Nubian Wild Ass in Zoos?

photos. They are also highly respected and have the only herd of gayal in the United States so it would make sense for the to also be the only holder of Nubian Wild Ass.
 
JBZvolunteer said:
photos. They are also highly respected and have the only herd of gayal in the United States so it would make sense for the to also be the only holder of Nubian Wild Ass.
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Amazing (if it's true as having the only captive population of one species, especially when it's Domesticated, doesn't mean they have the only population of another)! Please post some photos! Also, are they breeding them?

~Thylo:cool:
 
Here is a photo of supposed Nubian Wild Ass. [ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadow_nursery/4343860893/in/photostream"]Nubian Wild Ass | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]
 
I see that they also appear to have European Bison. This place seems amazing and I'm surprised it appears to be so unknown among ZooChatters considering the rare collection it holds.

What I'm slightly confused about is that, according to the link, they seem to have relatively recently recieved the wild asses meaning that they would have had to get them from somewhere else which would mean that there have to be other places in Europe or elsewhere that have these animals if they indeed are pure Nubians (or slightly pure).

~Thylo:cool:
 
Wild Asses

I heard that the Catskill animals ultimately descended from an expedition where they brought back (feral?) asses of doubtful origin and divided them into two groups: those that looked like Nubians and those that looked like Somalis. But they kept breeding them that way resulting in faithful simulacra, not unlike the Quagga Project. I wonder what became of the Catskill asses; i hope they did not end up as salami.. Maybe that is where the depicted animal came from...
 
jehanbosch said:
I heard that the Catskill animals ultimately descended from an expedition where they brought back (feral?) asses of doubtful origin and divided them into two groups: those that looked like Nubians and those that looked like Somalis. But they kept breeding them that way resulting in faithful simulacra, not unlike the Quagga Project. I wonder what became of the Catskill asses; i hope they did not end up as salami.. Maybe that is where the depicted animal came from...
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I think they ended up at Shadow Nursery. I believe there are photos of them on the forum.

~Thylo:cool:
 
wild Nubian asses

I am glad they did.
After all these animals at least look like the real Nubian Ass, although their ancestry is doubtful..
(Wish someone made a good photoshopped or drawn picture of the extinct Wild Atlas Ass; can not find a picture anywhere.)
 
It would be nice reviving the thread in the light of renewed interest in African wild ass in captivity and the Nubian subspecies Equus asinus africanus in particular.

First question on US "Nubians": Is Shadow Nursery in Tennessee that held the group from Catskill Game Farm still in business. The place seemed popular locally and is / was dedicated and well known horticulturalist. He also had a penchant for wild animals, particularly those related to some livestock / cattle species like bison, yak, wild horse. Also: wild ass and several antelope species. Wonder what has become of the place?


There was a 2016 feature in a local people citing that the owner Don Shadow was at loggerheads with a former friend, the NY based billionaire Steinhardt (who himself seems to have had a ranch down in Winchester, TN.

LINK: https://nypost.com/2016/06/12/hedgie-wants-nurseryman-to-sell-animals-to-pay-off-debt/
 
According to my research (Wikipedia), there are no Nubian Wild Asses in captivity. The reason they are considered Extinct in the Wild is because of two introduced populations that may still exist, one in Bonaire and one in Gabal Elba, Egypt. However, there is some doubt that either of these populations still exist.
 
birdsandbats said:
According to my research (Wikipedia), there are no Nubian Wild Asses in captivity. The reason they are considered Extinct in the Wild is because of two introduced populations that may still exist, one in Bonaire and one in Gabal Elba, Egypt. However, there is some doubt that either of these populations still exist.
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I wrote that Wiki article a few years back actually, after some fool went in and declared them officially "Extinct in the Wild" and wrote all this nonsense about these different captive and introduced populations :p Not sure if anyone's changed anything since then but from the research I conducted it's extremely unlikely that those populations are anything other than Donkeys, though more DNA testing is required.

~Thylo
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
First question on US "Nubians": Is Shadow Nursery in Tennessee that held the group from Catskill Game Farm still in business. The place seemed popular locally and is / was dedicated and well known horticulturalist. He also had a penchant for wild animals, particularly those related to some livestock / cattle species like bison, yak, wild horse. Also: wild ass and several antelope species. Wonder what has become of the place?
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Shadow Nursery is no longer in business. The Nubian Wild Asses were sent to the Capital of Texas Zoo.
 
birdsandbats said:
A quick Google search lists Shadow Nursery as closed. There is much confusion as to whether or not it is open on the TripAdvisor forums.

As for the location of the asses: Nubian Wild Ass
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Shadow has always been closed as it's a private facility. While I do not dismiss the notion that it is indeed closed, a quick Google search listing a placed which has always been closed as "closed" doesn't do much for me.

As that post reads, the animals came to the zoo from another ranch in Texas. I asked a friend who told me the same.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I wrote that Wiki article a few years back actually, after some fool went in and declared them officially "Extinct in the Wild" and wrote all this nonsense about these different captive and introduced populations :p Not sure if anyone's changed anything since then but from the research I conducted it's extremely unlikely that those populations are anything other than Donkeys, though more DNA testing is required.

~Thylo
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Out of interest: The "introduced" Gabal Elba animals what sources exist for the information they were actually introduced and anything published scientifically?

As to establishing whether the Nubian wild ass in US are "donkeys" or anything resembling Nubian wild ass needs to be determined by genetics and till date I think that has never been done.

Part and parcel for this is the general disinterest within the zoological community to exhibit, do conservation breeding and research on wild ass in general (it seems zebra are far more sexy or cute or something …..) or even to exhibit rare equid species. In the US Persian onager went down the drain and sold offf or simply knackered (really it is quite unclear what happened to most of these …., even though there was a studbook). At the eleventh hour Columbus Zoo stepped in and put the last they could find out on The Wilds and try and get the US population back on the line.
 
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