Iconic breeding programmes of UK zoos

TriUK

TriUK

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I’ve been contemplating which UK & GB zoo/wildlife parks have had/still have very successful breeding programmes and perhaps the unique reasons [other than keeper self interest & expertise] that made them successful?
Have Paignton & Jersey, for example, benefited from a warmer climate? Has London benefited from convenient travel access for specialist vets & consultants?
Do successful programmes cease or transfer to other collections when key personnel move jobs?
I’d like to know which species our key zoos will focus on in coming years - crayfish, Rail, bees and arctic species come to mind.

Aspinall zoos - Gorilla
Twycross - Langur
Marwell - Oryx & Zebra
 
London: Partula snail
Whipsnade: Cheetah, Scimitar-horned oryx

Sadly I feel that, in the current climate, most zoos will be looking to secure their own long term futures first before anything else!
 
Panthera1981 said:
London: Partula snail
Whipsnade: Cheetah, Scimitar-horned oryx

Sadly I feel that, in the current climate, most zoos will be looking to secure their own long term futures first before anything else!
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Yes, I agree. Funding for less popular zoo animals on the back-burner, perhaps whilst balancing the seemingly inevitable pressure from the government’s anti-zoo undercurrent (links to Aspinall & the emergency funding fiasco)?
It would be terrible to think that we may lose species because of the C-19 pandemic and the repercussions in & ex-situ.

Slimbridge - Hawaiian Goose
 
In France there are (were?) iconic breeding programs that target(ed?) mainly African species (because of the colonial history of France?):
- Kordofan Giraffes
- Okapis
- Lemurs
- Addax
- Scimitar-horned Oryx
- Pygmy Hippos...

Now this "African" specialization seems to have faded a bit, as French Zoos are involved in numerous European breeding programs (and sometimes international : I think to Beauval and its Koalas and Tree Kangaroos, unique or nearly unique in France).
 
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TriUK said:
Aspinall zoos - Gorilla
Twycross - Langur
Marwell - Oryx & Zebra
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Aspinalls connection with Gorillas is largely historic. I think they must control breeding nowadays though, comparatively few babies are produced between the five 'breeding' groups in the two parks. A few get repatriated to Africa. Beyond that I can't see what purpose they actually achieve- after all- public exhibition is always emphasised as not being a priority here and if was, it could be achieved with a single group. So what is the actual point?

Twycross langurs- they still hold a small group of Spectacled(about 5) but the Javans are virtually finished. I don't think they hold any others now.
 
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I went through the history of the success of Jersey zoo's captive breeding programes during the 1990's by reading lots of old journal papers for writing this thread:

History of Jersey Zoo & Durrell Trust ex-situ / in-situ conservation efforts.

I know you've said that you would like to know what made programmes work other than expertise but the impression I got from my reading was that expertise was usually achieved over the long-term through hard and pioneering work with many stumbling blocks along the way.

I think the key factors in the pioneering success that Jersey achieved with their iconic species was mostly down to persistence / perseverence, long-term commitment and painstaking research (conducted both ex-situ and in-situ) into mastering the husbandry needs over the span of years and decades.

Some of the iconic mammal species breeding programmes would include: Rodrigues fruitbat, Livingstone's fruitbat, pied tamarin, black lion tamarin, golden lion tamarin, Lac Alaotran gentle lemur, aye-aye , Malagasy giant jumping rat.

As far as I'm aware the only breeding programme which has ceased / discontinued of the above is that of the Rodrigues fruit bat because it has largely been a success and the focus has now shifted towards the Livingstone's.

The Malagasy giant jumping rat breeding programe did cease for a while for reasons that @TeaLovingDave can elaborate more on but it is now apparently back up and running again.
 
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TriUK said:
Do successful programmes cease or transfer to other collections when key personnel move jobs?
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This phenomenon was partly mentioned by Carl Jones in his paper "Limits of the Ark" and I think I've read about it somewhere else specifically relating to key personnel too but unfortunately I can't remember where.

There has been an observable trend in zoos that long-term programmes often hinge on the presence and commitment of one key personnel member of staff.

This is especially true when it comes to the successful captive breeding programmes for "little brown jobs" or the smaller more unusual species amongst birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians which require specialist care in zoos.

Once said key member of staff leaves the organization it often leads to a discontinuation of the programme due to a combination of factors like institutional fatigue with the species, desire for new challenges / species, lack of interest of collaborating institutions with the breeding programme.

I can't give you any specific examples as I don't have a wide knowlege of UK zoos but since I've been on this forum I've seen people mention certain species that have now disappeared from zoos in UK and Europe and I'm sure several of these would have been because of this phenomenon.

TriUK said:
I’d like to know which species our key zoos will focus on in coming years - crayfish, Rail, bees and arctic species come to mind.
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Out of curiosity why do those species in particular come to mind ?
 
