Small Carnivore Conservation: what has changed?

tschandler71 said:
Just a general observation but is it possible the decline of small carnivores and ungulates in proper zoos is in correlation to their superficial resemblances to pets or farm animals?
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I wouldn't be surprised. People tend to be more interested in more "exotic" looking animals, and also often can't tell different types of animals apart.
 
Yep as well as with Small Carnivores being in the pet trade themselves. Who wants to see a Serval exhibit when people buy them at redneck pet stores?
 
Considering the fact servals are one of the few small cat species which *are* still reasonably common, I think similarity to pets does not particularly work as an explanation :p especially when another species which is popular in the pet trade is the meerkat!
 
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There are some further updates for small carnivore conservation, and some questions that I have as well:

- I was looking at the EAZA Tag Reports for 2013-2014, stating which direction different Tags were looking to go in. The Small Carnivore Tag has chosen five species to specialise in - the red panda, fossa, Owston's civet, European mink and marbled polecat. Considering the near-total demise of the species across European zoos, I was rather surprised to see the latter species instead of, say, an otter. Further regarding this species, it says that contacts have been made in Romania and with private breeders - hopefully that means there could be a resurgence in the future. Information on this (and all the other Tags) is included below:

http://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/Annual-report/TAG-reports-2013-2014.pdf

- And now, regarding my question. Does anyone know of any instances of a ferret-badger Melogale sp. being bred in captivity? I have looked around myself and not found anything.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
- And now, regarding my question. Does anyone know of any instances of a ferret-badger Melogale sp. being bred in captivity? I have looked around myself and not found anything.
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I just had a look around. They are bred in China, presumably for food. I haven't found this paper online but it is referenced elsewhere as saying that ferret-badgers are "farmed" in China, which I take to mean commercial breeding as opposed to simply collecting from the wild: "Lau, M. W.-N., Fellowes, J. R. & Chan, B. P. L. 2010. Carnivores (Mammalia: Carnivora) in South China: a status review with notes on the commercial trade. Mammal Review 42: 247–292"

This pdf also references breeding them in China: http://140.127.16.104/iwc/chinese/data/pdf/Pei_7Some obervations on the reproduction of the Taiwan ferret badger in southern Taiwan.pdf (the actual paper referred to is in Chinese, so I haven't bothered looking for it, but the English title is "Captive Breeding of Wildlife", from 1988).

EDIT: okay I'm not sure why the link for the pdf above is coming out like that, but the paper is titled "Some observations on the reproduction of the Taiwan ferret badger (Melogale moschata subaurantiaca) in southern Taiwan" by Pei and Wang, if you want to look it up.
 
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Chlidonias said:
I just had a look around. They are bred in China, presumably for food. I haven't found this paper online but it is referenced elsewhere as saying that ferret-badgers are "farmed" in China, .
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I have just found a 1994 paper written by staff from Hangzhou Zoo, introducing the experiences of breeding ferret badgers. In this paper they said they fed their ferret badgers a diet comprised of 70-85% grains and a few meat, fish, yeast, Vitamin and 1% salt; and during breeding season, supplemented with VE and increased the percentage of meat to 30-40%. They also said the ferret badger got in estrus from early Feb to early Mar, and during this period they kept the male and females together with a M:F ratio of 1:3~5. Most cubs were born in April and May, and could live on their own at the age of two months, and matured at the age of one year.
 
Chlidonias said:
In fact I came across a 2006 paper in Oryx which explicitly said they have never been bred in captivity.
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On the subject of captive Otter Civets which @TeaLovingDave and myself were discussing (everyone else just read back through the thread), here's that 2006 paper on their taxonomy which I mentioned. I seem to have never actually linked to it!
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ettii_Carnivora_Viverridae_of_South-east_Asia

It has a handy list of captive specimens (and notes that there is no record of captive breeding). (See Table 2).

The specimens listed are:
Wassenaar Zoo, female, 1967-1972/73
London Zoo, unsexed, 1954
San Diego Zoo, one male and two females, 1970-1971
Zoo Negara, at least two males, 1993-1995+
Dusit Zoo, two males, 1973-1974; and one male, 1978-1983
Calcutta Zoo, before 1894
Taiping Zoo, male, 1969
 
Chlidonias said:
The specimens listed are:
Wassenaar Zoo, female, 1967-1972/73
London Zoo, unsexed, 1954
San Diego Zoo, one male and two females, 1970-1971
Zoo Negara, at least two males, 1993-1995+
Dusit Zoo, two males, 1973-1974; and one male, 1978-1983
Calcutta Zoo, before 1894
Taiping Zoo, male, 1969
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A little more information re otter civets that might be of interest:-

The London Zoo specimen is listed in the Zoological Society Annual Report for 1954 as a species “new to the collection”. The “Zoo Life” magazine for Winter 1954 adds that the specimen was purchased from Mr. W. J. C. Frost.

“Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; From the Living Collections of the World” (Richard Weigl; 2005) provides the exact dates for the Wassenaar Zoo female and one of the Negara Zoo males:-
  • Wassenaar Zoo, female (from Thailand): 21st June 1967 – 21st August 1972
  • Negara Zoo, male (from Malaysia): 8th January 1992 – 29th March 1996
 
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