EAZA Ex-Situ Programmes update

DesertRhino150 said:
The newest copy of Zooquaria, the EAZA magazine, came out today and includes more information about updates to one of the TAGS:

Monotreme and Marsupial TAG
In total, there are plans for 19 new-style EEPs within this tag.

Already managed by an EEP, ESB or Monitoring Programme:
1. Tasmanian devil
2. Koala
3. Brush-tailed bettong
4. Greater bilby
5. Kowari
6. Common wombat
7. Eastern quoll
8. Yellow-footed rock wallaby
9. Red kangaroo
10. Eastern grey kangaroo
11. Western grey kangaroo
12. Swamp wallaby
13. Short-beaked echidna
14. Goodfellow's tree kangaroo

New programme:
15. Long-nosed potoroo
16. Parma wallaby
17. Sulawesi bear cuscus
18. Western long-beaked echidna
19. South American opossum (combining gray short-tailed, gray four-eyed, Linnaeus' mouse and Northern black-eared opossums)
Click to expand...
ZTL lists the following species and how many ZTL collections have them:
1. Tasmanian devil: 9
2. Koala: Northern koala: 13; Southern koala: 2
3. Brush-tailed betting: Western woylie: 36
4. Greater bilby: 0
5. Kowari: 6
6. Common wombat: 2 plus Tasmanian wombat: 6
7. Eastern quoll: 6
8. Yellow-footed rock wallaby: 10
9. Red kangaroo: 93
10. Eastern grey kangaroo: 37 plus Tasmanian form: 4 and nominate subspecies: 1
11. Western grey kangaroo: Black-faced form: 20
12. Swamp wallaby: 29
13. Short-beaked echidna: 3 plus New Guinea form: 12 and South-east form: 1
14. Goodfellow's tree kangaroo: 12
15. Long-nosed potoroo: 24 plus Kerr's and Tasmanian forms: 1
16. Parma wallaby: 100
17. Sulawesi bear cuscus: 3
18. Western long-beaked echidna: 0
19: Grey short-tailed opossum: 11; Derby's woolly, northern black-eared and four-eyed opossums: 1

The Matschie's tree kangaroo is Endangered: 1
The southern hairy-nosed wombat is Near Threatened: 1
The dusky pademelon is Vulnerable: 17

All other ZTL marsupials are Least Concern
 
The newest edition of Zooquaria has recently been released, which has information about three different studbooks:

Freshwater Teleost TAG
The eleven species being monitored by the Pupfishes EEP are mentioned here; they are, with number of individuals and collections included:
1. La Palma pupfish (Extinct in the Wild) - >385 individuals in >5 institutions
2. Charco pupfish (Extinct in the Wild) - >113 individuals in >2 institutions
3. Potosi pupfish (Extinct in the Wild) - 167 individuals in 2 institutions
4. Mezquital pupfish (Endangered) - 133 individuals in 2 institutions
5. Julimes pupfish (Critically Endangered) - an unknown number in 1 institution
6. San Ignacio pupfish (Vulnerable) - 43 individuals in 1 institution
7. Anatolian killifish (Critically Endangered) - 150 individuals in 2 institutions
8. Danford's killifish (Critically Endangered) - 43 individuals in 2 institutions
9. Lake Salda killifish (Not Evaluated) - 102 individuals in 1 institution
10. Sirhani killifish (Critically Endangered) - 10 individuals in 1 institution
11. Apodus killifish (Data Deficient) - 30 individuals in 1 institution

Pigeons and Doves
The fifteen new-style EEPs for this TAG have now been announced:
1. Bleeding-heart doves (for all five species)
2. Fruit-doves (for black-naped and Eastern superb fruit-doves)
3. Nicobar pigeon
4. Large frugivore pigeon (for spotted, pied and green imperial pigeons and African olive pigeon)
5. Santa Cruz ground dove
6. Pheasant pigeon (for all members of the genus)
7. Sclater's crowned pigeon
8. Western crowned pigeon
9. Victoria crowned pigeon
10. Socorro dove
11. Crested quail-dove
12. Tuxtla quail-dove
13. European turtle dove
14. Pink pigeon
15. Extinct pigeons and doves (an education-based EEP for the dodo and passenger pigeon)

Another species, the blue-headed quail-dove, has an EEP with a Do Not Obtain recommendation. This is being done so the origins of the species can be investigated; they were imported illegally and given to zoos by private non-EAZA holders. As well as origin, the relatedness of the birds will be investigated before an EEP can be considered.

Antelope and Giraffid
The removal of the springbok and Thomson's gazelle TAGS are specifically mentioned here; both species face husbandry challenges, do not have a sustainable European population and are not threatened, so resources will be dedicated to more threatened species.

