Great news! WWCC is really striding forward in leaps and bounds in terms of imports, hopefully they will be able to have breeding success with some of these species.
Wild Cat Conservation Centre News
- Thread starter Riley
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Great news! WWCC is really striding forward in leaps and bounds in terms of imports, hopefully they will be able to have breeding success with some of these species.
Absolutely wonderful news.
Hopefully a female for him will soon follow. It'll be quite the achievement if WCC manage to breed this highly elusive species who are incredibly tough to breed in captivity.
Which zoos have bred Fishing Cat in the past? Just Taronga, or Melbourne as well? The Big/Small Cats discussion thread might have some data, I'll look it up. I wonder whether recent struggles (at both Taronga and Hamilton) have been simply bad luck due to the individuals involved, or whether there are other difficulties at play.
Would Taronga have bred their Fishing Cats entirely off-display (in the Jungle Cats complex)? If they're able to import a female, not being in a mainstream zoo (with the interruptions and pressures of visitors and the like) could potentially work in WCCC's favour.
Melbourne Zoo have also bred Fishing cat. Hamilton Zoo received a female named Imphal, who was born at Melbourne Zoo 22/10/1998.
1.1 Fishing cats were born at Taronga Zoo 12/01/2002 and named Berenang and Cantik. Media releases note they were the first of their species born at the zoo. Their dam was named Fiddle and had one of her legs amputated after an altercation through the mesh with a Temminck’s golden cat, who were held in the Small Cats Building. The proximity of the two species makes their breeding success all the more remarkable - which would also be the challenge of the WCCC.
Additional Fishing cat information:
No Fishing cat were held in the region prior to 1985.
Australasian held a total of 18 Fishing cat between 1985-2015 with holders including Taronga, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hamilton Zoo.
Of these 18 cats:
4 were born between 1985-1994
14 were born between 1995-2004
There have been no births from 2005 onwards
From this we can assume the four born 1985-1994 were two imported pairs (a minimum of two had to be imported).
The 14 cats born between 1995 were a combination of imported animals (including a male from Singapore Zoo born 2002) and kittens bred at Taronga (early 2000’s) and Melbourne Zoo (late 1990’s).
Of these 14 cats, a further three died as neonates - either siblings of other kittens such as Imphal; or an unsuccessful litter that was never announced.
A first for the facility. Two (1.1) Cheetah cubs have been born to female Emmy presumably the individual from Australia Zoo that was imported from South Africa:
"We’ve been keeping a little secret these last few weeks…well, two secrets actually! On the first day of spring, Emmy the cheetah gave birth to two cubs, a male and a female! She is a first time mum, but is doing an amazing job so far, with motherhood coming to her very naturally. We are so excited not only for Emmy, but for these cubs, as they are the first cheetah to be born in Sydney. They are vital additions to the insurance population of cheetah, a program which is helping to save the species."
"We’ve been keeping a little secret these last few weeks…well, two secrets actually! On the first day of spring, Emmy the cheetah gave birth to two cubs, a male and a female! She is a first time mum, but is doing an amazing job so far, with motherhood coming to her very naturally. We are so excited not only for Emmy, but for these cubs, as they are the first cheetah to be born in Sydney. They are vital additions to the insurance population of cheetah, a program which is helping to save the species."
Since they have had the species for some time now its likely they have mixed up some breeding ideas and or parter changes to get the results!
Fantastic news! Beginning with a founder base of 2.3 meant the females only had two males to choose from, which isn’t a huge number when you consider how critical mate choice is to the notoriously selective female of this species.
Nonetheless, a compatible pair was formed and two healthy cubs are the result. Given how common it is for female Cheetah to reject their young, it’s great to hear of Emmy taking to motherhood so well.
I am just wondering if the female of the first brother/sister pair "could" be bred to the new unrelated male from the second pair and possibly double the number of cubs that could be bred from the only 2 pairs in the region. Possibly worth a try?