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Further to my post above regarding the Aspinall gorillas, I've just read that thirteen year old male Joshi- from the Ebeki group(but fathered by previous male Kijo) has been repatriated to Africa.
 
I am always wary of the word 'iconic', which seems to be applied to so many things today. Using it to mean 'particularly worthy of respect and admiration', I think that one of oldest examples entitled of this term is the herd of Père David's deer at Woburn, started around 1900 by Herbrand, 11th Duke of Bedford (great great grandfather of the present Duke). The Duke also worked with Przewalski horses, but that programme was a more collective, and haphazard, affair involving Carl Hagenbeck's collectors, several zoos, including London (which received horses from the Duke), Munich and Prague (the studbook holders), the Askania Nova reserve, the Alberta Game Farm and, more recently, Marwell and many others.
@Onychorhynchus coronatus is quite right to point out the range of programmes run at Jersey, and the Durrell Trust has also made major contributions to many in situ programmes around the world. This is undoubtedly going to become the most significant way for zoos to contribute directly to conservation in the future.
In my opinion, a programme can only gain iconic status when the species concerned has been successfully reintroduced and is breeding again in its native habitat. I think that this would have to include the American bison (one of the first species kept at Washington NZP), the North American wood duck (largely due to a private individual, Mr White of Litchfield, Connecticut), the Hawaiian goose (Slimbridge & in situ collections), the golden lion tamarin (Washington NZP & others), the Arabian oryx (Phoenix, Los Angeles & Middle Eastern collections), the Whooping crane (Baraboo ICF & others), the scimitar horned oryx (Marwell & others) and there are many more.
 
gentle lemur said:
I am always wary of the word 'iconic', which seems to be applied to so many things today. Using it to mean 'particularly worthy of respect and admiration', I think that one of oldest examples entitled of this term is the herd of Père David's deer at Woburn, started around 1900 by Herbrand, 11th Duke of Bedford (great great grandfather of the present Duke). The Duke also worked with Przewalski horses, but that programme was a more collective, and haphazard, affair involving Carl Hagenbeck's collectors, several zoos, including London (which received horses from the Duke), Munich and Prague (the studbook holders), the Askania Nova reserve, the Alberta Game Farm and, more recently, Marwell and many others.
@Onychorhynchus coronatus is quite right to point out the range of programmes run at Jersey, and the Durrell Trust has also made major contributions to many in situ programmes around the world. This is undoubtedly going to become the most significant way for zoos to contribute directly to conservation in the future.
In my opinion, a programme can only gain iconic status when the species concerned has been successfully reintroduced and is breeding again in its native habitat. I think that this would have to include the American bison (one of the first species kept at Washington NZP), the North American wood duck (largely due to a private individual, Mr White of Litchfield, Connecticut), the Hawaiian goose (Slimbridge & in situ collections), the golden lion tamarin (Washington NZP & others), the Arabian oryx (Phoenix, Los Angeles & Middle Eastern collections), the Whooping crane (Baraboo ICF & others), the scimitar horned oryx (Marwell & others) and there are many more.
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Totally agree with what you've said here about the definition of iconic and how it should be applied sparingly to zoo captive breeding programmes and necessarily include reintroduction and also agree regarding the Pere David's deer at Woburn.

Another recent UK example that comes to mind is what has been done with the Madagascar pochard at WWT and supported in-situ by Durrell Trust which is also a pretty iconic and noteworthy captive breeding programme.
 
Pertinax said:
Further to my post above regarding the Aspinall gorillas, I've just read that thirteen year old male Joshi- from the Ebeki group(but fathered by previous male Kijo) has been repatriated to Africa.
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I wonder if all of the gorillas at the Aspinall parks will eventually be repatriated ?

It certainly seems like that is the plan.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I wonder if all of the gorillas at the Aspinall parks will eventually be repatriated ?

It certainly seems like that is the plan.
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What I find confusing about all this is that where their surplus gorillas end up seems very random. For example, of the last three young males that needed to leave groups, one (Kisane) was sent to Mogo Zoo in Australia (because they needed a new silverback), one (Kiju) joined a bachelor group at Port Lympne, while Joshi(his halfbrother) gets repatriated to Africa. Previously any number of others have gone to zoos, mostly abroad- Australia, the Far East, South America, Europe, too. It seems very much a case of placing them according to availability, with seemingly no commitment to any one outcome for them. As to what will happen to all their main groups longerterm, I think they will probably stay where they are, at least as long as the parks remain open.
 
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gentle lemur said:
I think that one of oldest examples entitled of this term is the herd of Père David's deer at Woburn, started around 1900 by Herbrand, 11th Duke of Bedford .
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It is still one of the best wildlife spectacles in the UK IMO. the herd still numbers 450 nowadays.
 
gentle lemur said:
I don't think that could happen, except in the very long term, by which time will there be sufficient safe places in Africa to return them to?
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Yes, that is a fair point about the risks but from what Aspinall jr mentioned in the thread he started he seems intent to play the long-game with a view to closing his zoos over the next 30 years and repatriating as many animals as possible in the meantime.
 
