Do Drill have a future in the USA?

kiang

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
After reading that Columbus zoo are sending 0.2 drill to Edinburgh zoo, does the drill have a future in the USA?

I know that Atlanta have been breeding them for a few years now, but from only one pair. With no other breeding stock in America, will more animals find their way to Europe, where such zoos as Barcelona, Hanover and Port Lympne are doing well with them.

As i said in another thread, if Europe can build up the numbers in captivity would it not be more feasible to centre the breeding programme in Europe and then when numbers are up, start up satellite groups elsewhere?
 
I would welcome opinion.

IMHO, zoos with breeding groups cannot accept new animals, unless the group structure collapses. There should be new groups formed in new zoos with "leftover" animals from USA and young from Europe. These zoos can be both in USA or Europe.

BTW, is drill more difficult to breed than mandrill? It seems lots of problems comes from low number of breeding-age animals.
 
Jurek7 said:
BTW, is drill more difficult to breed than mandrill? It seems lots of problems comes from low number of breeding-age animals.
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I don't believe Drills are any more difficult to breed than Mandrill- the two are extremely similar in most aspects. In Europe Hanover (also to a lesser degree Stuttgart & now Port Lympne) in particular have bred them very successfully. I think the main problems are with the lower number of animals available, so unsuccessful partnerships aren't easy to rectify and less animals available for new groupings.
 
Does anyone know how old the 2 females which will go to Edinburgh are? That great news anyway - it seems a good idea to bring the few females in breeding age from the US to Europe, the drill population in the US has no future unless new animals are imported from Africa.

If you look at the sucess in Hannover, I don`t think drills are more difficult to breed then mandrills - there are just few females in breeding age and in the past, many females had problems with raising their young because they were themselves captured in the wild and hand-raised without proper socialsation. That had devasting effects on the breeding sucess.
 
I dont have exact dates but the girls are between 8 and 14 which is prime breeding age. The problem with breeding drills in the US is basically bad fate. For those who dont know Drills have very complex breeding behavior. The female presents, the male mounts, and then they walk while copulating. The male at Columbus, Lyle (who has viable sperm) mounts but does not follow when the females begin walking. Our drills are also very aggressive towards each other so it's rare they are all together. If Lyle could just walk with the females Columbus would probably be a breeding facility. But since nothing has happened for about six years we want to move the females somewhere else. About breeding in the US, also understand while some European zoos have been successful at breeding there aren't enough new drills to send to the US. I believe Columbus, San Diego, and Lincoln Park should send their drills to Europe and Atlanta unless they resume breeding so Europe can build up a big population and then Europe could send some drills back to the US for breeding. It would also help if they sent some of the drills at the Rescue Center in Bioko to Europe to revitalize the genes of the captive population.
 
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ColumbusZoo001 said:
The male at Columbus, Lyle (who has viable sperm) mounts ould but does not follow when the females begin walking.

But since nothing has happened for about six years we want to move the females somewhere else.
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I've got a postcard of your male- he's a beauty. I read somewhere he was handraised (am I correct?)- Do you think that's the problem?

Its both interesting & unusual that these females are to join the European programme rather than at another US zoo. Do you know how that decision came about?

Will Columbus still continue with Drills after they leave?
 
Yassa said:
If you look at the sucess in Hannover, I don`t think drills are more difficult to breed then mandrills - there are just few females in breeding age
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I agree- the two species are so very similar. With Drills however, the much smaller captive population has in the past given fewer chances for new compatable pairs or groups to be created for breeding at new centres. But the current situation in Europe is looking a little more encouraging now.
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he was hand raised for about a year, so I think it might be responsible for his inability to breed or socialize for that matter. As of right now the male is staying in Columbus, although I also heard he might end up going to Europe, to a different zoo than the girls. The decision to move the girls was simply in the best interest of the species. We are certain the girls would have never breed here because of Lyle so we decided that they should go somewhere where they can breed because nothing is wrong with them and they are in their breeding prime. We actually gave up another female, Bioko (to her home zoo, Atlanta) earlier in the year so she could breed.
 
What's the situation with SD's female? Is she old or young? If she is able to breed it's a waste for SD to keep her.
 
ColumbusZoo001 said:
We are certain the girls would have never breed here because of Lyle so we decided that they should go somewhere where they can breed because nothing is wrong with them and they are in their breeding prime.
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Are these two females that are going to Edinburgh related to each other?

I ask because the Drill studbook indicates that some zoos (including Hanover themselves) have had trouble with a dominant female trying to kill offspring which are born to other non-related females in the group. So if Edinburgh have three unrelated females they could experience trouble of this nature in the future.
 
I was just checking ISIS (we all know how reliable it is) and it said that the Detroit Zoo had two male drills. Does anyone know about this?
 
I was at the Detroit Zoo in July and there definitely weren't any drills there at that time. I'm not sure where they would even be found if that excellent zoo was to incorporate them into the collection.
 
I check ISIS fairly regularly, and I dont they added them until a week ago. (If they even have them!) Strange . . .
 
At this point, they would still be in quarantine. Detroit does have a primate exhibt(s) behind the tiger and lion houses. They could possibly be held in the Great Ape House.

ColumbusZoo001, if you check ISIS regularly then your in for a treat because the fall season is when most zoo transfers occur. So there is going to be a lot of changes in the next few months :)
 
Amazingly, this is NOT an ISIS glitch - Detroit actually did acquire two male drills from Atlanta this past August.
 
Wow, I wonder what they are doing there?! Ungulate do you know the names/ages of the males there? It would be interesting if they are going to attempt to breed them there.
 
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