some info on breeding in zoos???

S

siuk

Active Member
Hello guys id like a little help please, im looking for information on zoos and private keepers/breeders or specific research centres, where animals have been successfully bred and reintroduced or any that have been brought back from the verge of extinction, thanks to the fact that they are in captivity, or even info when a breeder or zoo has successfully bred an animal which is very hard to do, I notice alot of you guys really know your stuff so thought you might be able to help.

The reason I ask is that we have been working on a website about pro keeping in the UK as a rise against the anti keepers establishment, some people believe that we shouldnt have the right to keep pets and im looking for situations where captive animals have been nessessary.
 
Just a few I can think of at the moment

American Bison
European Bison
Pere David's Deer
Arabian Oryx
Scimitar-horned Oryx
Black-footed Ferret

Mauritius Kestrel
Mauritius Pink Pigeon
Californian Condor
several species of New Zealand birds


many species of Lake Victoria Chcilids
Butterfly Goodeid

many species of Partula snails

see also the thread in this forum 'Animasl saved from extinction by zoos"
 
I checked it out mate, I could do with a little more info really like who bred them and when I tried google but my questions are too specific for the search engine, any animals that UK zoos have saved from extinction, because our site is aimed at captive keeping whether it is zoos or private in the UK?
 
Another bird is the Hawaian ne-ne or goose. If you look up a decent encyclopedia under each of these species you should find out the history of captive breedinig for these. Also if you are trying to create a pro website don't neglect other areas of captivity eg education, recreation, science etc. A good exa,ple of science is all the valuable information that has been learnt because of the breeding program for black rhinos at Western Plains.
An interesting reintrosuction of a species is the Californian Condor. Google it and you will find out all sorts of interesting stuff, like why reintroduced birds can live suxxessfully but still die - answer lead bullets. This will lead you to the pros and cons of lead versus other sorts of amunition - the pro hunting lobby in the Us etc. Oh you could have a field day.
 
its mostly private exotic keeping in the UK, but some people are completely against and it would help to have a list of how zoos and private breeders have played a valuble part in conservation
 
Wasn't one of the English Dujes, the one at Woburn, who played a very important part with Pere Davids deer, the also you have slimbridge with its wildfowl. Does PETA have a strong foothold over there?
 
not so much PETA but there are a few organisations in the UK that regularly campaign against keeping animals and zoos, C.A.Ps have regular demonstrations outside of UK zoos, and the RSPCA seem to hate exotic keepers and use alot of unfounded scaremongering against the reptile keepers in particular, I know there has been a few battles with private primate keepers and a place called monkey world in Dorset, in fact they took away someones collection and the person appealed in court and successfully got his primates back.

I think that better education and everyone working together is the way forward not all these organisations that supposedly want to help animals consentrating more on the politics of keeping than the animals welfare, there are private keepers here in the UK that rival zoos in efficiency and there setups.
 
Laysan teal
Whooping crane
Echo parakeet is being saved presently by jersey zoo
White, brown eared pheasants
Golden lion tamarin
Cotton top tamarin, Thanks mainly to barraquia zoo.
 
The Java Sparrow Society is breeding Timor Sparrows in small numbers.

Mr Pat Wisniewski, of Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust runs the Amophibian Breeding Centre in his home and has bred all sorts of endangered molluscs, fishes, amphibians and reptiles. Some for the first time ever in captivity.

Mike Jordan, now a curator at Chester used to have a collection of rodents and bred the critically endangered Turkish Spiny Mouse in private.

I'm sure there are many more people out there doing all sorts of things. The trouble with private breeders is that so many of their achievements remain private.
 
