History of the arrival of the Malagasy giant jumping rat at Jersey (1990)
Like the aye-aye and the Lac Alaotran gentle lemur it is both doubtful that the Malagasy giant jumping rat would be as common in captivity or would have avoided extinction without the efforts of Jersey zoo and the Durrell trust in the 1990 Madagascar expedition.
This is a brief history of arrival of the giant jumping rats at Jersey zoo in 1990, it is recommended that zoochatters check out the excellent book by Gerald Durrell about the Madagascar expedition to capture endangered species
"The Aye-aye and I" (without a doubt the best place to read about this expedition).
The Madagascar expedition (1990)
Jersey zoo had formed a strong connection with the government of Madagascar in the early 1980's and as a result by the end of the 1980's was in a privileged position to conduct research and conservation within the country:
"Much of the vertebrate fauna of Madagascar is threatened with extinction (IUCN/ UNEP, 1988). In 1983 the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (JWPT) entered a formal agreement with the Government of Madagascar to establish captive breeding programmes, both in Madagascar and at the Trust's zoological collection, to help save some of the threatened species, to train Malagasy technicians at the International Training Centre in Jersey and to undertake field investigations to promote the protection of Malagasy fauna."
"In 1989 the JWPT received permission to mount an expedition to capture specimens for breeding in Jersey. An initial list of 32 species warranting captive breeding was agreed. The list was reduced according to several criteria, including assumed degree of threat to the species, accommodation possibilities in Jersey and the logistics of travel and animal care by a four person team over a four month period in Madagascar."
The rationale for the capture of the giant jumping rat was the following:
"Because of insufficient field data, H. antimena is not in the IUCN red book. However, a captive breeding programe was considered prudent because of H. antimena's possible threatened status associated with its apparent requirement for primary forest and its very limited distribution."
The rat catching
The attempt to catch the rats took place in the Kirindy forest, the last stronghold of the species in Madagascar:
"The dry deciduous forests of the west of Madagascar have mostly disappeared through slash-and-burn cultivation, the creation of pasture for livestock and uncontrolled burning (Langrand, 1990). These pressures continue to threaten the remaining forest patches and their fauna, several species of which are highly localised. The narrow-striped mongoose is found only in the central west coast region (Schreiber et al., 1989), and the giant jumping rat and the flat-tailed tortoise are believed to have distribution ranges of 1000km (Cook et al., 1991) and 150km (Kuchling and Bloxam, 1988), respectively."
Traps were set and checked daily :
"Over a period of 10 days burrows of the giant jumping rat were located and National Traps, approximately 46x31x31 cm, were firmly placed flush with burrow entrances and baited with sweet potato and carrot. As it became very hot by mid-morning, traps were checked at sunrise."
Many traps were set but only a few of these animals were caught successfully, there were a few escapes and sadly a death:
"Out of approximately 60 trap placements (some burrows repeated), 10 rats were caught, three of which escaped and one of which was mortally injured in its trap, probably by a fossa Cryptoprocta ferox, the largest Malagasy carnivore."
The rats were placed into their temporary accomodation and well cared for while the expedition waited to return to Jersey :
"The rats were weighed on capture with a Salter Super Samson spring balance. They were housed in twos in two metal grill Carrier Crates wired together to give overall dimensions of 123x51x46cm, to which a tight covering of 1 cm mesh chicken wire was added after two rats escaped. Each cage was furnished with a wooden nest box 53x30x27cm. A dish of various chopped fruits and vegetables was put into each cage at dusk, but the rats ate mostly sweet potato and carrot."
The journey back to Jersey
With everything set the precious cargo of five Malagasy giant jumping rats (two males and three females) was flown by plane first to Mauritius and then on to Jersey:
"On 08 December, Q. Bloxam accompanied the animals on the commercial flight from Morandava to Antananarivo, the rats shut into their wooden nest boxes and the reptiles in individual cloth bags, and settled them into temporary accommodation at Parc Tsimbazaza. The rats were housed in caging similar to the gentle lemurs', the tortoises in a shallow wooden box approximately 100x100cm, the lizards in a wire-fronted box approximately 100x46x46cm furnished with branches, and the snake in a cloth bag. The rats and tortoises were fed on a variety of fruits and vegetables and the lizards on grasshoppers."
Sadly one of the rats, a male, died during the stop-over flight to Mauritius:
"The only mishap on the flight to Mauritius was the death of a male giant jumping rat, who had appeared in normal condition on the previous day."
The surviving rats arrived at their new home safely and were put into quarantine:
"The same route was followed as that taken by the aye-aye a month earlier, and all arrived in Jersey on 16 December in good health."
Photo credits to
@gentle lemur,
@JigerofLemuria and
@Javan Rhino .
Source: "Notes on the Durrell Expedition to Madagascar September-December 1990", Lee Durrell, 1990 (Journal: The Dodo) & "The aye-aye and I", Gerald Durrell, 1990.
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