Babirusa in Europe

taun

taun

Well-Known Member
Babirusa have been mentioned a few times in recent threads, so it got me thinking are they now doing better in Europe than 5/6 years ago?

Currently ISIS lists 19.16.2, with 4 born in the last year.

I remember hearing that they only had a few breeding females a few years back is this now changed?

Is it also current practice to separate males from females when the female gives birth?
 
taun said:
Babirusa have been mentioned a few times in recent threads, so it got me thinking are they now doing better in Europe than 5/6 years ago?

Currently ISIS lists 19.16.2, with 4 born in the last year.

I remember hearing that they only had a few breeding females a few years back is this now changed?

Is it also current practice to separate males from females when the female gives birth?
Click to expand...

there was a shortage - and i think so
 
I didn't think the South Lakes pair were old enough to breed yet?
 
I thought they had 1:1 with a young female and a male who is the offspring of the Chester pair?
 
Stripes said:
I thought they had 1:1 with a young female and a male who is the offspring of the Chester pair?
Click to expand...

Could be, they definitely have 2.2 thou.

Last time I was there they had 3 animals but that was 3/4 years ago now.

As I say, I know they recieve Babirusa from chester but am not sure how many, but this was from either Zoodays or Micheleas Zoo babies.
 
At start of 2009 they had a brother and sister. I don't know where they came from. Then the young male arrived from Chester where he was born as a mate for the female. The surplus male was due to leave for Germany sometime last summer however ISIS is indicating that for some reason he still hasn't left. :confused:
 
Stripes said:
At start of 2009 they had a brother and sister. I don't know where they came from. Then the young male arrived from Chester where he was born as a mate for the female. The surplus male was due to leave for Germany sometime last summer however ISIS is indicating that for some reason he still hasn't left. :confused:
Click to expand...

Or another male and female has arrived!

Anyway as sure someone can answer this puzzle.
 
Stripes said:
At start of 2009 they had a brother and sister. I don't know where they came from. Then the young male arrived from Chester where he was born as a mate for the female. The surplus male was due to leave for Germany sometime last summer however ISIS is indicating that for some reason he still hasn't left. :confused:
Click to expand...
The brother and sister were hand reared at South Lakes from the breeding pair at South Lakes.
 
I understood that one of the breeding pair at Chester - probably the male - was bred at South lakes . So if the youngster bred at Chester some time ago has gone to South Lakes it will be very closely related to their other animals . Though I think the entire European stock is all very closely related and inbred .

Have the breeding pair that was at South Lakes died ?
 
Bele said:
I understood that one of the breeding pair at Chester - probably the male - was bred at South lakes . So if the youngster bred at Chester some time ago has gone to South Lakes it will be very closely related to their other animals . Though I think the entire European stock is all very closely related and inbred .

Have the breeding pair that was at South Lakes died ?
Click to expand...
I think the female may have died but not the male,I do know that they were taking one to Wuppertal around August last year not sure on the sex of this animal.
 
So...7 years later, I thought it would be interesting to revive this discussion.

It seems like the situation of Babirusas in Europe is getting worse and worse. According to Zootierliste, only 7 zoos now have Babirusas in their collection with very small breeding success. Where and Why it went wrong for Babirusa?
 
Didn't realize it was going so bad with the European Babirusa-population !
Just checked Zootierliste and indeed only7 collections still working with them.
Inbreeding seem to be really one of the main reasons with a potential founder-stock of 13 animals

1971 : Frankfurt recieved 1-0 from Surabaya Zoo
.
1974 : Antwerp recieved 1-1 from Surabaya Zoo ( female pregnant and 2 young born later )

1975 : Stuttgart recieved 2-2 from Surabaya Zoo

1977 : Rotterdam recieved 1-1 from Surabaya Zoo

1984 : Antwerp recieved 2-2 from Jakarta Zoo

As you see this founder-population should have been large enough to build up a healthy captive population for a longer period but the problem is that 11 of the 13 founder-animals came from one source ( Surabaya Zoo ) and could have been ( close ) releated.
A total of 43 European collections have kept the species and now-a-days only 7 zoo are left keeping them, so I guess there is also a surtain lack of intrest in keeping them... :(.
 
There is no a surtain lack of interest in keeeping babirusa in europe-some of them are working on a new import from Indonesia.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
There is no a surtain lack of interest in keeeping babirusa in europe-some of them are working on a new import from Indonesia.
Click to expand...

That would be awesome! Babirusa is one of my most favourite animal, so I´m glad to hear that. Maybe zoos can try also the other direction - importing animals from USA as Jihlava did last year.
 
HOMIN96 said:
According to Zootierliste, only 7 zoos now have Babirusas in their collection with very small breeding success.
Click to expand...

On the more positive side, Chester Zoo has been breeding the species very regularly in recent years; when one considers this fact, along with the plans mentioned by @Bib Fortuna which a number of collections are working on in order to import fresh blood into the European population, I would suggest it is rather too early to write the species off!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top