the socorro dove. bali mynah. perth zoo recently sent a captive-bred orang back to the wild as part of a pilot release program.
whipsnade has sent hippo back to africa. Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo has returned blackbuck to Pakistan. Theres the case of the malleefowl (reintroduction), lord howe island stick insect (captive assurance program), fijian crested iguana(captive assurance program), western swamp tortoise (reintroduction and captive assurance), numbat (reintroduction and captive assurance), black-eared miner and orange bellied parrot, helmeted honeyeater (zoo breed and release programs),shark bay mouse and dibbler (captive assurance programs), brush-tailed rock wallaby and yellow footed rock wallaby and bridled nailtailed wallaby (captive assurance and reintroduction). Stick nest rats. Eastern Barred Bandicoots. Mala. Bilby
melbourne zoo did 'save' Hong Kongs Romers Tree Frog. Taronga with the Green and Golden Bell Frog. Regents Honeyeater. Here in Australia most of the native species that are the subject of zoo breeding programs are nominated as needing a captive breeding component to aid recovery by the relevent government departments. When this approach works, it does so effectively. In some cases like the critically endangered leadbeater possum, state run zoos find it difficult to justify intensive captive propogation programs without govt support, particularly when a species survival could cost jobs.
. There are many more species in the future which are sadly, likely to need zoos. These could include Southern Cassowary and Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat, as well as red-tailed phascogale, and leadbeaters possum. This is just in Australia and some nearby nations.
Take a look at the collaborative work being done between New Zealand's Zoos and the NZ dept of conservation DOCS. Or in the US where the zoo network seems to be assisting recovery processes left right and centre. Or the UK, where not even lowly invertebrates escape the attention of ZSL.
Zoo breeding programs are a sad sign of the times
 
It was one of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey who saved the Pere David's Deer. In the 1920s he obtained all the known captive specimens and when the war started in 1939 he had over 250.
 
bongorob said:
It was one of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey who saved the Pere David's Deer. In the 1920s he obtained all the known captive specimens and when the war started in 1939 he had over 250.
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Not quite.... I think West Berlin wouldn't part with theirs....

The Duke is variously recorded as obtaining either 16 or 18 deer as the founder stock of his herd. Probably only about half would have been females.
 
Actually I meant West Berlin not you. Sorry for the confusion. No offence was intended.

I just did a swift calculation, if the herd grew from about 16-18 to over 250 in about 15 years it is an amazing survival rate for the young.
 
A misunderstanding but no offence taken!

I believe Woburn's Pere David's were initially kept in a large enclosure, and then, once breeding satisfactorily, were allowed free in the main park. No doubt a group of 16-18 were stimulated to full rutting behaviour which was possibly not the case under zoo conditions, so all females bame pregnant. I would think calving success was nearly 100% as climatically they seem well suited to the British climate, even though with a rutting period in the summer, the calves must be born fairly early in the year.

Compare with the Swamp Deer at Woburn. This more tropical species has been kept there for a similar period of time to the Pere Davids, also at full liberty in the main park but for many years they didn't increase-if anything they dwindled in number. I think the main reason was high mortality of the newborn young in typical British wet weather.

Nowadays the Swamp deer are kept in the grounds of 'Paris House' in one seperate corner of the Park- its a sort of 'minipark' half of which is a thick wood they can access for shelter, and they seem to be doing much better- numbers are now up to around 70-100 or more and they may even cull them.

I know they cull the Pere Davids(at least the stags- I've seen them hanging up)
 
Of course, in a large area with several Pere David's males the dominant male would obviously be the strongest, so his young would be stronger. In a zoo the females get to breed with the only male available, which does not always mean that he is the best one available.
 
bongorob said:
Of course, in a large area with several Pere David's males the dominant male would obviously be the strongest, so his young would be stronger. In a zoo the females get to breed with the only male available, which does not always mean that he is the best one available.
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Yes and if in a zoo with say, just a trio, if the stag is infertile then there's no breeding. A larger group ensures that infertility or weaker animals aren't an issue where breeding is concerned- the hinds get mated by the strongest stag but probably a few others too- so they defintely get fertilized on way or another.

It seems the Duke recognised the need to stimulate better breeding performance by getting them into a single herd. Very farsighted I think.
 
Incidentally, at Woburn the Pere David's deer don't rut at all like the Red Deer- its not a 'master stag' running round like a sheepdog rounding up the females and defending them from other males. Its far more of a 'community affair'- a huge assemblage of females all closely packed together (like a wildebeest herd!) with several (not just one) stags moving around amongst them and calling. But these are always definately the biggest, dominant males. All the other stags are excluded from the action and are on the periphery.
 
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