Belo Horizonte Zoo Belo Horizonte zoo news

David Matos Mendes

David Matos Mendes

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
So, I'm creating this thread for us to share and discuss about what's going on at Belo Horizonte zoo in general. There are already two threads for the news about the zoo's gorillas, and one for the species list, but we still didn't have one for the general discussion itself.

Gonna start it with the most recent animal adition to the institution, a male jaguar that came from Itaipu's biological refuge Bela Vista, in southern Brazil. Belo Horizonte was holding a single female of the species, "Janes", since last june, due to the death of male "Jonas", in his 20's.

The institution hopes to achieve reproduction with these individuals, once it was never possible to do so with the previous couple, wich used to fight a lot, and was living totally separated in the last years. Here's a picture taken by the zoo's director of the new boy:onça pytu.png
Picture: Humberto Mello / disclosure
 

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Kifaru Bwana said:
Estimado David, any idea how old both individuals are?

FYI: I think it is a good thing to have a young pair of jaguars on exhibit!
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Hi! :) Well, the male is one and a half year old, and I found out the female is 17... I honestly thought she was younger. She's been living at the zoo at least since my first visit to the place, (around 2004/2005) so I should have considered that.
Zoo's director told me the breeding between this couple of animals need to be authorized by the country's responsible institutions, as most of the species; but said the elderliness of the female wouldn't be a problem, wich I didn't comprehend very well, once the male should be at least 3 yrs old to reach the maturity, and this way the female would be 18 or something... I gotta talk personally to someone from the zoo's crew the next time I go there, so I can better understand their actual plans for these two critters.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Hi! :) Well, the male is one and a half year old, and I found out the female is 17... I honestly thought she was younger. She's been living at the zoo at least since my first visit to the place, (around 2004/2005) so I should have considered that.
Zoo's director told me the breeding between this couple of animals need to be authorized by the country's responsible institutions, as most of the species; but said the elderliness of the female wouldn't be a problem, wich I didn't comprehend very well, once the male should be at least 3 yrs old to reach the maturity, and this way the female would be 18 or something... I gotta talk personally to someone from the zoo's crew the next time I go there, so I can better understand their actual plans for these two critters.
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Your zoo director needs his head examined there: jaguar females will not breed very much beyond their 10's. At 17 the resident female is post reproductive, tell him that or the whole project will be a darn failure.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Your zoo director needs his head examined there: jaguar females will not breed very much beyond their 10's. At 17 the resident female is post reproductive, tell him that or the whole project will be a darn failure.
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I tend to think he missunderstood my questions. It's the only explanation I can find for this situation... The zoo's director is surely an extremely capable, inteligent and dedicated person, as well as every people from the zoo's staff that I know. First thing I realized when I discovered the female's age was that an old individual like this one wouldn't reproduce (she's actually older than the life expectancy for the species). When I have the chance, I'm gonna be asking him or anyone else from the zoo's crew to explain me better this situation and what they're thinking of doing... It might be something related to bringing another female in the future; that's the only reasonable possibility.
 
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David Matos Mendes said:
I tend to think he missunderstood my questions. It's the only explanation I can find for this situation... The zoo's director is surely an extremely capable, inteligent and dedicated person, as well as every people from the zoo's staff that I know. First thing I realized when I discovered the female's age was that an old individual like this one wouldn't reproduce (she's actually older than the life expectancy for the species). When I have the chance, I'm gonna be asking him or anyone else from the zoo's crew to explain me better this situation and what they're thinking of doing... It might be something related to bringing another female in the future; that's the only reasonable possibility.
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Allright. The point is: effective engagement on the subject in hand.

What is next (in terms of new zoo news)?
(Looking forward to that)
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Allright. The point is: effective engagement on the subject in hand.

What is next (in terms of new zoo news)?
(Looking forward to that)
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Not sure if I understand what you mean here. I was just explaining what I thought might have happened to generate this doubt, and I wanted to let it clear that the zoo's crew is nothing near inconsequential or something like that . Anyway, I'm looking forward to know what will follow at the institution for now, especially about in this case of the jaguars.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I mean talk to the zoo crew what their plans are with the jaguars or anything else notable for zoo news for that matter. Hope that clears it up for you!
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I get it. Sure, I'll be posting here more news about this issue and all the other works being developed at the zoo :).
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Brilliant news, twin Black Lion Tamarins were born on February 6 at Belo Horizonte: Zoológico de BH registra nascimento de filhotes gêmeos de mico-leão-preto
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Awesome news! Not even I knew about that yet :D.
Well, the tamarin exhibits at BH are some of the best I have seen; besides being considerably big, they're located inside a fragment of "mata atlântica" in the institution, so it makes sense they keep having success with them, specially these new black individuals. Really great news.
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Stay tuned for more updates from Belo Horizonte as there is a very special one coming up soon ;)
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I already wonder what's about to come :):):) Hope everything goes right with this and looking forward!
 
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Kifaru Bwana said:
How many black lion tamarins does Belo Horizonte has on exhibit?
Status of the species in other zoos in Brasil?
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BH kept only these first-time parents on exhibit, so now there are four.

In the country, I remember seeing black lion tamarins in São Paulo and Brasília, and I know they are also kept in Rio de janeiro and Pomerode zoo. Maybe Sapucaia and Curitiba also holds them, but I'm not completely sure.
 
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Kifaru Bwana said:
How many black lion tamarins does Belo Horizonte has on exhibit?
Status of the species in other zoos in Brasil?
Click to expand...

@David Matos Mendes is right, it was only the breeding pair at BH which have now successfully bred.

With regards to other zoos that hold BLT they are currently held both on display and off-show (at the main facility and at their private breeding center at CECFAU) at the São Paulo zoo which has always held the species and has had decent breeding success.

There are / were a pair at Brasilia zoo in the federal district / capital and there will hopefully be BLT held at Guarulhos zoo in the future.

They were held historically at the Rio zoo but I dont know about their current status, however, they are definitely kept and bred at the Rio primate center.
 
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