I am just wondering if the female of the first brother/sister pair "could" be bred to the new unrelated male from the second pair and possibly double the number of cubs that could be bred from the only 2 pairs in the region. Possibly worth a try?
That’d be ideal, but it’s unlikely a successful introduction could be carried out, given how aggressive males of this species are to unfamiliar adult Clouded leopard.
Potentially, they could undertake AI but I suspect breeding efforts will focus on the newly imported breeding pair. Any cubs born to the first female would be half siblings of cubs born to the breeding pair - so wouldn’t have any breeding application in the region without further imports.
Ok let’s look at it from another perspective,at the moment the first pair breeding wise is looking at being a wright off, if they could at least attempt to breed from the first female and were successful its going to double the regions possible cubs bred. If another zoo/s do import in the future it could give the regional population a big boost. Nothing ventured nothing gained
Yes that’s possible. Ultimately it’d depend on the way the WCCC are utilising them. The non breeding sibling pair I’d imagine are the ones tour groups visit, while the breeding pair are kept permanently off display. If so, the value of a cohesive (sibling) pair may be valued over the breeding from the female, which could disrupt the pair bond with her brother.
The ideal would be to have multiple pairs held across the region’s zoos. Only Hamilton Zoo have publicly expressed an interest in the species, but given they’re small cats and most zoos could hold two pairs, it wouldn’t take many holders to achieve this. Having multiple pairs increases the chance new pairs can be formed from same aged cubs.
How much of an interest has Hamilton expressed if holding them, something on their website?
@Matt_C reported in was mentioned at their AGM in June this year as a species of interest - presumably due to the director’s US connections. I imagine they’d acquire a non breeding pair for display, so potentially a sibling pair bred at the WCCC.
It’ll be interesting to see if further imports follow from the WCCC. As a primarily off display facility, they’ll have an advantage in breeding this cat versus zoos lacking off display exhibits as Taronga did when attempting to breed in the 1990’s.
From my understanding they need very private cubbing/sleeping dens (perhaps even sound proofing), any lack of off display housing is going to be counter productive, I would of assumed Taronga should of known this?.
Taronga should have known this. They were also unsuccessful in breeding their Temminck’s golden cat, which isn’t surprised considering they were also kept on display.
Melbourne Zoo, which were highly successful in breeding multiple species of small cats published a paper in 1997 on the importance of off display exhibits for breeding (in regards to golden cats, but applicable to many other species including Clouded leopard).
It therefore wouldn’t surprise me if the WCCC are the first facility in the region to successfully breed Clouded leopard.
This would point to them being only for display purposes only?
They held two males between 1992 and 2000 and then received a female for breeding in 2001 when one of them was exported. They attempted to breed this female before the death of the male in 2002 and then imported a new male, who they tried unsuccessfully to breed her to as well. She was exported in 2008 to Hamilton, where she was killed by her intended mate - they also had on display exhibits.
Only Auckland and Melbourne have successfully bred this species and both had off display exhibits.
These are known facts so one would assume major zoos above all others should really know this
Information on Clouded Leopard Import
Thanks to @Joseph G, we have the date of birth for the female Clouded leopard imported this year - Moana was born 16/05/2018. She has a twin sister named Aurora.
Interestingly, Moana wasn’t paired with the male (Mark) when they were cubs, which is a common method of forming pairs in this species due to aggression from the male during introductions to unfamiliar females. This will complicate their introduction as a breeding pair, but hopefully the park will be able to achieve a successful pairing nonetheless.
Thanks to @Joseph G, we have the date of birth for the female Clouded leopard imported this year - Moana was born 16/05/2018. She has a twin sister named Aurora.
Interestingly, Moana wasn’t paired with the male (Mark) when they were cubs, which is a common method of forming pairs in this species due to aggression from the male during introductions to unfamiliar females. This will complicate their introduction as a breeding pair, but hopefully the park will be able to achieve a successful pairing nonetheless.