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DDcorvus said:
but for me it raises several red flags that his facility acquire 11 individuals of a species that might only be kept at one other facility in the world.
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Well, to look at it another way it is a species that I believe there has historically been little-to-no interest in keeping outside the native range - with previous European populations dying out due to a lack of any collections wanting to keep the species, and hence animals being placed on contraception to prevent breeding and no further imports taking place to replenish stock once it died - and which *is* within the native range here, and as such is easily available. See also the fact that the collection keeps African Palm Civet and Side-striped Jackal, which are akin to hen's teeth outside Africa for similar reasons despite being commonplace species in the wild.

Which isn't to say all the myriad problems with this collection aren't very real - just that "this species is rare in captivity, and therefore the fact they are here is automatically suspicious" isn't reliable logic.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Well, to look at it another way it is a species that I believe there has historically been little-to-no interest in keeping outside the native range - with previous European populations dying out due to a lack of any collections wanting to keep the species, and hence animals being placed on contraception to prevent breeding and no further imports taking place to replenish stock once it died - and which *is* within the native range here, and as such is easily available. See also the fact that the collection keeps African Palm Civet and Side-striped Jackal, which are akin to hen's teeth outside Africa for similar reasons despite being commonplace species in the wild.

Which isn't to say all the myriad problems with this collection aren't very real - just that "this species is rare in captivity, and therefore the fact they are here is automatically suspicious" isn't reliable logic.
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Ironically (considering current events) the zoo that historically seemed to show the greatest interest in breeding the African golden cat (after a fatigue seemed to have set in towards keeping the species within German collections) were the Aspinall parks when these were under the direction of John Aspinall.

I don't know if you remember in the Damian Aspinall thread but I asked him about why the parks had not attempted to keep the species going.

Damian's reply (which I can believe) was that they had hoped to but these cats had previously been put on contraceptives in the German zoos they had originally came from and this had made them sterile.

Presumably this measure was taken due to difficulties in housing any offspring of these cats in other zoos which was in large part the result of the lack of interest that you refer to in your comment.
 
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TeaLovingDave said:
Well, to look at it another way it is a species that I believe there has historically been little-to-no interest in keeping outside the native range - with previous European populations dying out due to a lack of any collections wanting to keep the species, and hence animals being placed on contraception to prevent breeding and no further imports taking place to replenish stock once it died - and which *is* within the native range here, and as such is easily available. See also the fact that the collection keeps African Palm Civet and Side-striped Jackal, which are akin to hen's teeth outside Africa for similar reasons despite being commonplace species in the wild.

Which isn't to say all the myriad problems with this collection aren't very real - just that "this species is rare in captivity, and therefore the fact they are here is automatically suspicious" isn't reliable logic.
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I would have no problems with sourcing of the species from the wild if it has been done responsibly and while respecting all relevant laws, but looking at those myriad of problems does show it is not a given, so my point stands that in this case there are questions. If I would be an European or American collection looking into sourcing the species I would look into other options than this CTC.
 
DDcorvus said:
And his facility in that country has 11 individuals of a species that is not kept anywhere else except one possible animal in West Africa.
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They seem to be kept privately in South Africa also. There is an older post on Zoochat (2010) of a pair being seen in a private collection there, and looking on CITES there are records for two relatively-recent imports into South Africa - ten animals from Cameroon in 2000 and four animals from Guinea in 2009.
 
Chlidonias said:
They seem to be kept privately in South Africa also. There is an older post on Zoochat (2010) of a pair being seen in a private collection there, and looking on CITES there are records for two relatively-recent imports into South Africa - ten animals from Cameroon in 2000 and four animals from Guinea in 2009.
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Interesting - any idea which facility (or facilities) in South Africa the cats went to?
 
You are publicly sh*tstorming a facility nobody actually knows firsthand, I want to point. Fiji iguanas are quite commonly captive bred.

For me it looks like that a hobbyist animal keeper bought a parcel in a cheaper country with a better climate and his interest in foremost in his own pets. Mind you, none of these animals is likely to make big money in smuggling.
 
Jurek7 said:
You are publicly sh*tstorming a facility nobody actually knows firsthand, I want to point. Fiji iguanas are quite commonly captive bred.

For me it looks like that a hobbyist animal keeper bought a parcel in a cheaper country with a better climate and his interest in foremost in his own pets. Mind you, none of these animals is likely to make big money in smuggling.
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Fiji CRESTED iguanas are VERY rare and will bring big money .... believe me !
@the racoon has spoken is speaking about Fiji banded iguanas but by the Facebook-photo they speak about Fiji crested iguanas and the photo clearly shows one.....
 
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