White Oak Conservation Center White Oak Conservation Center

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okapikpr

Well-Known Member
White Oak Conservation Center has a large collection of hoofstook, carnivores, and birds including: Giant Eland, Rhinoceros (Indian, S Black, White), Gerenuk, Bongo, Okapi, Cheetah, Maned Wolf, Florida Panther, MS Sandhill Crane, Currasows, Andean Condors, and Wattled Cranes.

As for the Okapi, we have the largest "herd" in the world (a title we share with Epulu) both of us have 14 each, but White Oak owns all the animals at both facilities. We acquired our first okapi in 1990 from Brookfield Zoo and imported 2.1 from the Epulu Okapi Station in the DRC. Since then we have bred 33 calves the last occured August 2007 and we have another due in Sept 2008 & Feb 2009. They are housed in two seperate areas totalling 23 acres combined. Our two Epulu males are still alive and breeding, one of them Romakari is the oldest breeding male in the US.

We got involved with Epulu in the mid 1980s and took over operation in the late 1980s. It was a very active program (breeding wise), but it still is in the form of in-situ conservation and education. However do to the war, we haven't been able to do much. Since the new democratic elections, we have increased our presence and activity in Epulu. The great part of the Okapi Station is the Catch, Breed, and Release program. Most of the okapi captured for the station are maintained at the station and breed a few times, then released back into the wild successfully. I believe they have done this about three times so far and plan to do more now that it is safer.

I try and add more messages about our programs and news from time to time including our Rhino, Cheetah, and Florida Panthers.
 
Do you have the male Indian rhino "Patrick" there from the Toronto zoo?

Also are there any Okapi being imported into the US from captive bred stock at Epulu.
 
Yeah,

He is completely enjoying the Florida sun and his new girlfriend Mechi. He acclimated well to not having a barn.
 
He really liked living in his barn at Toronto and did not really go outside to much, glad he likes the sun down there. There are some pics of him in the gallery of him at Toronto
 
MARK said:
Also are there any Okapi being imported into the US from captive bred stock at Epulu.
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The captive bred stock at Epulu may be too old to ship out of the station. A possibility is to breed the captive bred stock and import their offspring, but that is still many years off and is contingent on the political situation which is "peaceful" for now.
 
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Hay great aireal of white oak- maybe you could add some sort of rough map as a layout to where each species is!

I transfered co-ordinates to my google earth- looks a huge and great place!
 
White Oak was the private estate of the late Howard Gilman, owner of what used to be the Gilman Paper Company. He was a lover of the arts and wildlife. There are about two dozen different houses on the property (he loved architecture), a dance studio, a golf course, stables with lots of throughbred horses, and the big game room (a large building Mr. Gilman used to entertain his guest including a massive dining room that can easily hold a few hundred people).
 
okapikpr said:
Yeah,

He is completely enjoying the Florida sun and his new girlfriend Mechi. He acclimated well to not having a barn.
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Patrick is genetically valuable as he is an old cohort of the first Washington NZP stock. Mechi is even more important as she is wild born from Nepal! Both are proven breeders :)

What has happened breeding wise with Patrick and Mechi? Any indication that introductions so far have been a success?

Another question: no good Mohan (also wildborn in Nepal) was sent out some time earlier. Do you know when and where? How has he been doing at the new site (any news that he has started breeding there)?
 
Patrick and Mechi are together and breeding. Mohan was sent to Miami Metrozoo. He is no longer producing sperm (at least he wasnt a few years back).
 
We just finished moving our breeding Southern Black Rhinos to a newly expanded complex for the species. We house 2.3 in our new complex and 3.0 rhinos are housed at our original rhino pens.
 
okapikpr said:
We just finished moving our breeding Southern Black Rhinos to a newly expanded complex for the species. We house 2.3 in our new complex and 3.0 rhinos are housed at our original rhino pens.
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What is happening in the Diceros bicornis minor SSP? I thought things were pretty stagnant with not enough unrelated bulls on offer and few breeding females? Any hope for change at White Oak soon?

When will the export of surplus minor bulls to Zimbabwe or Zambia go forward (to set up an in situ captive-breeding for release facility)?
 
The D.b.minor population sits at 29.21 in 11 institutions (including Dubbo in Australia). Big problem with this population: too many males, at White Oak alone we have only produced males. These males are taking up vaulable space (especially since this population also competes with the Eastern Black population for space). The Eastern Black has 38.31 in 27 facilites. The SSP won't allow breeding (in certain zoos) until space can be made or found in many zoos. Thus most of the breeding occurs at large private centers - allowing for potential over-representation of those animals at the private centers. Transfers are being reccommended to prevent this, but it wont correct the future problem.

According to the SSP there are 4 males categorized as surplus for movement outside the population - unsure if they will go to Africa. I believe White Oak is the only facility (in N America) to have reintroduced a black rhino (Tim) into the wild in 1998. As for more exports, I am unsure of a timeline.

