What species are not allowed to be bred in zoos inthe UK and why?

Javan Rhino said:
Another thing I feel makes a mockery of the whole invasive species act is that whilst zoos - licensed institutions that are generally run in a professional capacity and are required to account for their animals and keep them in secure enclosures aren’t allowed to keep these species, but any Tom, Dick or Harry can let their domestic cat out to run wild and cause havoc to the ecosystems. I would say that in this country cats are one of the most damaging invasive species going, yet no hope of that changing
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Good point, totally agree about domestic cats and their impact on biodiversity.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Sorry, I really have to ask this, how the hell has South-lakes not been shut down because of irresponsible management?
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It came within a shrew's hair of happening, and things got a lot worse there as the 00's and early 10's progressed. However, the collection is now under new (and effective) management and is no longer in the hands of the founder and original owner, and by all accounts has turned things around quite well!

There are probably well over two-dozen threads on this site charting the myriad lows, and the slow improvement, of the collection in question.
 
How about Reeves' muntjacs (Muntiacus reevesi)? Isn't there a wild population around in the UK of this species?
 
Javan Rhino said:
Another thing I feel makes a mockery of the whole invasive species act is that whilst zoos - licensed institutions that are generally run in a professional capacity and are required to account for their animals and keep them in secure enclosures aren’t allowed to keep these species, but any Tom, Dick or Harry can let their domestic cat out to run wild and cause havoc to the ecosystems. I would say that in this country cats are one of the most damaging invasive species going, yet no hope of that changing
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It's an important point but I don't think it's reasonable to suggest that this has anything to do with the invasive species act. It's clearly a separate - although very important - issue.
 
Shirokuma said:
It's an important point but I don't think it's reasonable to suggest that this has anything to do with the invasive species act. It's clearly a separate - although very important - issue.
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You don't think a species being invasive and causing demonstrable damage being permitted, but a species which is only potentially so being banned, has any bearing on the matter?

Despite your protestations above you do seem pretty determined to defend the legislation against any criticism by dismissing problems people cite as not being relevant or having anything to do with the matter, or not agreeing that they *are* problems :p
 
TeaLovingDave said:
You don't think a species being invasive and causing demonstrable damage being permitted, but a species which is only potentially so being banned, has any bearing on the matter?

Despite your protestations above you do seem pretty determined to defend the legislation against any criticism by dismissing problems people cite as not being relevant or having anything to do with the matter, or not agreeing that they *are* problems :p
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I think they are clearly separate issues as I said in my previous post. No, I do not accept that the issue of the impact of domestic cats is relevant to legislation concerning invasive species. It is no doubt something to be addressed but I don't think this legislation is the place to do that.

And you are distorting my views. I am not dismissing problems and I am not here to defend the legislation, I simply do not accept that it is utterly without merit or 'made a mockery of' because it is flawed and I accept that it is not perfect.
 
Shirokuma said:
I simply do not accept that it is utterly without merit or 'made a mockery of' because it is flawed and I accept that it is not perfect.
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I don't think anyone here has said it's "utterly without merit" to be fair :) there's definitely merit in the overall concept, and there are certainly some species which need restricting; it's merely dogged with double-standards, hypocrisies and slippery slopes.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
It came within a shrew's hair of happening, and things got a lot worse there as the 00's and early 10's progressed. However, the collection is now under new (and effective) management and is no longer in the hands of the founder and original owner, and by all accounts has turned things around quite well!

There are probably well over two-dozen threads on this site charting the myriad lows, and the slow improvement, of the collection in question.
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Good to hear that they turned it around but my god...what a place it used to be..

Endangered species practically being given as snacks to others for "mixed species exhibits", aggressive constrictor snakes being put in the public walk through enclosures and the introduction of invasive species like coatis.