Information about the pupfish EEP can be found on page 17, the Pigeons and Doves TAG on pages 18-19 and the Antelope and Giraffid TAG on pages 20-21:
EAZA – Zooquaria – Issue 116 – Winter 2022
 
The EAZA studbook list was updated today (although it is listed as the January update); changes include:

Terrestrial Invertebrate TAG
The three remaining old-style EEPs (for Partula snail, Fregate Island beetle and Lord Howe stick insect) have been upgraded to the new style EEP.

Reptile TAG
A new EEP for the elongated tortoise has been added.

Raptor TAG
A new genus-level EEP has been created for scops owls.

Antelope and Giraffid TAG
There is a new EEP for the yellow-backed duiker. The okapi EEP and lesser kudu and Natal red duiker ESBs have also been upgraded to new-style EEPs.

The new list of programmes can be seen here:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/Other/January2023.pdf
 
The April TAG update has now been published. New things I noticed were:

Raptor TAG
The combined steppe and tawny eagle EEP (coordinated by Woodside Wildlife Park) and Ural owl EEP (coordinated by Parc Animalier de Sainte-Croix) are now included.

Pigeons and Doves TAG
A new EEP has been made for the blue-headed quail-dove (coordinated by Zurich Zoo).
Upgraded EEPs are included for the Socorro dove, blue crowned pigeon and two combined EEPs - one for bleeding-heart doves and one for Sclater's and Scheepmaker’s crowned pigeon.

Songbird TAG
A new EEP for white-rumped shama (coordinated by Copenhagen Zoo).

Antelope and Giraffid TAG
All current TAGS have been upgraded to the new-style EEP. New programmes have been created for the impala (coordinated by Zurich Zoo) and goitered gazelle (coordinated by Zoologischer Garten Karlsruhe).

The new list of programmes can be seen here:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/Other/April-2023.pdf
 
One other addition from the update listed in the previous post I have just noticed - one I am actually very pleased about:

Afro-Eurasian Monkey TAG
A new EEP has been created for the Southern pig-tailed macaque (coordinated from Zoom Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen). Previously this species had been recommended for phasing out, but subsequently it had its IUCN status moved up to Endangered.
 
The latest issue of Zooquaria has been published. While there is an article about the Raptor TAG updates, but they have already been covered in this thread. There is an article about updates to a TAG that haven't been mentioned here yet:

Marine Mammal TAG
Upgraded to new-style EEP
Patagonian sea lion
California sea lion
Grey seal
Antillean manatee
Bottlenose dolphin
Fur seals (including South American and South African fur seals)

New EEPs
Harbour seal: The main role of this new EEP will be to support rescue and rehabilitation measures.
Lahille's bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus gephyreus (a South American subspecies): This new EEP will mainly be developing in-situ conservation measures, but will be ready to implement early ex-situ efforts if necessary.

Information about the Marine Mammal TAG is on page 16, with the article about the Raptor TAG on page 12:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/Zooquaria/ZQIssues/2023/ZQ117-web.pdf
 
The July update to the EAZA TAG list has been uploaded - unfortunately, the April version has now vanished, so I'm working partly on memory to what has changed:

Amphibian TAG
There are two new-style EEPs - one for the sharp-ribbed salamander, coordinated by Avanqua Oceanogràfic, and one for the salamander genus Neurergus (comprising Neurergus derjugini, Neurergus crocatus, Neurergus kaiseri, Neurergus strauchii and Neurergus barani), coordinated by ZooSafari de Thoiry.

Reptile TAG
The Siamese, Philippine and African dwarf crocodile (the latter a species complex) and the tomistoma now have new-style EEPs.

Pigeons and Doves TAG
The extinct pigeons TAG has now been created, coordinated by Zoo Dortmund.

Songbird TAG
Two new-style EEPs have been created, for the red-tailed laughinghthrush and Montserrat oriole, both coordinated by Jersey Zoo.

Monotreme and Marsupial TAG
The kowari, greater bilby, Tasmanian devil, koala, brush-tailed bettong, red and Eastern grey kangaroos, swamp wallaby and yellow-footed rock wallaby have all been upgraded to new-style EEPs.

Small Carnivore TAG
The European mink has been upgraded to a new-style EEP. The new-style EEP for the meerkat has also been created, and is being coordinated by Paradise Wildlife Park.

The new list of programmes can be seen here:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/Other/July-2023.pdf
 
The EAZA Gruiformes TAG have recently carried out their Regional Collection Plan. Having discussed 43 species, the TAG (which covers cranes, rails and bustards among other birds) are recommending 14 new-style EEPs - some will cover multiple species and 6 will be brand-new.

