The difficulty of keeping animals in captivity.

Panda_Fan

Panda_Fan

Well-Known Member
Hi evreyone! I've always asked the question of why certain animals are realy difficult to keep in captivity. I want this thread to be a place when people can give information and help other people understand why certain animals are difficult to keep.
As for me I've gather up information, to end up that we can divide the difficulty of animals into 3 groups.
  • The picky ones: when an animal can be kept in captivity, but only under very specific situations. Ex: Proboscis monkeys (very picky with their food) and river dolphins (don't need deep pools).
  • The timed ones: when an animal is keept in captivity only during a time and then it's reintroduced back to the wild. Ex: Grey whale (JJ).
  • The no-no ones: doesn't matter what you do, they'll die in a few days or hours. Ex: Narwhals (they will die out of stress).
If you want to add more groups or add animals to the groups, feel free to do so!
I hope that everyone enjoys this thread! :)Also, why do tarsiers and indris do so bad in captivity?
 
Xavier GM said:
Hi evreyone! I've always asked the question of why certain animals are realy difficult to keep in captivity. I want this thread to be a place when people can give information and help other people understand why certain animals are difficult to keep.
As for me I've gather up information, to end up that we can divide the difficulty of animals into 3 groups.
  • The picky ones: when an animal can be kept in captivity, but only under very specific situations. Ex: Proboscis monkeys (very picky with their food) and river dolphins (don't need deep pools).
  • The timed ones: when an animal is keept in captivity only during a time and then it's reintroduced back to the wild. Ex: Grey whale (JJ).
  • The no-no ones: doesn't matter what you do, they'll die in a few days or hours. Ex: Narwhals (they will die out of stress).
If you want to add more groups or add animals to the groups, feel free to do so!
I hope that everyone enjoys this thread! :)Also, why do tarsiers and indris do so bad in captivity?
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Tarsiers can actually do very well in captivity if conditions are right. I met a pair kept under planted aviary type conditions on their native island, that subsequently produced a world first successful captive breeding.
 
FBBird said:
Tarsiers can actually do very well in captivity if conditions are right. I met a pair kept under planted aviary type conditions on their native island, that subsequently produced a world first successful captive breeding.
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Thanks for clearing that out @FBBird. Seeing zootierliste, the site says that the only place outside of asia that holds tarsiers is Russia, which is a bit odd. Would love to know why they're mostly found in asia.
 
MOG2012 said:
What about animals that you can't replicate their habitat/environment? Like pelagic animals or deep sea animals
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@MOG2012 Love tha idea, but I thank that falls on the picky ones because thay need a specific thing that their natural habitat provides that few/none zoos can provide.
 
Xavier GM said:
Thanks for clearing that out @FBBird. Seeing zootierliste, the site says that the only place outside of asia that holds tarsiers is Russia, which is a bit odd. Would love to know why they're mostly found in asia.
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They’re prone to stress and also internal parasites, and would presumably need tropical house conditions if kept in northern latitudes.
 
MOG2012 said:
What about animals that you can't replicate their habitat/environment? Like pelagic animals or deep sea animals
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Monterey Bay Aquarium is making some awesome strides in deep-sea technology and has been successfully displaying some deep-sea life for some time now, ranging from Twilight Zone to Midnight Zone in depth I believe. Off the top of my head I only remember their ctenophores but they've had much more than those. Their technology is still very much in its infancy, but I imagine some really cool things could be accomplished as it evolves.
 
tigris115 said:
Wait, for stuff in the really deep sea, how do you replicate the pressure?
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I believe their approach is actually to very gradually acclimate them to surface pressure. For other species that this is not an option for, they can use pressurization chambers, but this is advanced and I don't know if they're actively utilizing this for now.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is a world leader in deep-sea research (MBARI) so this technology is incredibly useful for them to be developing. Display is just a nice byproduct; they want the ability to maintain live specimens for study.
 
Xavier GM said:
@MOG2012 Love tha idea, but I thank that falls on the picky ones because thay need a specific thing that their natural habitat provides that few/none zoos can provide.
Click to expand...

