in 2020 to release saiga from Askania Nova into the steppe regions of the Ukrainian Danube Delta. Could releasing them there and in other parts of their recent European range be a viable strategy?
 
Nice to see you here Greg, and your knowledge on Saiga is still very impressive. Saiga are an interesting case, whose range is unfortunately in a region where other geopolitical processes are complicating the conservation efforts. I think a semi-wild population in the EU could be an interesting option if the right stakeholders can be convinced. This would help the species having a back-up population in a stable region, which also has the possibility to allocate recourses to it (although when politically opportune the current range countries would have no problems funding conservation either, but solving the wider issues are complicated). There are some obstacles to this, but they could be overcome although I'm not sure this is the right place to discuss those details.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Hi - first things first, I'm not Marc and am not sure if he is on ZooChat. Having learned more about saiga over the past couple of years, I also agree that zoo breeding probably isn't the best way of conserving saiga.

Just wondering - what is your opinion on the potential reintroduction of saiga in Europe? I did see plans for later in 2020 to release saiga from Askania Nova into the steppe regions of the Ukrainian Danube Delta. Could releasing them there and in other parts of their recent European range be a viable strategy?
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There is only a limited number of locations in Europe that have the right climate and flora, and are not severly affected by climate change. The Danube delta is a famous wetland habitat, so I am not sure about that... but if there are steppes there, it could work. The Ukraine is firmly within the historical range of the saiga, and was one end of the migration route (the other being Kalmykia, as I was told in Askania Nova... hope they are right). The one concern I would have is that we have no idea about the genetics of the population at Askania Nova. The animals may be inbred, or not 'pure-blooded' as in they could be a mix of animals from various regions (which the SCA would like to keep intact, and not mix). Establishing new saiga populations in new areas is very difficult, so just releasing the animals may not work at all. When we were at Askania Nova in 2017, they did mention that they wanted to create satellite populations, as they have reached the maximum population their area can sustain. Bringing saiga into the EU would be desirable, more control, potentially more expertise... but it's complicated for various reasons, one being that you'd need a pile of special permits, as importing saiga into the EU from the wild or Askania Nova is currently not possible under effective EU regulations.
 
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DDcorvus said:
Nice to see you here Greg, and your knowledge on Saiga is still very impressive. Saiga are an interesting case, whose range is unfortunately in a region where other geopolitical processes are complicating the conservation efforts. I think a semi-wild population in the EU could be an interesting option if the right stakeholders can be convinced. This would help the species having a back-up population in a stable region, which also has the possibility to allocate recourses to it (although when politically opportune the current range countries would have no problems funding conservation either, but solving the wider issues are complicated). There are some obstacles to this, but they could be overcome although I'm not sure this is the right place to discuss those details.
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Hi,. No, this is not strictly speaking a zoo matter. We'll find a way to talk about it, I am sure. :-)
 
Greg G said:
Hi,. No, this is not strictly speaking a zoo matter. We'll find a way to talk about it, I am sure. :)
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We have whole swathes of the site devoted to off-topic discussion and discussion of wildlife/conservation matters, so by all means continue the discussion here!

Worst comes to worst, I can merely split the discussion into its own thread :)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
We have whole swathes of the site devoted to off-topic discussion and discussion of wildlife/conservation matters, so by all means continue the discussion here!

Worst comes to worst, I can merely split the discussion into its own thread :)
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Thanks! Will remember that.
 
vogelcommando said:
Loads of fish-species are in need of a captive population but this is not always easy as the following article about 2 Greek fish-species shows :

Creating safety stock populations of two of the smallest threatened freshwater fishes of Europe | Oryx | Cambridge Core
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Seriously big problem, they just don't have the crowd drawing appeal. Calamian Deer couldn't keep AZA institutions interest, what chance do tiny gobies and minnows have. I just compiled a list of what an ideal national zoo of Israel native species list would consist of, these are just fish native to the Levant threatened with extinction. Some are so understudied there are scant photos on the internet.


Dead Sea Toothcarp


Tristramella simonis


Drusian Spring Minnow


pseudophoxinus kervillei


Nemacheilus dori


hemigrammocapoeta nana


haplochromis flavijosephi


Jordan Barbel


acanthobrama telavivensis


Dead Sea Garra


Nemacheilus jordanicus


Nemacheilus pantheroides


Typhlocaris galilea
 
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