hope yet for the pygmy hippo?

P

patrick

Well-Known Member
patrick said:
i'm reading on the net that they live between 30 - 50 years.

hmmmmm.

26 year old male at melbourne

23 year old female at adelaide

1 empty exhibit with breeding facilities at melbourne.

either i don't know something (which is highly likely - plus there is a billion other factors to take into account) or something very stupid is keeping these animals apart....
Click to expand...

i wrote this a while back on the pygmy hippo birth thread....

well the rumours flying around melbourne are that these two will indeed be paired up.... at taronga!!!

firstly, if this is true then i wonder what on earth took them so long? being the only viable pair then its a mystery to me why they were allowed to age so significantly for so many years in neighbouring states?

they are by no means young animals.. but they would have been had they been matched back when melbournes elderly female died...

which brings me to my next question. i wonder why the melbourne/adelaide potential breeding pair is earmarked to go to taronga? melbourne certainly appears to have the better exhibit, indeed its sat partially empty for a long time and could do with a new inhabitant!

i haven't double checked lately, but the melbourne hippo exhibit is on zoolex and from the plans it appeared to be very well designed for breeding with off-exhibit facilities to hold a third hippo if need be. oddly the zoo halted breeding hippos when they moved to the new exhibit in the african rainforest.

does taronga have more expertise? is melbourne going to temporarily loan its hippo and will he or his offspring be returned in due course. will i ever see my beloved pygmy hippo exhibit filled with two hippos ever again?!!!
 
Maybe the two zoos were argueing about which would get the pair and the only way theu could progress is if the animals went to a neutral third zoo?
 
adelaide hold 2 pygmy hippos, both female i beleive, so thats 2 bloodlines that could be bred
 
We have all talked about this before, there must be a real reason our zoos dont bring these animals togeather, From our point of view this should have been done a long time ago, unless they have agreed to phase them right out of our zoos.
 
think you'll find one hippo is too old ben....

and mark. yes you are right that there must be a reason why they were not bred before, but twhat makes me ask questions is that if it is being attempted now - then the reason obviously never had anything to do with the animals being not suitable as mates.

i'm not a pygmy hippo reproductive expert but from memory of ARAZPA's own guidelines, the species is considered past reproductive age at 30. did you see the ages of the current animals i posted at the top of the page?

cutting it pretty fine don't you think?
 
I agree with what you say Pat, I cant follow this at all, i been thinking about this problem for quite some time now, it almost appears that they are not really bothered, what you do thinked????
 
perhaps it's got something to do with them being african animals? We know that zoos are concentrating on Asian eainforest species. Other than gorillas and chimps what other African rainforests species are their that have a viable population? Bongos don't, many of the monkey species sucj as colobus, drills, de brazzas don't appear to
 
Maybe you have a point Jay, but would they really focus on the Asian animals to a point where they let the animals of Africa and other places melt away? I hope we can retain some African species for a long time yet.
 
i still dont get why taronga is getting them, very small exhibits, and not adequate for breeding, no animal privacy, and limited off exhibit capacity

melbournes is considerable better equiped, and for a visitor view better as well

no sense to me
 
no, and me neither zooboy. and thats one of the two questions that has me so perplexed!

jay, when we talk of "viable" populations, its important to remember that virtually none of our zoo's animals are so. sooner or later they will all feel the effects of inbreeding. i suppose when we talk of "viable" then rather than consider how many individuals we have in our zoos, but instead factor in other elements like the interest amongst the zoos in the species and the importation requirements or restrictions.

based on that you will find that most primates are all potentially viable. bongos have probably the least potential of almost any species in our zoos, based on the unavailability of fresh blood and the disgustingly small founder base. yet becuse everyone wants some it seems we are breeding them as much as possible.

anyhow - of the species you mention, adelaide and melbourne continue to breed mandrills (a new baby was in the group on my last visit) and i believe taronga are showing interest in the species again also. de brazza are indeed being phased out, but this will be in favour of colobus. so its not all that bad for african rainforest species...

i'm onto this hippo thing though. i want to know why the adelaide female was not moved to melbourne to breed way back in 2003-2004(?) when the female there died. and i want to know why taronga is considered better than melbourne or adelaide...
 
a little more hope

dont forget either, that monash university has stored samples of pygmy hippo testes, which i had forgotten about. other uni's may also have samples. assisted reproduction might be an option for this species in the future.
why are the animals heading to taronga, no idea. melbourne obviously has the better exhibits...both taronga and melbourne have high expertise in breeding this species. frankly i dont care where they go, as long as they are paired up!
 
I still think it might be because Taronga is a 'neutral' zoo. Melbournes is definately better and it si a shame that such a wondeful exhibit will go to waste, the question then would be - what is happening to that area of melbourne - but that's another thread.
 
lol
maybe melbourne could end up with taronga's old female...filling up the gap. what sort of time frame Pat are we looking at in terms of this exchange? do you know?
 
no idea. but they certainly haven't been in much of a hurry so far...:rolleyes:

the pygmy hippo exhibit is probably really only suitable for tapirs, and whilst it would be better than an empty exhibit we all know neither species actually comes from africa (and melbourne gave its brazilians to mogo and took its only malayan off display).

i have no idea what they plan to do long-term with the hippo situation. i was told it would be a breeding loan and there would be an opportunity to get their male hippo back eventually. but in reality melbourne needs two hippo to make the most of the exhibit, and i doubt they'll bother bringing him back if he's breeding well, probably best to make the most of it.

ideally, melbourne could hope to aquire the offspring from taronga and hopefully an unrelated, opposite-sexed animal decended from the mareeba pair. all long-term stuff...

its interesting what you say about the hippo testes at monash. say everything goes well with the melbourne/adelaide animals (and i don't have high hopes considering their age but its worth a last ditch try..) and the mareeba animals are integrated, that gives a founder base of 5 animals.

thats 2 more than the bongo!!
 
I emailed Melbourne zoo and asked about them and recieved this reply.

Thank you for your email regarding pygmy hippos in Australia. We are currently in the process of moving hippos around the country for a couple a reasons, one of which is breeding. As you pointed out, one side of the enclosure is currently empty and requires some major work to repair filtration and other infrastructure. In fact, the whole enclosure requires some fairly substantial renovation.
In order to do this, our male hippo and one of Adelaide's females are being sent to Taronga to breed. Whilst this happens, our facility will undergo the repairs needed. Once this is completed, hippos will return to Melbourne Zoo.
I hope this answers your questions
Regards
Bryan Welch
 
good one monty. and theres a reasonable answer to one of the questions...
i hope hippo return to melbourne sooner rather than later, its a great exhibit.

that just leaves us with why the hippos have waited so long to be paired.
 
i want my hippos back...

it's true. i miss them. i want my melbourne hippos back.

i was reading on the taronga site that the hippos there are mating and they have suspicions the female is pregnant. do you have any idea how happy this would make me? happier than a jaguar import that's how happy!!

this could potentially work out okay. pygmy hippo live around 30 years. we currently have one proven pair and one potential pair in the region. if we can secure opposite sexed offspring from these, that will give us another one or more "fresh" pairs. they then breed and produce offspring. now these 3rd gen animals cannot breed without imports, its true, and imports are currently banned, but due to the long lifespan of the species, we have potentially just bought ourselves up to 50 years to negotiate new conditions...

now breed, breed, breed... i want my hippos back!
 
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