Melbourne Zoo Pygmy Hippo

unfortunately the pair at mareeba have not been bred again, which is a very unfortunate as there is no insurance if one animal unexpectedly dies. the best outcome would be to breed both pairs (mareeba and taronga) until multiple offspring were born of both sexes to both pairs. however were lucky to get one baby out of the taronga pair given how long it took for them to be paired and their current ages of 23 and 28.[/QUOTE]


Just an update with that, Todays newspaper reports a birth of a Pygmy Hippo at the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve six days ago :).

The last birth to the adult pair was a male named Felix who it says will turn three in November, so it looks like births are around three years apart.
 
thats very good news.

pygmy hippo are long lived. so if we consider that every pair created by the offspring of the taronga/mareeba pairs will live 30 years and that the offspring of those animals will live another 30 years we have somewhere in the vicinity of 40-50 years to convince biosecurity australia to let us import more before we even think about inbreeding.

that said - with so few - there may be limited amount of hippo produced and so whilst not being in immediate danger of local extinction, some zoos may find it impossible to ever acquire animals. i wouldn't be surprised if the lucky few that are associated with the current breeding effort (melb, taronga, adelaide and mareeba) will keep the progeny amongst themselves and their sister institutions.
 
I dont know if any AI work has ever been done with Hippos anywhere in the world but it may be possible at some time in the future to bring in frozen semen for both Hippo species.
 
phoenix said:
i believe the mareeba pair may be related to the taronga/melbourne/adelaide lineage on their mothers side as she was born in the country whereas timmy came direct from the US. still its unlikely to cause any problems and i am sure melbourne will seek the young mareeba male as a mate - its their only option to form another breeding pair.

unfortunately the pair at mareeba have not been bred again, which is a very unfortunate as there is no insurance if one animal unexpectedly dies. the best outcome would be to breed both pairs (mareeba and taronga) until multiple offspring were born of both sexes to both pairs. however were lucky to get one baby out of the taronga pair given how long it took for them to be paired and their current ages of 23 and 28.
Click to expand...

What is the Mareeba pair's exact relation to the Taronga/Melbourne clan (as in name + damxsire)?

Which are the founder animals in the Australian region as this relates to breeding potential (as in name + damxsire)

Thanks for the enlightenment.
 
i have no idea. the relation between the adelaide female (now breeding at taronga) and the mareeba animals is something a vaguely remember reading here on the forum.

something about the mareeba animals or descendants coming from a (pearl coast?) zoo in broome which held surplus hippo from the main zoo breeding program.. thus there was a relation there. but its all just off my head.
 
I thought the Mareeba pygmy hippos came from Tipperary when it closed down.
 
so the only questions left is - did melbourne also send animals to adelaide, and is the adelaide-born cow now at taronga of melbourne lineage, thus making the mareeba and taronga lines related?
 
There is a very cute photo of the new baby Pygmy Hippo on the Cairns Safrai wildlife Reserve website and yes "It's a boy", So if Taronga's pair breed again lets hope it's a female again to make up another pair for the future.
 
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