As for White Oak, the newly expanded complex is tucked away from the majority of activity here - giving the rhinos a more private setting. And we added another male to the breeding program, giving the girls more of a choice. First introductions have been made and appear positive.

We also have a juvenile male that is the only offspring of his wild-caught sire. So this male in the future will be a big player in our breeding program or at hopefully another private center. This SSP just needs more facilities to accomplish what is needed.
 
I was already somewhat familiar with the current state of affairs in the SSP D.b. minor breeding programme. The policy puzzles me somewhat as in the wild in newly established populations, the percentage of males tends to be higher. I know some captive studies indicated that some elder females produce more male offspring also. All these effects have come into play in the D.b. minor programme.

I assume that the captive holding spaces in the US are not strictly limited to just the available D.b.michaeli spaces (obviously at taxon level these two ssp. compete for available rhino spaces). However, I suppose the GCAP and SSP collection planning for all rhinos have also something to do with available and allocated individual rhino spaces in participating SSP zoos.

I sincerely hope the solution may be found in allowing the white rhinos to leave most urban rhino zoo collections, thus freeing up extra spaces to be allocated to both black (2 ssp.) and Indian rhinos and allowing both to increase holding capacity to 75 each (a trend that is slowly starting to build momentum in the US, but which I figure could be persued with more vigour).


Re White Oak's minor blacks: which individuals are currently in residence?
I have on file:
M Clem (born
M Tom (born 1997)
M Lee (born 1994)
M Micky (born 2000)
M ? (born 2006) - name and date of birth unknown

F Ngwete
F Pombe (arrived 2003)
F ? - name, date of birth and history unknown

Can you fill in the blanks for us?
Which animals are in the breeding compound (M Clem, M II unnamed, F Ngwete, F Pombe, F III unnamed)?

Thanks,

Jelle
 
I sincerely hope the solution may be found in allowing the white rhinos to leave most urban rhino zoo collections, thus freeing up extra spaces to be allocated to both black (2 ssp.) and Indian rhinos and allowing both to increase holding capacity to 75 each (a trend that is slowly starting to build momentum in the US, but which I figure could be persued with more vigour).
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Actually most new rhino exhibits are involving White Rhinos (most zoos are also adding new African exhibits as opposed to Asian) because they are easier to maintain and there is a public misconception that white rhinos are the rarest (which used to be the case when today's parents were children).


Re White Oak's minor blacks: which individuals are currently in residence?
I have on file:
M Clem (born 1987 - died 2005)
M Tom (born 1997)
M Lee (born 1994)
M Micky (born 2000)
M T.C. "Squeaks" (born 1997)
M Peter (born 2005)

F Ngwete
F Pombe (arrived 2003)
F Onyx (born 1997 @ Fossil Rim, arrived 2005 from Milwaukee)

Can you fill in the blanks for us?
Which animals are in the breeding compound (M Clem, M II unnamed, F Ngwete, F Pombe, F III unnamed)? M T.C., M Tom, F Ngwete, F Pombe, F Onyx)
 
Okapikpr, how are the curassows at the centre doing?

I believe you have Blue billed, wattled and helmeted curassows. Are these species breeding on a regular basis?
Do you have any pictures of them?
What are the exhibits like, and do you have any pictures of the exhibits?

I've just read on your site that the wattled curassow, like the yellow knobbed (which I've seen at Antwerp), whistles. Have you got ant clips of these birds whistling, or maybe audio recordings?

If possible, could I use some of this information on my site, as I am doing a page on curassows at the minute, and it is always good to find a zoo that is participating so enthusiastically in these birds, and in conserving their natural environment.
 
Curassows

Okapikpr, how are the curassows at the centre doing?
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We have a small complex (12 pens) for these semi-large flighted birds. We hold three species Wattled, Blue-billed, and Northern Helmeted. We regularly breed all of the species every year. The captive population is very small for these birds and the founder # is less than 10 (i believe) for all three - not much to work with. We do double-clutch these birds (taking the first clutch to artificially incubate and rear, a second clutch is laid and raised by parents) to jump-start these numbers as high as we can.

The complex is basically a shelter with caging running out the sides, keeper hallway in the center of the shelter. The pens are heavily foilaged with shrubs, grasses, and small trees. Perches are also available. There are five pens along each side of the complex and those side-by-side have guillote doors to allow access to adjoining pen(s).

We have just entered clutching season...so i'm sure there will be more news regarding these birds later this year :)

Writhedhornbill is sent you a pm regarding your other questions.
 
Ituri said:
What ever happened to San Diego's D. b. minor's?
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They were sent to Peace River in Winter 2003-04. The breeder male died soon after arrival. The breeding female was sent to Milwaukee in 2006. and their male offspring still resides at Peace River...I assume he was transfered to their new facility in Rum Creek.
 
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