It really seems that it was once in a league of its own in terms of just total chaos, stupidity and willing negligence.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Well, to be fair that one wasn't deliberate ;) nor were the agoutis and prairie dogs, though these were a lot more short-lived and never truly established themselves.
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Agoutis and prarie dogs too ?!... haha... ok , yes , Southlakes really were in a destructive league of their own :rolleyes:

I'd love to know what the story behind the yellow anaconda being put in the walkthrough enclosure was.
 
JurassicMax said:
How about Reeves' muntjacs (Muntiacus reevesi)? Isn't there a wild population around in the UK of this species?
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Yes, they are widespread and locally common in England. The wild population in China was also recently classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Muntjac were included in the European legislation for the (rather unlikely in practice) possibility of being transported and released in the mainland Europe.

In the UK muntjacs has been already common in the wild for the long time, so keeping and possibly releasing them has no influence on their status in the wild. But now the Muntjac has remained banned in zoos in the UK which makes no sense at all. Grey squirrel and Egyptian goose are in the same situation in the UK.

Similar idiotic situation concerns e.g. raccoon in Germany, which is long established and very common in the wild, but is banned because it could be invasive in Spain. Or American bison which is banned Europe-wide for the purpose of protecting few extremely local (unfortunately) groups of European bison from the off chance of an American bison farm starting nearby and a bison escaping and not being recovered. For this extremely local situation the American bison is banned all over Europe. Which is likely dead law.
 
Jurek7 said:
Similar idiotic situation concerns e.g. raccoon in Germany, which is long established and very common in the wild, but is banned because it could be invasive in Spain. Or American bison which is banned Europe-wide for the purpose of protecting few extremely local (unfortunately) groups of European bison from the off chance of an American bison farm starting nearby and a bison escaping and not being recovered. For this extremely local situation the American bison is banned all over Europe. Which is likely dead law.
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I believe the racoon has already been recorded as being an invasive species in Spain though I'm not sure if it has effectively established itself within the country yet.

When I lived in Madrid (about 5 years ago) I remember they were being reported as being roadkill and seen in National parks along with skunks.
 
Jurek7 said:
Or American bison which is banned Europe-wide for the purpose of protecting few extremely local (unfortunately) groups of European bison from the off chance of an American bison farm starting nearby and a bison escaping and not being recovered. For this extremely local situation the American bison is banned all over Europe.
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This is one of the more infuriating ones, as quite a few of the collections holding American Bison in Europe have purebred stock with no "beefalo" contamination - whilst most of the collections holding the species in the USA *do* have hybrids.... although by no means all.

So a breeding ban on this species and letting it die off represents a very real material loss - exporting the pure ones back to North America being infeasible given the many restrictions on hoofstock imports there.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
This is one of the more infuriating ones, as quite a few of the collections holding American Bison in Europe have purebred stock with no "beefalo" contamination - whilst most of the collections holding the species in the USA *do* have hybrids.... although by no means all.

So a breeding ban on this species and letting it die off represents a very real material loss - exporting the pure ones back to North America being infeasible given the many restrictions on hoofstock imports there.
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I hadn’t registered that American Bison had gone on the banned list. Rather a shame, if true.
 
Is there any capacity for EAZA or BIAZA to appeal the bans across the EU and UK, or at least lobby to amend certain aspects of it? Or have either organisations been involved as professional bodies when the act was being drafted?
 
Javan Rhino said:
Is there any capacity for EAZA or BIAZA to appeal the bans across the EU and UK, or at least lobby to amend certain aspects of it?
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I think there is some latitude for this - I know Brush-tailed Possum was removed from a pending addition to the list as a result.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
It came within a shrew's hair of happening, and things got a lot worse there as the 00's and early 10's progressed.
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Anyone younger or new to ZC should read some of the posts from 2005 (circa) onwards about SLWP. It was an example of how not to do things the majority of the time. It's also an excellent example of how changes can and do improve collections/zoos. As a 'general enthusiastic zoo visitor' 'and grade B nerd' with no hands on experience of zoo keeping I knew it was wrong back then. Read the historic posts on ZC, they are in my experience honest, accurate and just possibly helped the change management.
 
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