Pertinax said:
What I find confusing about all this is that where their surplus gorillas end up seems very random. For example, of the last three young males that needed to leave groups, one (Kisane) was sent to Mogo Zoo in Australia (because they needed a new silverback), one (Kiju) joined a bachelor group at Port Lympne, while Joshi(his halfbrother) gets repatriated to Africa. Previously any number of others have gone to zoos, mostly abroad- Australia, the Far East, South America, Europe, too. It seems very much a case of placing them according to availability, with seemingly no commitment to any one outcome for them. As to what will happen to all their main groups longerterm, I think they will probably stay where they are, at least as long as the parks remain open.
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It does seem a bit random, I agree, I wonder what the criteria for whether repatriation or being sent to other zoos is.

I tend to get the impression that gorillas are amongst their top priority for repatriation efforts so I imagine that a lot more of these animals will be sent to Africa in the coming years and decade.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
It does seem a bit random, I agree, I wonder what the criteria for whether repatriation or being sent to other zoos is.

I tend to get the impression that gorillas are amongst their top priority for repatriation efforts so I imagine that a lot more of these animals will be sent to Africa in the coming years and decade.
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I believe it relates just to the individual situation each time. Mogo Zoo may have asked them for a male, so that takes care of that one. They were forming a second bachelor group at Port Lympne so that took care of another. But why the third didn't go into the same bachelor group( these two had been living together previously) and has gone to Africa instead, I don't know though I presume there is a reason.

I always find it a bit strange that despite the strongly professed dislike of the overall concept
of zoos as a whole, many of their animals have been sent to other zoos over the years. As to all the other gorilla groups, they already relocated one whole group and it was an unmitigated disaster which brought with it some negative publicity too. Conditions would need to be safer for them to risk all that again perhaps, but there's no denying it could still happen, as nothing seems impossible with AF.
 
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Pertinax said:
I believe it relates just to the individual situation each time. Mogo Zoo may have asked them for a male, so that takes care of that one. They were forming a second bachelor group at Port Lympne so that took care of another. But why the third didn't go into the same bachelor group( these two had been living together previously) and has gone to Africa instead, I don't know though I presume there is a reason.

I always find it a bit strange that despite the strongly professed dislike of the overall concept
of zoos as a whole, many of their animals have been sent to other zoos over the years. As to all the other gorilla groups, they already relocated one whole group and it was an unmitigated disaster which brought with it some negative publicity too. Conditions would need to be safer for them to risk all that again perhaps, but there's no denying it could still happen, as nothing seems impossible with AF.
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Yes, I find it odd too, it is a bit random but agreed that there must be a reason.

Regarding the repatriation of the family group of the silverback "Djala" (?), Aspinall seemed to be quite defensive of this and the paper I read a while back seemed to suggest that despite some initial challenges the move had been a success.

I can't really comment on that particular situation above as I don't know enough about what happened in detail.

However, typically with reintroduction efforts there are always initial problems with survivorship even with programmes which are famous for their eventual success like the golden lion tamarin here in Brazil.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Regarding the repatriation of the family group of the silverback "Djala" (?), Aspinall seemed to be quite defensive of this and the paper I read a while back seemed to suggest that despite some initial challenges the move had been a success.
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What happened was the bulk of the group (females and young) were discovered in various states of decomposition. What exactly happened to them is cloaked in mystery- poisoned by locals with a grudge perhaps? In a Daily Mail article at the time DA said 'someone murdered my gorillas'. Initially it was suggested a 'rogue' young wild silverback was to blame, however that is completely against normal behaviour and very unlikely. Djala, one son and a younger daughter were the only survivors I believe and they are all still alive today, though due to their relatedness all three now live in seperate 'groups' (Djala lives solitary I believe). Despite the disastrous outcome they do still state it was a success though.
 
Pertinax said:
What happened was the bulk of the group (females and young) were discovered in various states of decomposition. What exactly happened to them is cloaked in mystery- poisoned by locals with a grudge perhaps? In a Daily Mail article at the time DA said 'someone murdered my gorillas'. Initially it was suggested a 'rogue' young wild silverback was to blame, however that is completely against normal behaviour and very unlikely. Djala, one son and a younger daughter were the only survivors I believe and they are all still alive today, though due to their relatedness all three now live in seperate 'groups' (Djala lives solitary I believe). Despite the disastrous outcome they do still state it was a success though.
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Ok, I wasn't aware of that but it is quite interesting / disturbing to know, I'll do a bit of reading about this today.

I'm not a gorilla expert at all (in fact I know next to nothing about them) but the "rogue" young serial killer gorilla theory doesn't seem very plausible to me either.

Yes, thats the impression I got from both the paper I read and from Aspinall's comments on the thread, it seemed like he did think that it had ultimately been a success.
 
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