Australasian Zebra Population

[Zoofan15]

Another birth to kick off this year!

0.1 Thembala at Monarto has given birth to a foal (her fifth) as mentioned by @Zoofan15 in the news thread.

Monarto update:

Thembala’s foal is a colt and has been named Tamu, meaning sweet and delicious:

1.0 Tamu (20/02/2023) Storm x Thembala

The name is a reference to a wine company (sponsor) - which fortunately presented the public with African names to vote on. Better than Barrel, Cellar and Vintage imo.

A baby Zebra named Tamu - Bleasdale

 

[Zoofan15]

Birth Announcement - National Zoo

A colt was born 11/03/2023 to Tambo and Kiva:

1.0 Kamandi (11/03/2023) Tambo x Kiva

This is the first foal for Kiva, who was born 2017 at Hamilton Zoo.

 

[Zoofan15]

Birth Announcement - Hamilton Zoo

A zebra foal has been born to Marbles:

0.0.1 Unnamed (29/09/2023) Malawi x Marbles

Great news, as Marbles turns 20 years old today and this is her first foal in 20 months, following on from the birth of Nguvu in January 2022.

Reported on socials.

 

[Jambo]

Birth Announcement - Hamilton Zoo

A zebra foal has been born to Marbles:

0.0.1 Unnamed (29/09/2023) Malawi x Marbles

Great news, as Marbles turns 20 years old today and this is her first foal in 20 months, following on from the birth of Nguvu in January 2022.

Reported on socials.

Any word on the female foal born in December of last year?

 

[Zoofan15]

Any word on the female foal born in December of last year?

The foal born to Zalika in December 2022 was a male. The colt has been named Nyika after Nyika National Park (the largest national park in Malawi). Presumably a tribute to his sire, Malawi.

Zalika is likely pregnant again and potentially could give birth December/January.

 

[Zorro]

With the new Filly now at the DDZ takes the current population to 11.
I believe with another due soon!

 

[Zoofan15]

With the new Filly now at the DDZ takes the current population to 11.
I believe with another due soon!

That’s good news. I see Darling Downs Zoo have three breeding mares (Zavannah, Angel and Zara). Zara gave birth to a colt (Zikomi) in December 2022, so the mother of the filly would be either Angel or Zavannah.

You noted in September 2023, that another mare was heavily pregnant, so I’d assume that was also Angel or Zavannah (whoever didn’t give birth to the new filly); as I wouldn’t expect to see a new foal from Zara until at least the end of December 2023.

With Zinty now successful in siring several daughters at DDZ, hopefully he can be swapped with another stallion in the future. If I understand the previous post by @Steve Robinson correctly, the stallions at Sydney Zoo are purebred Grant’s zebra and on loan, so one of them could be an option; as could the colts at ZooDoo.

 

[Jambo]

Without knowing the history of Adelaide’s population, I’m thinking Zambezi (2000), who was Adelaide born, is a Burchell’s.

Burchell’s may well have been the original zebra imports into Australia in the 1900’s, inbred for several decades and then hybridised from the 80’s onwards with imports of Grant’s and Chapman’s from Auckland and Werribee respectively. At some point, the ZAA decided hybridising was considered preferable to repeated inbreeding (or God forbid, going to the effort of importing more purebreds).

Either Zambezi is still alive (perhaps the bachelor herd of four was split in two); or he had Burchell’s mates when he arrived at Monarto, to which he sired daughters in the breeding herd. I note there’s a mare in the breeding herd born 2005, so am thinking Zambezi was the breeding stallion from circa 2004 and then retired to live in the bachelor herd.

I would tend to agree re. Zambesi being Burchell's. Adelaide apparently held a small group during the early 2000's, when Zambesi was breeding colt. Considering he was born into that said group, it's quite reasonable to assume they were inbreeding at the time - which would make sense if this was a purebred Burchell's group that hadn't had new imports for decades.

Adelaide obviously then made the decision to hybridise in the late 2000's alongside other regional facilities (like Werribee with their Chapmans).

