Species Never Successfully Bred In Zoos

B

Blackduiker

Well-Known Member
I'm just curious, but maybe some of our more knowledgeable members can enlighten us. We're mainly concerned with mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians now seen in captivity, but have never been successfully bred.
 
Quite difficult to find a bird or mammal kept quite regularily in recent times but not bred. Some birds are kept only as rescued individuals - Osprey, for example.

Many birds and mammals didn't bred, but these only made it a few times to zoos in past decades, when husbandry was poorly known...
 
Jurek7 said:
Quite difficult to find a bird or mammal kept quite regularily in recent times but not bred. Some birds are kept only as rescued individuals - Osprey, for example.

Many birds and mammals didn't bred, but these only made it a few times to zoos in past decades, when husbandry was poorly known...
Click to expand...

For instance, and someone correct me if I'm wrong; but has the Platypus ever been successfully bred and reared in captivity? I don't remember hearing of it, but we may need someone in Australia to step in. And like the Echidna a Monotreme so I guess we're talking about a successful hatching. Success would also mean surviving more than just a few days.
 
Blackduiker said:
For instance, and someone correct me if I'm wrong; but has the Platypus ever been successfully bred and reared in captivity? I don't remember hearing of it, but we may need someone in Australia to step in. And like the Echidna a Monotreme so I guess we're talking about a successful hatching. Success would also mean surviving more than just a few days.
Click to expand...

I can think of four times that a platypus has bred just off the top of my head but it may be more. And when Perth Zoo bred an echidna puggle last year all of the newspapers and stuff were saying it was only the 11th time ever which really surprised me.
 
I think that both Healesville and Warrawong sanctuaries as well as Taronga Zoo have all bred platypuses in the past; I remember reading something a couple of years back about a possible 2nd generation captive birth (in Sydney?), don't know if it happened though. As you say, I think we might need some confirmation.
 
nayer said:
I think that both Healesville and Warrawong sanctuaries as well as Taronga Zoo have all bred platypuses in the past; I remember reading something a couple of years back about a possible 2nd generation captive birth (in Sydney?), don't know if it happened though. As you say, I think we might need some confirmation.
Click to expand...

The second generation birth was at Healesville in their amazing platypus dome which is among my top 10 favorite exhibits ever. One of the parents was born at Taronga Zoo in the Creatures of the Woolemi exhibit but I can't remember where the other parent was born.
 
Jurek7 said:
Quite difficult to find a bird or mammal kept quite regularily in recent times but not bred. Some birds are kept only as rescued individuals - Osprey, for example.

Many birds and mammals didn't bred, but these only made it a few times to zoos in past decades, when husbandry was poorly known...
Click to expand...

In my country the Jerez Zoo keeps ospreys and I thinks that aren't rescued birds - I don't know if they breed regularly-.

But in the past I searched in ISIS and I found birds that completely sure never breed in captivity, such as Argus Nighjar, Eurasian Nighjar, a kind of albatross, and Common Swift. For sure they're all rescued birds...

I know that Dugongs never breed in captivity... and manatees do it very hardly.

And... can be reproduced in captivity the sea turtles??? I always am surprised with the zoo that keeps sea turtles...
 
There are various species that, if at all, have only rarely made it into zoos and most often did not last long enough to reproduce. "Famous" mammal species like Elephant Seals, Mountain Nyala, Saola, Kouprey, Indri, Giant Forest Hog, Giant armadillo, Fanaloka, Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, Hoatzin, Bulwer's pheasant, but also less known leporids, small canidae and other smaller carnivora members, various Insectivora/Macroscelididae/Bradypodidae, several rodent, Callitrichinae and cetacea species, pangolins, African manatee, Marine Iguana, earless monitor lizard, several snake or Angudaie species as well as most (micro)chiroptera...have not reproduced in captivity.
Have Forest Elephants and Eastern Gorillas ever been bred in captivity-?


Don't forget amphibians and fish, especially the popular larger shark species, moonfish, tunas, the various famous candiru species...And don't get me started on invertebrates...

Actually, in comparison to the diversity of life this planet offers, only a small minority of species (mostly the medium-to larger sized "mega"vertebrates) has actually been bred in captivity

@Kakapo: There is one zoo/aquarium in Japan that breeds sea turtles-just like several sea turtle farms, like in the one on the Cayman Islands.
 
eastern gorilla's have been bred in Antwerp, one of the two females still living there is born in the zoo, and they also bred elephant seals in the 70's from Antwerp it went to Berlin.
 
And to add more species to the list what about pangolins, armadillo's are anyway hard to breed (not impossible except for the subterranean species), parrots as agapornis nigrigenis or pygmeeparrots.
So i can continue for a long time :).
 
Thanks for the info about the Eastern Gorillas, but I somehow doubt the alleged successful elephant seal breeding; can you provide more data? As far as I know, neither in the Northern (first breeding in Orlando, 1978) nor the Southern Elephant Seal (Stuttgart, 1965/6, and as mentioned Antwerp), the pups survived for long-which would be one of my criteria to call it "successful".

Pangolins have already been mentioned.:p
And about armadillos: it does depend on the species; the Brazilian lesser long-nosed armadillo, the Pink Fairy Armadilloand the already mentioned Giant Armadillo seem to not have been bred in the past.

Another candidate: was the Silky anteater ever bred in captivity? What about marsupial moles? Golden Moles? etc. etc.
 
the young is born on 21-4-1977 and later transported to West-Berlin maybe one of the germans can tell when it died. His mum only died in 96
his father in 88.

source laafsekikkers.be
 
Kakapo said:
Eurasian Nighjar
Click to expand...

Most European birds were occassionally bred by bird fanciers in early 20. century, when keeping native birds as pets was still common in Europe. I remember somebody bred Nightjars. And strange stuff like Grasshopper Warblers, Nighthingales etc. was kept and maybe bred from time to time.
 
Sun Wukong said:
Pangolins
Click to expand...

Pangolins recently bred at Taipei.

I think Colugos, Indris, Sportive Lemurs and Marsupial Moles never survived in captivity. Although wild Colugos breed nicely on the grounds of Singapore Zoo.

Shrews and moles are rarely kept. Considering their appetite, I think nobody ever bred most of those.

But I remember seeing some non-native shrew species in London's Clore in late 1990s. What was it? And did it bred?

And was Narwhal ever kept in captivity? And Ribbon Seal?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top