Information comes from the EAZA Facebook page.
 
The EAZA Galliformes TAG have now prepared their Regional Collection Plan. After nearly 40 species were discussed, the establishment of 17 EEPs has been proposed. Currently, the TAG manages 8 species.

Two species already with programmes were mentioned - the Vietnam pheasant and Malay crestless fireback. One new programme will be for the red-billed curassow. There will also be a multi-species EEP for European grouse.

Information comes from the EAZA Facebook page.
 
What is the reason that their RCPs (colletion plan) are not available to general public? Or am I blind?
 
The 2022 TAG report was uploaded onto the EAZA website last night. These are some of the things of interest that I noticed:

Terrestrial Invertebrate
  • Plans were picked up for creating a new European invertebrate conservation subgroup within this TAG.
Freshwater Teleost
  • The African tetra TAG (Alestidae) has devised a plan where several species will be established at Budapest Zoo (the TAG holder) before being distributed among other zoos - as part of this, they have recently received 23 Endangered Alestopetersius smykalai for breeding trials.
Marine Teleost
  • Of 22 species selected for the Regional Collection Plan (RCP), three have been confirmed for new-style EEPs - the Banggai cardinalfish, long-snouted seahorse and short-snouted seahorse.
Elasmobranch
  • The creation of the new-style EEPs is mentioned, but I don't think any new information is presented (a lot of it seems similar to what is mentioned in the 2021 TAG report).
Reptile
  • As well as deciding the RCP for crocodilians, a workshop for the lizards was also successfully held.
Ratite
  • Because of changes to AZA population management structure, there will be a renewed discussion to start an EEP for the North Island brown kiwi in the EAZA (currently, all kiwis outside New Zealand are managed by the AZA).
Galliformes
  • It is mentioned that the RCP for Galliformes was held, but there is no new information about it (there was more information from the Facebook post, mentioned two post above).
Gruiformes
  • It is expected that the grey crowned crane will be one of the species to be recommended for an EEP, and the current monitoring programme holder is asking for photographs of birds from zoos with the species to help identify subspecies.
Charadriiformes
  • The TAG held its RCP workshop. A total of 10 groups were proposed as EEPs, with each group led by a focus species.
Parrot
  • The Parrot TAG did a review of parrots in EAZA zoos and found they remain very popular, with over 300 species and subspecies currently kept, with an average of 10.9 parrot taxa per collection and over 18,000 individual parrots kept in EAZA collections. However, the movement to threatened species from Least Concern parrots has been marginal - the TAG may demand a more decisive effort in the RCP workshop in 2023.
  • A new monitoring programme was started for the golden-shouldered parrot.
Toucan and Turaco
  • The RCP for this group will take place in late 2023, and will most likely be finalised and approved by early 2024.
  • The collared trogons originating from Chester Zoo could be used as a model species for other more threatened trogon species such as the Javan trogon and Alagoas trogon. As of March 2023 there were 8:13 collared trogons kept across 4 EAZA zoos.
  • The first studbooks were published for the channel-billed toucan (45 birds in 19 European zoos, of which 28 birds are in 11 EAZA member institutions) and the red-billed toucan (36 birds in 17 European zoos, of which 18 birds are in 10 EAZA zoos). Breeding of toucans remains rare in Europe.
Songbird
  • Although several new programmes and documents were being developed, none were formalised during 2022.
Monotreme and Marsupial
  • All the studbooks, monitoring programmes and intended studbooks were outlined in the report - among the more important and interesting bits of information were that, again, no bilbies remain available for the EAZA and that preliminary studies into the genetics of Europe's long-nosed potoroos suggests that they belong to the Tasmanian subspecies Potorous tridactylus apicalis.
  • A final arrangement was made to shift the ownership of all the koalas in EAZA zoos from San Diego Zoo to their European holders, so that the EEP could be managed independently.
Prosimian
  • The studbook for the black-and-white ruffed lemur is suggesting, with contribution and support of population biologists and external geneticists and taxonomists, to do a controlled merging of the two subspecies (Varecia variegata variegata and V. variegata subcincta - the white-belted ruffed lemur), as the latter has high inbreeding and bleak perspectives otherwise.
Great Ape
  • The four EEPs for great apes have had their main concerns identified - the Western gorilla population is being maintained but still has a need for new holders and flexibility to hold individual males; the orangutans need additional holders for males in particular; several holders of chimpanzees have stated they would like to eventually stop holding the species and the population is decreasing due to the non-breeding of hybrid chimps while the bonobo studbook is currently at capacity but a few new holders are expected over the next 15 years.
Small Mammal
  • Two new monitoring programmes were created for the round-eared elephant shrew and spinifex hopping mouse.
  • The RCP workshop for the pholidota and xenarthra (pangolins, sloths, anteaters and armadillos) has been held, while a workshop for the bats was delayed until later in 2023. These are the first two of four planned RCPs.
Bear
  • The full RCP for the Bear TAG is for six EEPs focusing on polar bear, sun bear, sloth bear, Andean bear, Asiatic black bear and brown bear (focusing on European and Syrian brown bears). The American black bear is under a monitoring programme with aims to replace them with threatened species. Perhaps surprisingly, the giant panda is chosen for phasing out completely.
Small Carnivore
  • The RCP for the Small Carnivore TAG is mentioned, but there is no additional information to what has already been posted in this thread.
Marine Mammal
  • Again, the information about the TAG updates is mentioned here, but the only new information is the confirmation that the walrus ESB has been discontinued.
Cattle and Camelid
  • The gaur EEP has transitioned to a monitoring programme.
  • The newly-created tamaraw EEP will be used as a way of raising funds for in-situ conservation and also provide technical support for feasibility studies into captive breeding and translocation projects.
Deer
  • The large-antlered muntjac EEP is mentioned as being a way of both raising support for in-situ conservation work and helping to build professional knowledge for when animals are brought into breeding facilities.
Antelope and Giraffid
  • There is a new EEP for the black wildebeest, as the genes in the EAZA population may be purer than those existing in the wild in South Africa.
  • The impala was selected to replace the springbok and Thomson's gazelle as an EEP, because they are just as well-suited to display, but are better from a management perspective and have a larger population in Europe.
The full TAG report can be read in the link below:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/Annual-report/2022-TAG-Annual-Reports-web.pdf
 