On a rather interesting note - if Zambesi is indeed a full Burchell's, the region has a large mix of them. He's well represented through two notable offspring, Bwana and Myra, and potentially more.

I would assume the oldest breeding girls are not offspring of his considering he bred with them. I was under the impression they were born at Monarto, and Zambesi would've been stallion at Adelaide at the time. He was later breed with those said females to produce further offspring; including some of the other current breeding females, meaning he's probably therefore living with his grandsons.

 

[Zorro]

That’s good news. I see Darling Downs Zoo have three breeding mares (Zavannah, Angel and Zara). Zara gave birth to a colt (Zikomi) in December 2022, so the mother of the filly would be either Angel or Zavannah.

You noted in September 2023, that another mare was heavily pregnant, so I’d assume that was also Angel or Zavannah (whoever didn’t give birth to the new filly); as I wouldn’t expect to see a new foal from Zara until at least the end of December 2023.

With Zinty now successful in siring several daughters at DDZ, hopefully he can be swapped with another stallion in the future. If I understand the previous post by @Steve Robinson correctly, the stallions at Sydney Zoo are purebred Grant’s zebra and on loan, so one of them could be an option; as could the colts at ZooDoo.

I am not sure at this point as to how the DDZ herd/s are split, but I assume that when the Addax paddock is opened it may allow another option of 3 areas to mix/match the two herds plus separating any colts to a 3rd paddock, 1/ The current 20 acre Zebra/Ostrich paddock. 2/ Perhaps the current Giraffe enclosure which is right next to the new Zebra enclosure. 3/ the brand new Addax enclosure!

 

[Zorro]

Then there the question of how the 1980 importation of 2.6 Chapmans Zebras panned out over the last 33 years?
I believe whom ever is operating the TAG group with the Zebra needs to sort out how they remaining population moves forwards into the future unless the status quo is the plan?

 

[Zoofan15]

Then there the question of how the 1980 importation of 2.6 Chapmans Zebras panned out over the last 33 years?

I’ll get to that later in my history thread, but an additional stallion (Christou) was imported in 1997, which sustained their purebred herd into the 2000’s. The next breeding stallion was a generic zebra, so thus ended their purebred herd.

It would have been better on hindsight if Werribee had imported Grant’s zebras, as they later became widespread thanks to Auckland Zoo. They exported to Dubbo and Perth.

 

[Zorro]

I’ll get to that later in my history thread, but an additional stallion (Christou) was imported in 1997, which sustained their purebred herd into the 2000’s. The next breeding stallion was a generic zebra, so thus ended their purebred herd.

It would have been better on hindsight if Werribee had imported Grant’s zebras, as they later became widespread thanks to Auckland Zoo.

Pure bred herd?

 

[Jambo]

Then there the question of how the 1980 importation of 2.6 Chapmans Zebras panned out over the last 33 years?

See my Research Thread, where I covered a little bit in detail. Hopefully @Zoofan15 can bring some more light to the early days though.

Werribee only managed to sustain their herd for two decades. They did acquire a male from Singapore in 1997 but as far as I know, he only sired offspring for a few years - reason is unknown.

The group was then hybridised after he was paired with hybrid females from other regional facilities.

 

[Jambo]

That’s good news. I see Darling Downs Zoo have three breeding mares (Zavannah, Angel and Zara). Zara gave birth to a colt (Zikomi) in December 2022, so the mother of the filly would be either Angel or Zavannah.

You noted in September 2023, that another mare was heavily pregnant, so I’d assume that was also Angel or Zavannah (whoever didn’t give birth to the new filly); as I wouldn’t expect to see a new foal from Zara until at least the end of December 2023.

With Zinty now successful in siring several daughters at DDZ, hopefully he can be swapped with another stallion in the future. If I understand the previous post by @Steve Robinson correctly, the stallions at Sydney Zoo are purebred Grant’s zebra and on loan, so one of them could be an option; as could the colts at ZooDoo.

The plan was to create a separate herd at DDZ (not sure whether this has been achieved yet). I assume the goal was to do this with the stallions from Sydney or Zoodoo born colts.

