The question is, how many animals still have to give their lives for these "experiments"?
I don't disagree with this sentiment. In my opinion, more have already died than necessary. Every single animals ever kept in captivity was an experiment. The Sumatran and Northern White Rhinoceros programs were experiments, and ones that failed in the end, but had they never been attempted everyone would have complained that no one ever tried. The Kihansi Spray Toad, Panamanian Golden Toad, Mauritius Kestrel, Przewalski's Wild Horse, American Bison programs were all experiments, and now none of those species are Extinct.
Zoos will not be able to save pangolins.And with successfully I mean, that the breed keeps the existing stock itself over several generations, not just single births. I think that by the time the zoos reach this goal, some species of pangolins will already be extinct. Optimus is unlikely to care about the future of these animals in zoos, despite the fact that a few zoos have already made small achievements to keep isolated animals alive longer. Yes, the first Pair of Pangolins at Leipzig zoo is doing well since 2007 and 2009, but they never bred as long as the second pair never did.
Well zoos will not be able to save elephants, rhinos, gorillas, tigers, or many other species from extinction through captive breeding alone. Do you disagree with them being kept as well? It's undeniable that zoos showcasing these species to the public increases awareness of their plight and leads to a huge increase in donations. The same will be true with pangolins should the programs continue to see success. What would you rather have them do; ignore pangolins and allow them to go Extinct? Even if some species have already gone Extinct by the time the programs are self-sustaining, we will now have a few species which won't go Extinct because of that and I don't see how that's a negative. The programs are very much in their infancy so I don't know how you can judge them based on whether or not they've had several generations born already. That said, Taipei has had third generation births. As for the Leipzig pair, I don't believe the initial two were ever intended to breed. To my knowledge they were to prove that Leipzig could successfully keep them, with the plan being for an actual breeding pair to be sent to them should they keep them alive. They did manage to keep them alive, so in 2016/2017 a second pair was sent to them. No they have not bred yet, but it's also barely been a couple of years since they arrived. When I visited last year I also noted that one of the animals (I think the female but could be wrong) was missing one of its rear legs due to an injury it received in the wild, and it's possible that this hinders its ability to successfully reproduce.
So which zoo or even zoos is /are breeding pangolins sucessfully ?
The Pangolin Consortium in Florida has announced several births now. One of the public US zoos has bred them a couple of times now as well, but I don't know if they've ever publicly announced that so I won't say which (though it's probably obvious if you know much about the US zoos with the species).
Big outdoor enclosure being unused for 100% of opening hours? Yeah I don't see Prague's director doing that :/
To be honest I can. I mean the main reason the parrot has has been delayed for so long is because they've been allowing the plants time to grow, so why not build an outdoor enclosure for the increased chance of success even if people won't see them in it. They could also have the outdoor enclosure off-show and the indoor viewing on-show.
~Thylo
)
