For the first time ever, a young endangered Maugean skate, Dipturus maugeanus, has hatched from an egg laid in captivity. The hatching happened at the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, with an adult female skate arriving at the university in December and laying her first egg soon after.
The breeding programme was established due to a significant decline in the skate's population in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania - their last remaining habitat.
The female skate has been laying eggs since she arrived, with a hundred laid so far. Also in December, fifty wild-laid eggs were brought into captivity and hatched. While the programme does now have an adult male, the eggs laid by the wild-caught female were actually fertilised with sperm stored from a previous mating with a wild skate in Macquarie Harbour. The two adult skates are now showing courtship behaviour, with the scientists hopeful the pair will mate soon.
The next stages of the programme include doing genetic studies to determine which young animals can be kept as founders and which could potentially be released, and also completing the expansion of a new breeding facility.
More information can be found in the link below:
Baby Maugean skate hatches from captive-laid egg in world first for the endangered species
The breeding programme was established due to a significant decline in the skate's population in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania - their last remaining habitat.
The female skate has been laying eggs since she arrived, with a hundred laid so far. Also in December, fifty wild-laid eggs were brought into captivity and hatched. While the programme does now have an adult male, the eggs laid by the wild-caught female were actually fertilised with sperm stored from a previous mating with a wild skate in Macquarie Harbour. The two adult skates are now showing courtship behaviour, with the scientists hopeful the pair will mate soon.
The next stages of the programme include doing genetic studies to determine which young animals can be kept as founders and which could potentially be released, and also completing the expansion of a new breeding facility.
More information can be found in the link below:
Baby Maugean skate hatches from captive-laid egg in world first for the endangered species