 

[Zoofan15]

Puer bred herd?

Yes, Werribee had a purebred herd from 1980 until the 1997 imported stallion ceased breeding. It really highlights the lack of regional planning considering Grant’s zebra were the species of focus at Auckland and later acquired by Dubbo, Perth, Wellington, Hamilton etc.

Had Werribee imported Grant’s, the regional population could have been sustainable to this day.

The plan was to create a separate herd at DDZ (not sure whether this has been achieved yet). I assume the goal was to do this with the stallions from Sydney or Zoodoo born colts.

Yes, I believe the seperate herd was formed from first generation fillies (to prevent inbreeding with the stallion in the breeding herd) and a generic mare from Mogo (transferred for social reasons).

 

[Jambo]

Yes, I believe the seperate herd was formed from first generation fillies (to prevent inbreeding with the stallion in the breeding herd) and a generic mare from Mogo (transferred for social reasons).

That would make sense considering DDZ have had many fillies born into their initial herd.

I would love to know whether a colt has been introduced into this herd yet. Obviously it would have to be recent as no second generation offspring have been born yet - but with one pregnant female noted by @Zorro there's a chance this could be the first!

 

[Zoofan15]

That would make sense considering DDZ have had many fillies born into their initial herd.

I would love to know whether a colt has been introduced into this herd yet. Obviously it would have to be recent as no second generation offspring have been born yet - but with one pregnant female noted by @Zorro there's a chance this could be the first!

That would be great to see. Theoretically, they could introduce a colt now and add more fillies as they’re ready to transfer out of the breeding herd.

For now, I’d say it’s more likely the heavily pregnant mare is Zavannah or Angel though as pregnancy is 12 months and there were no colts in the second herd as of the start of the year. Zara (who appears to be a first time breeder with the birth of Zikomi in December 2022) will hopefully produce her next foal in December/January.

 

[Zoofan15]

Birth Announcement (ZooDoo)

A Grant’s zebra colt was born October 13 at ZooDoo (Friday 13).

This is the fourth foal born to Marty and Duchess, who have previously welcomed Jupiter (2018), Oreo (2021) and Kafue (2022).

Hopefully this means they’ll be looking at transferring out the two older colts in the near future. It’d be great to get them both into breeding herds (ideally one of them being Hamilton Zoo).

 

[Jambo]

Birth Announcement (ZooDoo)

A Grant’s zebra colt was born October 13 at ZooDoo (Friday 13).

This is the fourth foal born to Marty and Duchess, who have previously welcomed Jupiter (2018), Oreo (2021) and Kafue (2022).

Hopefully this means they’ll be looking at transferring out the two older colts in the near future. It’d be great to get them both into breeding herds (ideally one of them being Hamilton Zoo).

Great news for Zoodoo's pair who've had reasonable success thus far.

This foal is actually the pairs fifth foal together. A male, Duke, was born to the pair in 2019. Not sure what happened to him; but he is no longer at Zoodoo.

Hopefully he's still around at another facility but I do have my doubts when you consider his older brother hasn't been transferred as well (which you'd expect if he was).

 

[Zoofan15]

Great news for Zoodoo's pair who've had reasonable success thus far.

This foal is actually the pairs fifth foal together. A male, Duke, was born to the pair in 2019. Not sure what happened to him; but he is no longer at Zoodoo.

Hopefully he's still around at another facility but I do have my doubts when you consider his older brother hasn't been transferred as well (which you'd expect if he was).

I’d forgotten about Duke, but thinking about it, he doesn’t appear to have cropped up anywhere else. His elder sibling (Jupiter) is actually female and therefore the only filly born to her parents to date. She’s more than old enough to breed, so I’m assuming she’s either held separately from her father or on contraception.

It’d be interesting to know what specifically is preventing the second imported mare (Beyonce) from breeding.

Imo they should swap Marty out for another Grant’s stallion. This would at least give them 1.2 zebras to breed from, including Jupiter, who’s fertility could be impacted if not bred from within the next five years.