Chester Zoo giraffes

bongorob

bongorob

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I just looked at giraffes on ISIS and Chester are shown as 0.4 hybrids and 1.1 Rothschild's. I hope this is a mistake. Does anyone know what the situation is?
 
Last I heard was that their existing pure bred giraffes had a question mark over their purity, something to do with their parentage.

It would make sense as they have just recieved a pure bred female and there male as far as am aware is pure.
 
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That's what I thought Taun. If I remember around 25 years ago a non-pure specimen was bred with pure Rothschild's.

Yet the zoo seem to think all the herd are pure Rothschild's. Molly's birth was announced as the first Rothschild's giraffe to be born at Chester.

As you say the male is 100% Rothschild's.

The new 'pure' female was listed as a Rothschild's hybrid on ISIS when she was at Blair Drummond.
 
Thats because the giraffes that have a question mark over their purity are all the ones from Belfast and guess where all Chester Females are from including Aoife that has just arrived from Blair Drummond,yep you`ve guessed Belfast.
 
zoogiraffe said:
Thats because the giraffes that have a question mark over their purity are all the ones from Belfast and guess where all Chester Females are from including Aoife that has just arrived from Blair Drummond,yep you`ve guessed Belfast.
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Interesting. So which female is the pure bred zoogiraffe? If Aoife is a hybird?
 
taun said:
Interesting. So which female is the pure bred zoogiraffe? If Aoife is a hybird?
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Think its Molly but cannot be sure for certain considering that at the moment alot of Giraffes are moving about from being pure to hybrids and in some cases back again.
 
zoogiraffe said:
Think its Molly but cannot be sure for certain considering that at the moment alot of Giraffes are moving about from being pure to hybrids and in some cases back again.
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However, Molly was born at the zoo to one of the existing females:confused:

I suppose, we'll have to wait until someone can ask one of the keepers.
 
So is the whole Rothschild's breeding programme not based on pure bred animals of certain pedigree? Is this like the Asian lion fiasco from a few years ago? A lot of effort going into producing more hybrids?
 
Pygathrix said:
this like the Asian lion fiasco from a few years ago? A lot of effort going into producing more hybrids?
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Not quite. The Rothschild Giraffe groups in the UK came from various different sources. Some are definately pure- one or two like Chester's appear to have doubts about purity though- it depends where the Founder stock came from in each case.
 
Aoife is actually the pure bred rothschild, the problem with the Rothschilds is the studbooks not Belfasts, they were breeding the giraffe thinking they were pure, until suddenly a spanner is thrown in the works.
 
easytigger said:
Aoife is actually the pure bred rothschild, the problem with the Rothschilds is the studbooks not Belfasts, they were breeding the giraffe thinking they were pure, until suddenly a spanner is thrown in the works.
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Thanks for confirming it is Aoife that is pure bred female. Chester were inder the same impression until the question mark was raised over the giraffe there.

Must be a huge set back for chester, esp having Thorn for all those years and not having any fruits of labour from his pure bred genes
 
easytigger said:
Aoife is actually the pure bred rothschild, the problem with the Rothschilds is the studbooks not Belfasts, they were breeding the giraffe thinking they were pure, until suddenly a spanner is thrown in the works.
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I know the problems not Belfasts my point was the animals in question came from Belfast!
 
easytigger,

Can you elaborate on which individuals are considered impure or hybrid. Or is it just that their studbook info is incomplete? Much obliged if you can clarify? :confused:

So, if you are to disband the herd ... what will come in its place in terms of giraffe ssp.? :cool:
 
All but Neja a young female have question marks over their heads and are in the process off being rehomed, which is taking time due to logistics and blue tongue, A pure bred male from South Lakes is due to come here along with 2 females from Europe, leaving us with a small but 100% pure herd of rothschilds to start again with!
 
easytigger said:
All but Neja a young female have question marks over their heads and are in the process off being rehomed, which is taking time due to logistics and blue tongue, A pure bred male from South Lakes is due to come here along with 2 females from Europe, leaving us with a small but 100% pure herd of rothschilds to start again with!
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Not been to belfast myself, but do you plan to bring the new pure bred animals in while you slowly disband the original herd? Do you have room?
 
We hope its going to be a gradual transition we have reduced the herd down to 6 with 5 of those going in the future, we're certainly not intending all the new one's to arrive at the same time, but as I said its all logistics at the moment and several months down the pipeline!

we also have the space and facilities in place to house more animals then we currently hold comfortably if required.
 
Was it just one of the breeding animals in the herd at Belfast in the past that was not pure Rothschild's and caused the problem or was it most of the founder stock ?

Apart from Chester are there other collections that have received Belfast born giraffes in the past as pure Rothschild's ?
 
Ref Belfasts Giraffe.

taun said:
:eek: Thats not good, so do Belfast have any pure animals or are they all questionable?[/QUOTE
The Female from Blair Drummond Aoife is pure Rothchilds Her mother was Zara and the father was Arthur both pure animals.And it seemed strange that no one was bothered when Belfast had the best breeding herd in europe, with a total of 29 births in ten years. And zoos were more then happy to take there animals.
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