In that case, wouldn't all "no-no"s technically fall under the picky category? It's just that we don't really know what they are picky about, or maybe those requirements wouldn't be feasible due to certain constraints such as space and funding

Perhaps narwhals can be kept in captivity given we have a large enough area of cooled water, it just wouldn't be reasonable to fund or build it when the money and space can be used for other species with more pressing needs and which are less controversial to keep in captivity.

It makes more sense in my opinion to group these animals based on what requirement(s) make them difficult to keep, be it a specialised diet, space, environment, transport stress, etc.
 
Xavier GM said:
Hi evreyone! I've always asked the question of why certain animals are realy difficult to keep in captivity. I want this thread to be a place when people can give information and help other people understand why certain animals are difficult to keep.
As for me I've gather up information, to end up that we can divide the difficulty of animals into 3 groups.
  • The picky ones: when an animal can be kept in captivity, but only under very specific situations. Ex: Proboscis monkeys (very picky with their food) and river dolphins (don't need deep pools).
  • The timed ones: when an animal is keept in captivity only during a time and then it's reintroduced back to the wild. Ex: Grey whale (JJ).
  • The no-no ones: doesn't matter what you do, they'll die in a few days or hours. Ex: Narwhals (they will die out of stress).
If you want to add more groups or add animals to the groups, feel free to do so!
I hope that everyone enjoys this thread! :)Also, why do tarsiers and indris do so bad in captivity?
Click to expand...
What about animals that are rare or can’t be exported? Like Ethiopian wolves, pink fairy armadillos, and marine iguanas
 
Mossman Joe said:
In that case, wouldn't all "no-no"s technically fall under the picky category? It's just that we don't really know what they are picky about, or maybe those requirements wouldn't be feasible due to certain constraints such as space and funding

Perhaps narwhals can be kept in captivity given we have a large enough area of cooled water, it just wouldn't be reasonable to fund or build it when the money and space can be used for other species with more pressing needs and which are less controversial to keep in captivity.

It makes more sense in my opinion to group these animals based on what requirement(s) make them difficult to keep, be it a specialised diet, space, environment, transport stress, etc.
Click to expand...
I think that the "picky ones" should be those that are/we're kept successfully in captivity with in a long time, but required a specific need. The "no-no" should be a category that includes animals that for the moment can't be kept in captivity. Maybe in the future some animals will be able to be in zoos/aquariums, so maybe this thread could update on that.
 
MOG2012 said:
What about animals that are rare or can’t be exported? Like Ethiopian wolves, pink fairy armadillos, and marine iguanas
Click to expand...
They... Can't be exported, that's it, if you could export them and they could survive ex-situ I don't see why even creating a category for those.

As a matter of fact there's an Ugandan (which really is founded by a Swiss(?) person, it's just in Uganda) and a Japanese facilities which keep smuggled individuals of marine and land Galapagos iguanas.
 
Xavier GM said:
The "no-no" should be a category that includes animals that for the moment can't be kept in captivity.
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Aren't "timed ones" also in that category? One of the reasons bigger whales and pelagic sharks aren't kept permanently due to their complicated needs.
 
Xavier GM said:
I think that the "picky ones" should be those that are/we're kept successfully in captivity with in a long time, but required a specific need. The "no-no" should be a category that includes animals that for the moment can't be kept in captivity. Maybe in the future some animals will be able to be in zoos/aquariums, so maybe this thread could update on that.
Click to expand...

I suppose then you're grouping difficult to keep animals based on how long we can keep them, with ones we can keep long-term with some difficulty, ones we can only keep temporarily, and ones we can't keep at all.

Mickey said:
They... Can't be exported, that's it, if you could export them and they could survive ex-situ I don't see why even creating a category for those.

As a matter of fact there's an Ugandan (which really is founded by a Swiss(?) person, it's just in Uganda) and a Japanese facilities which keep smuggled individuals of marine and land Galapagos iguanas.
Click to expand...

I agree, it seems some of them aren't really difficult to keep, it's just procuring them legally is the hurdle here.
 
FBBird said:
Tarsiers can actually do very well in captivity if conditions are right. I met a pair kept under planted aviary type conditions on their native island, that subsequently produced a world first successful captive breeding.
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Absolutely.
Unless a specific and detailed description of what exactly is meant by 'captivity' is agreed on; then this discussion is pretty pointless.
 
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