SeaWorld San Diego Sex Selection and Artificial Insemination

Thats very interesting, it could work wonders for other species such as Black rhinos if more females could be reproduced also for many other species as well
 
Rhinoceros, Elephants, and Gorillas are the three other species that Busch Gardens/Sea World are working on with this technique as we speak.
 
Great?! I don`t think so, A.I. is way too invasive that I`d agree to use it more frequently. Often it requires to knock the female and/or male down (rhinos and gorillas, for example), and that`s highly risky. I definately prefer natural breeding.
 
A way of selecting more female births of a rare species has to be important in helping save very rare animals, I think it's a good tool for this, Do you not think moving a rare Black rhino or other animal world wide for breeding has no risks?, you may find that many of these animals do not get knocked down for semen collection
 
Well, bottle-nose dolphins are hardly critically endangered and african elephants neither. And black rhinos breed well through natural breeding and at the moment, there is no excess of males, at least in the European population (I`m not sure about the US). They don`t live in all-female-herds anyway.

Moving rhnos isn`t without risk neither, certainly, but there result is usually a breeding pair that will breed naturally for many years - without additional risk. A.I. and semen collection is usually needed more then once just to archieve ONE pregnancy, and 1-2 years later, you can start the whole stressful and expensive procedure again (and so on). In Dvur Kralove, the AI procedures on the rarest species of the world, the northerrn whito rhino, have been stopped for that very reason - too dangerous to continue to knock down the animals every few months.
 
Operant conditioning has come a long way...and many animals of several species are undergoing AI procedures without being immobilized. Its not quite as invasive as it used to be.

Also while AI, currently is more expensive than natural breeding in zoos (and Im sure many can debate this). AI is much cheaper than importing animals from their natural range. In the future, it is hoped that semen can be collected from wild free-ranging males and inseminated into captive females. This has already been done with a few species.
 
Yassa said:
there is no excess of males, at least in the European population (I`m not sure about the US).
Click to expand...

For the US this is the Black Rhino population (according to ISIS):

Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)
6.3.1

Eastern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli)
31.25

Southern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis minor)
20.10
 
Yassa said:
Well, bottle-nose dolphins are hardly critically endangered and african elephants neither.

First of all where did I say that bottle-nosed dolphins and African elephants are endangered?.


And black rhinos breed well through natural breeding and at the moment, there is no excess of males, at least in the European population (I`m not sure about the US). They don`t live in all-female-herds anyway.

My point in regards to AI is that this tool can be used World wide helping the breeding of rare animals, if the European black rhino breeding program is doing well without using any AI that good for them But as In Australia we only have ONE breeding herd so if we can use AI bringing in a new bloodline instead of shipping a live animal that has to be a plus in my book, not every country has big groups of animals such as the EEP & the SSP. In regards to black rhinos living in all female groups, again who said they did?, my point again with any rare species of animals numbers can be built up faster with more females in the population than males can it not?.

I have seen zoos such as Port Lympne keeping a number of female Black rhinos togeather without to much problems and they have one of the best breeding records for the species around.

Moving rhnos isn`t without risk neither, certainly, but there result is usually a breeding pair that will breed naturally for many years - without additional risk. A.I. and semen collection is usually needed more then once just to archieve ONE pregnancy, and 1-2 years later, you can start the whole stressful and expensive procedure again (and so on). In Dvur Kralove, the AI procedures on the rarest species of the world, the northerrn whito rhino, have been stopped for that very reason - too dangerous to continue to knock down the animals every few months.
Click to expand...

Maybe you might be unaware that some zoos have come a long way in there AI techniques and are refining them as time go's on.

Try ard look at things on a wider scale Yassa and not just on what in happening in Europe
 
@ Okapikpr: Add another 1 for male Eastarn Black since there was a baby boy born at SDWAP over the summer.
 
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