Aye-Aye Captive Programs

O

okapikpr

Well-Known Member
Aye Ayes are still rare in zoos today. ISIS dictates that there are 21.23 Aye Ayes in captivity:

  • 7.7 in Europe (Jersey, London, Frankfurt, Bristol, Edinburgh, West Midlands, and Berlin?)
  • 11.14 in N America (Duke, San Francisco, Denver)
  • 3.2 in Japan (Ueno)

I dont have any information on the European or Japanese populations...there is actually very little information, beyond census numbers, on this forum.

As for the US, Duke University Primate Center, which specializes in prosimians, imported 3.5 wild caught Aye Ayes. Two adult males were captured in late 1987. A mother/daughter pair caught in 1988. And 1.3 adults in 1991, of which one of the females was pregnant. Of these individuals, 3.3 have contributed to the US captive population. The first birth occured in 1992 and the 1st full second generation birth occured in 2005.

Duke University regularly breeds the Aye Aye. In 1997 & 1998, an attempt was made to expand the captive population to San Francisco and the Bronx. The Bronx pair died soon after arrival, and the San Francisco pair lived at the zoo for 6 years and never reproduced.

Recently the San Francisco Zoo received a different pair that has now successfully bred a male offspring and the Denver Zoo has also received a pair this year. Most of the captive breeding has occured between the founders and only a few captive offspring are from captive bred parents, but these numbers are now changing.

The youngest Aye Aye in the US is Ichabod (all US Aye Ayes have "Halloween" type names) born in late July and is the third full 2nd generation Aye Aye born in the US.

So far there has been no inbreeding within the US population and a goal of 50 is the target population for Aye Ayes in the US. If the captive population expansion becomes successfull, hopefully we might be able to see some cooperation between the US, Europe, and Japan.

Below are some links regarding recent US Aye Aye news:

Second Rare Aye-Aye Born at Duke Lemur Center
S.F. Zoo gets lucky: Baby aye-aye lemur born
Duke Lemur Center (DLC)
 
I also forgot to add that the Duke University Primate Center is planned to undergo renovations and expansion. The Aye Aye program is slated to receive new facilites to allow for natural social interactions.

According to center Director Anne Yoder, the animals' need for natural socialization is also driving design of planned new housing at the center.

"We need to build facilities so that these animals can live in the social structure required for their natural reproductive behaviors to emerge and continue," said Yoder. "Otherwise, we might find ourselves housing the last aye aye, or the last examples of other of these endangered lemurs.

"Dean showed us through her amazing coaching efforts to promote the aye aye's mating how important this socialization is -- that their behaviors are so much more sophisticated than one would ever suppose, given the traditional belief that lemurs are merely hard-wired for behavior," said Yoder. Thus, she said, the center plans include "aye aye atriums," spacious facilities that will allow a full range of socialization among the animals.

And for other lemurs, the new facilities will feature indoor housing amidst outdoor fenced enclosures. Thus, during the winter, the animals can be released on warm days, but brought into the buildings when temperatures drop.
Click to expand...

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/01/angelique.html
 
the japanese animals are a breeding pair and off-spring. The european population seems to be ageing somewhat with bristol being the only zoo to have bred in a while.
 
Thanks for the info. I'd really like to see one some day. Maybe a trip to San Francisco will be in my future.
 
Thanks for starting this topic, aye-Aye`s are so interesting animals. Unfortunately, breeding doesn`t seem to go well in Europe and I am very concerned that these animals will die out here soon. Berlin has a single male but not from Jersey, he was born in the zoo of Madagascar and imported. Frankfurt has 1.1, I think the male was Jersey-born while the female is the handraised 2005 offspring of the Bristol pair. Bristol seems to be the only zoo which has bred Aye-Aye`s in the last years, with the 2005 female and again a handraised male young in 2007. Does anyone know why breeding in Jersey has stopped and what they are doing against it? Edinburgh`s male just died, hopefully they will get a new male soon and finally start breeding. It has been mentioned here that London was introducing Aye-Aye`s recently - any more information on that?

Here is a list of animals in Europe according to what I know:

2.3 Jersey
2.1 Bristol incl. offspring from 2007
1.1 Frankfurt (no breeding yet)
1.0 Berlin (male from Madagascar)
1.0 West Midlands
0.1 Edinburgh (male just died)
1.1 London ?

Unless breeding starts really soon, this species is lost for Europe.
 
perhaps the male aye-aye from west midlands should go to edinburgh, but they might be too closely related, (saw the one at west midlands today and he was extremely active)
 
With so few animals in Europe, I wouldn`t worry about inbreeding. Better inbreeding then no breeding at all and inbreeding in the first generation very rarely results in any health problems.
 
i think jersey runs the programme in europe..yes london has 1.1 and im pretty sure bristol has 1.1 as thier offspring left to another collection
 
If I remember correctly the Duke website says that they have had problems in getting F1 animals to breed together; they need to have considerable experience to mate successfully. Now that they have been successful, I hope other collections will be able to follow their lead.

Alan
 
what would you say has had the most sucess with aye-aye's?

is there any off show breeding being done in zoos..anywhere?
 
Duke has had at least 25 Aye Aye births. The lemur center is considered off-display, but they do offer guided tours by appointment.
 
Tigerlemurguy said:
i think jersey runs the programme in europe..yes london has 1.1 and im pretty sure bristol has 1.1 as thier offspring left to another collection
Click to expand...

Bristol actually still have 2.1 aye aye, the second male being the hand reared juvenile Raz. The female has given birth several times with the young bring left with her, but each time they died soon after birth, which led to the hand rearing of a female and now, the male.
 
There are some plans for Apenheul to take some aya-aye's. I don't know the status of it at this moment but I hope it will come true. First they have to build a new exhibition house where the ayae-aye's will be placed.
 
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