I did also notice in the report that the Tapir and Suiform TAG mentioned a scientific paper that was published, outlining the full RCP for this group of animals (tapirs, pigs, peccaries and hippos). The paper is open access, so I have decided to include here the full plans for the TAG.

Nine taxa (comprising eleven species) will be managed under new-style EEPs. They are (including preferred populations trends)
  1. Malayan tapir (increase population)
  2. Lowland tapir (slightly increase population)
  3. Pygmy hippopotamus (increase population)
  4. Common hippopotamus (keep population stable)
  5. Chacoan peccary (slowly increase population)
  6. Visayan warty pig (slightly increase population)
  7. Sulawesi babirusa (increase population) - the Moluccan and Togian babirusa also feature in this EEP, with Do Not Obtain orders
  8. Common warthog (balance with red river hog)
  9. Red river hog (balance with common warthog)
Three species will be subject to a monitoring programme without specific management plans identified (white-lipped peccary, Eurasian wild pig and Javan warty pig).
The TAG recommends a slow or partial replacement of the collared peccary with Chacoan peccary.
The western Sunda bearded pig will be monitored in its range state institutions, but the TAG recommends that European zoos do not obtain this species.
The remaining eleven species are not held by EAZA members and the TAG recommends not to obtain them, but will monitor this recommendation over time.

The full paper can be seen here:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ion_Plan_for_hippos_pigs_peccaries_and_tapirs
 
DesertRhino150 said:
The EAZA TAG Report for 2021 has been published today. Some things of interest I have noticed include:

Amphibian TAG
There will be a Regional Collection Plan (RCP) created for the dendrobatid frogs during 2022.
Click to expand...

The latest issue of Zooquaria includes information about the new Regional Collection Plan for South American frogs, combining the 61 species of dendrobatid (poison-dart frogs), plus the mountain chicken, Titicaca water frog, lemur leaf frog and Morelet's tree frog.

Of these species, 21 will have a monitoring programme and another 36 have do not obtain recommendations. These 36 species are not currently kept in European zoos; the EAZA do not want to drive the trade in the species and cannot be certain of the provenance of animals in the private sector.

In terms of managed species, the mountain chicken, lemur leaf frog and Morelet's tree frogs will all be managed under new-style EEPs. There will also be four new EEPs for different kinds of poison-dart frogs:
  1. Maranon poison frog, Excidobates mysteriosus
  2. Vicente's poison frog, Oophaga vicentei
  3. Anchicayá poison frog, Oophaga anchicayensis
  4. A combined EEP for golden poison frog, Phyllobates terribilis and black-legged poison frog, Phyllobates bicolor
The information about the frog RCP can be found on pages 18-19:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/Zooquaria/ZQIssues/2023/ZQ119v3-webLR.pdf
 
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