Prague Zoo Praha Prague Zoo News 2014

New animals at Prague Zoo :
Chameleon species Rhampholeon acuminatus ( still behind the scenes )
Treefrog species Leptopelis ulugurensi ( only ones in Europe ? )
Agame species Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus
Ground python Charina reinhardtii
Little pied cormorants
 
1,2 cormorans came from Frankfurt in January. They will be housed in exactly that australian wetland aviary (near shoebill) in spring.
 
Jana said:
1,2 cormorans came from Frankfurt in January. They will be housed in exactly that australian wetland aviary (near shoebill) in spring.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Jana. Hopefully they breed there. It sounds like the European population of this species is doing quite well at the moment.
 
@Zooboy, the European population got a big boost when in 2005 Arnhem, Frankfurt and TP Berlin, imported animals from Australia, especially the then established breeding colony in Arnhem is very succesful, but also Frankfurt breeds well.
 
lintworm said:
@Zooboy, the European population got a big boost when in 2005 Arnhem, Frankfurt and TP Berlin, imported animals from Australia, especially the then established breeding colony in Arnhem is very succesful, but also Frankfurt breeds well.
Click to expand...

I remember hearing about that import. Good to hear they are breeding well.
 
1 year old sumatrean orangutan youngster Diri confirmed as a female(Keepers weren´t sure for long time about this.)
 
Well here is only the second case I know of that an amur leopard is melanistic. The other one, which has generated discussion from doubters like me, is in England (Thrigby Hall I think?). Seems unlikely, but others more educated than I have said the one in England was DNA tested, so I guess maybe amur leopards can be black after all. Just seems odd that there is not one single record that I know of, recent or historic, of its occurrence in the wild.
 
And if I not mistaken the Thrigby Hall melanistic female is the grandma of the current male in Prague who sired the triplets.
 
Most captive Amur leopards are hybrids and it is possible the melanistic mutation came in that way from other subspecies to them. Male melanistic Amur leopard was born in Safaripark Hodenhagen in 2010. And also Zürich zoo and Dortmund zoo (this one was later transfered to Mulhouse) had at least one born there in the past. Maybe there were more I´ve never heard about.
 
I believe the slight impurity of the captive Amur leopard stock is definitely known. What cannot be known is where the Melanistic gene came from. However, a surprising number of cat species have a black form, so maybe it's not worth worrying about. There is a tension between maintaining absolute purity in a subspecies, and having enough viability/ variability to keep the thing going at all.
 
It was the hybrid origin they were questioning. Wait, now that I think about it, it may have been the source of melanism. Or both, I am not sure.
 
Some interesting arrivals:
Moholi bushbaby - 2 from Frankfurt
Buffy Fish Owl (Bubo ketupu) - 1,1 from Walsrode

Some interesting offspring:
3 Mount Apo lories
1 Buffy Fish Owl
2 Elegant Crested Tinamous
1 White-bellied Go-away-bird
8 Steppe agamas (Trapelus sanguinolentus)
4 Hamerkops
1 bongo, 1 red lechwe, 1 sable antelope, 1 Mrs Gray's lechwe and 1 beisa oryx
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top