Bushbuck

[jbnbsn99]

I have been pondering a question for a while now and thought I would pose it to the zoochat community. I know a lot of people here know a thing or two about hoofstock. My question is why is the most common antelope, the bushbuck, not held in captivity anymore, except for in Brownsville, TX? It would seem to make an excellent display animal. Are there problems with husbandry that would be significantly different from the other spiral-horned antelopes? I would personally love to see them in my own zoo, Dallas, as we tend to specialize in African hoofstock. There are lots of other antelope that I think would be in the same boat and I can understand the values of ex situ and in situ conservation (i.e. Mountain Nyala) but with a ubiquitous species like the bushbuck I'm somewhat at a loss. Is there just a lack of interest?

 

[Cat-Man]

eland are definatly upthere

 

[Zebraduiker]

The question is easy, Bushbok are not an endangered species in the wild, so why should the zoos should keep them ? I know, a lot of other species are not endangerd, too, but are being kept in us zoos, but I think,its the only explenation, bushbok are very esay to keep, not a hard to keep species.

 

[Sun Wukong]

I think that various factors contribute to the disappearance of the Bushbuck (and several other species of antelopes) from European and US zoo collections.

1) Let's be honest: the average visitor is not really interested in antelopes (or most hoofstock) in general. For him or her, they are just flighty "lion food", or in the worst case, "Bambis". A shame, but hardly surprising, given the usual animal preferences. Therefore, and in connection with the decrease of zoological "stamp collections" in zoos, the already diminuishing "medium-to-large size ungulate" position in zoos is filled with species that are both easy to get and are more less popular-Blackbuck, Common Eland, Waterbuck...Or species that are part of a booming breeding program-like Eastern Bongos. So Bushbuck, Lesser Kudu, Oribi, Klipspringer, Chousingha etc. each become 'antalopi non grati'...
2) If a zoo or two were interested to import new animals to establish a zoo population, they would have to expect quite a lot of red tape, among others due to veterinary import/export rules (even when the animals in question do not come from the wild). Only very few zoos would face this kind of labour for (and spend the money on) an animal the average zoo-goer is not particularily interested in.

PS: Which bushbuck- Kéwel or Imbabala?