Animals you'll never see in a zoo

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Marc said:
I would like to see a Platypus in European zoo's. But I think Australia has forbidden to keep them outside their country.
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I would love to see a platypus!

If it is true that there is a ban on exporting them, perhaps Australia could relent a little and do a loan deal similar to pandas and China...
 
platypus are not really an endangered species, however they are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. only heallesville and taronga have ever had success and the two zoos have now made a first generation captive born pair amid hopes they can repeat success again, something crucial to establishing the species in captivity.
 
when david fleay became the first person to ever breed platypus, he was the director of heallesville and they were bred at the sanctuary.

the currently named "david fleay wildlife park" has never bred playpus.

so actually, i'm right! ;)
 
Regarding duikers it could have been easy to import animals to USA and Europe from Africa in the past and start new breeding programmes, but there seemed to be little interest in doing this.

Charles Steiner and his wife (from Switzerland) runned a private zoo in Monrovia (Liberia) where they kept a amazing collection of West African species, I visited this zoo in the early 1990s and by this time he kept many Maxwell, zebra, jentink, yellow-backed and Black duikers. Even a single Brooks duiker. They also seemed to be breeding at least some of these species.

I dont know if he still operates this zoo, but I doubt it consider the political situation in this country. I spoke to him and he was more than happy to export animals for breeding purpose but no one showed any interest.
 
@sebbe67: I saw several pictures of the Liberian zoo, teeming with bushbucks and various species of duikers. Absolutely incredible! I heard that a conservation group has taken over, but couldn't find out much else so far.

I do think that US and European zoos might be interested in duikers; especially in the US, the breeding of several species has been quite successful, and more and more duikers appear also in European zoos. Leipzig Zoo even announced getting Zebra duikers for its new "Gondwana" project.
The main reason beside the political instability might be national epizoonotic regulations; Africa is still a dangerous source of several animal diseases that are threatening in terms of economical & human health aspects. Therefore many zoos are afraid about the red tape that awaits them when trying to get African wild animals, especially ungulates.
 
There is alot of talk about importing yellow backed duiker from the US as quite a few zoos are interested in them. We were offered a male but couldnt quarantine it anywhere. In the states they hope to try embryo transfers from wild jenticks to captive yellowbacks to try and establish the species. wether this happens is yet to be seen. Is there a zebra backed at leipzig or are they just planning on importing them?
 
Zebra duikers are listed on the list of species planned to be in the "Gondwana" house-but so are Sumatran rhinos...
 
MARK said:
The San Deigo Seaworld used to have a Gray whale (Gigi I think) a while ago untill it grew to big for it tank then it was released back at sea, it was tracked some time after and was reported doing very well.
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JJ was its name...
 
CZJimmy said:
What is this Godwana House? :confused:
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Leipzig Zoo are currently constructing one of the biggest greenhouses in Europe, called Gondwanaland. They have (and had) a lot of plans regarding relatively special species. Some (Francois Langur, Giant otter) seem a lot more likely then others (Sumatran rhino, even though there are rumours they are talking with Cincinatti Zoo about keeping them).
 
Anyone have any more information about the Gondwana house at Leipzig, a website perhaps?
 
Sun Wukong said:
@sebbe67: I saw several pictures of the Liberian zoo, teeming with bushbucks and various species of duikers. Absolutely incredible! I heard that a conservation group has taken over, but couldn't find out much else so far.

I do think that US and European zoos might be interested in duikers; especially in the US, the breeding of several species has been quite successful, and more and more duikers appear also in European zoos. Leipzig Zoo even announced getting Zebra duikers for its new "Gondwana" project.
The main reason beside the political instability might be national epizoonotic regulations; Africa is still a dangerous source of several animal diseases that are threatening in terms of economical & human health aspects. Therefore many zoos are afraid about the red tape that awaits them when trying to get African wild animals, especially ungulates.
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Good news that someone still run the zoo and hopefully they still has such a magnificent collection that the Steiner couple established.

Regarding duikers in Europe I had a quick look on ISIS and the only duiker which seems to be close to common is the Blue duiker, while the red duiker seems to be increasing. Other than these the yellow-backed and Maxwell is kept by single insitutions. Interesting that a european zoo has shown interest in zebra duikers, question remains from were they would get any.

As several species is common in the USA I found it quite strange that European zoos has not choosed to import animals from USA, duikers are my favoruite antelopes and I would love to see more European zoos keeping them.
 
Agree with Patrick here-that's just nonsense (and I think also advertisement) and does no good in terms of the ex-situ population.
@sebbe67: don't trust isis too much in this regard; Yellow-duikers f.e. are becoming more and more popular in European zoos. The US Fish & Wildlife red tape makes the transatlantic animal transfer sometimes a little too difficult...
@Ituri:
Gondwanaland - Zoo Leipzig
If something is of particular interest for You, I can translate it...For those interested: it costs 49,5 million €...
@gentle lemur: That's exactly the reason why they named it like that...;)
 
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