SEA LIFE Birmingham New marine mammal rescue facility

[Brum]

Doubtful - all the recent sea otters to come into Europe have been imported under strict contracts not to breed from them!

I'm not an expert on sea otter mating rituals but the actions displayed today definitely looked promising. There was flirting, what I think was scent marking, and at one point there was blatant submission with one otter lying on the ground waiting for a bit of attention.

Looked like courtship to my untrained eye anyway...

 

[Great Argus]

Presumably because they are holders of surplus animals to free space in America for other rescue animals. Same as with the Tasmanian Devil breeding programme where un-needed animals are sent to America and Europe. If spaces become filled with home-bred animals then they can't be overflow for the surplus animals.

Allegedly, per information I've received from a number of sources, the reason is that they are seen as a national treasure which attracts tourism, and therefore there has long been an embargo on their export out of the USA - the only reason they have started trickling out is that rescue centres are now at capacity due to the recovery of the species. A temporary relaxation of this policy is why Antwerp, Lisbon and Rotterdam were able to obtain the species in the 1990s, and why Lisbon was able to breed them, and a subsequent tightening of the policy is why these collections were unable to get further stock to keep the breeding population going, and why Living Coasts had to cancel plans to obtain the species a decade ago.

There is a similar policy pertaining to American Crocodile, bizarrely.



No idea!

Makes sense. Sea otters are quite popular and wherever I've seen them in captivity there's nearly always a crowd. However most facilities don't have room for very many otters, and given the ones in the states aren't allowed to breed to preserve spaces for any new unreleasable pups, I would think given the near maximum holdings situation here they'd be more willing to export a few to Europe to open spaces.

 

[HOMIN96]

Same as with the Tasmanian Devil breeding programme

Honestly, I hope this ends with Prague's import of 1,3 because why would otherwise import them if they won't be able to breed them...

 

[Chlidonias]

Honestly, I hope this ends with Prague's import of 1,3 because why would otherwise import them if they won't be able to breed them...

For the exact reason I said?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Honestly, I hope this ends with Prague's import of 1,3 because why would otherwise import them if they won't be able to breed them...

For the exact reason I said?

Well, it's worth noting that the Copenhagen population *have* been allowed to breed, being the progenitors of all other European tassies other than the new imports into Prague.....

 

[Chlidonias]

Well, it's worth noting that the Copenhagen population *have* been allowed to breed, being the progenitors of all other European tassies other than the new imports into Prague.....

Yes, but that is an entirely different situation to the devils which have left Australia since then, which have been exported specifically to free space for the disease-free breeding programme. Not saying that the Prague ones won't be allowed to be breeders, because I don't know, but that is not why devils are now being exported.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Yes, but that is an entirely different situation to the devils which have left Australia since then, which have been exported specifically to free space for the disease-free breeding programme

The second and third batches of Copenhagen tassies were sent out *after* the exports to the USA for that reason, however.

And of course, if the plan is to free space for the breeding programme then allowing Copenhagen to send animals to more collections would be counter-intuitive - particularly in cases where they have sent new stock to collections which have lost their original ones, such as Pairi Daiza and Duisburg.