Wild sheep & goat in British zoos

kiang

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Looking at the absent in UK zoos thread, i thought how woefully represented wild goats and sheep are in the UK.
If it wasn't for the RZSS, with Japanese serow, Chinese grey goral, Afghan urial, Himalayan tahr, bharal and Turkmenian markhor, what would we be left with?
markhor at Blackpool, aoudad at Dudley, Paignton and west midlands sp, rocky mountain goat off show at Colchester, and on the verge of moving on and non specific mouflon elsewhere.
No ibex, no chamois, no bighorn sheep, no argali, no tur:eek:

Looking back we have had ibex at HWP and Norfolk wildlife park
chamois at blackpool and Auchengarrech
bighorn sheep at London and then on to Whipsnade
aoudad used to be seen in nearly every big zoological collection, now slowly disappearing from the UK, and with the rocky mountain goat about to leave too.

Hopefully more zoos will take on a few species, with so many rare or endangered in their homelands.
the likes of the bharal and the markhor would compliment many of the new snow leopard enclosures that have sprung up across the country, telling the relationship of predator and prey and the balance that entwines them both.

i also mentioned in my thread for the incomplete collection of Chester, there is a collection that does not keep any goat or sheep in any form.
Hopefully the new zoo planned will make room for a goat or a sheep of any kind.
 
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Do not forget London ZSL/Regent's Park. It used to house some caprids and ovids, including markhor.

But yes, all of that is down to a trickle across the UK.
 
Unfortunatley my experience is that visitors will quickly pass its enclosure as 'just goats/sheep' and quickly rush to something more 'exotic' than shepes or goats. Maybe this will explain why so few collections are willing to invest in wild goats or sheeps.
 
foz said:
Unfortunatley my experience is that visitors will quickly pass its enclosure as 'just goats/sheep' and quickly rush to something more 'exotic' than shepes or goats. Maybe this will explain why so few collections are willing to invest in wild goats or sheeps.
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It is not just whether they appeal to the wider general public, as public facilities zoos need to invest in endangered species and have representative animal collections. On face value, for caprids and ovids UK zoos are not doing so well I am afraid. From an endangered species p.o.v. quite a few caprids and ovids are endangered and can be relatively easily acquired.

Besides our duty to show up representative animal collections, zoos need to present their on show animals - whether elefant or carrion beetle - in such a manner that the general public WILL find them APPEALING. It is not just a high and mobile, it is the little brown numbers that require our equal deservedly so attention (why else would we need to conserve the natural world, if only for a few high profile, model and flagship species).

Well, I rest my case.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
It is not just whether they appeal to the wider general public, as public facilities zoos need to invest in endangered species and have representative animal collections. On face value, for caprids and ovids UK zoos are not doing so well I am afraid. From an endangered species p.o.v. quite a few caprids and ovids are endangered and can be relatively easily acquired.

Besides our duty to show up representative animal collections, zoos need to present their on show animals - whether elefant or carrion beetle - in such a manner that the general public WILL find them APPEALING. It is not just a high and mobile, it is the little brown numbers that require our equal deservedly so attention (why else would we need to conserve the natural world, if only for a few high profile, model and flagship species).

Well, I rest my case.
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I absolutley agree, but was just saying it was an unfortunate truth that most zoos would rather spend money on the large chrismatic elephant than a less chrismatic species like wild goats or sheeps.
 
foz said:
I absolutley agree, but was just saying it was an unfortunate truth that most zoos would rather spend money on the large chrismatic elephant than a less chrismatic species like wild goats or sheeps.
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I suppose we are very much in agreement here.

On a sobring note: looking at total figures, at this moment in time zoos can only realistically hold some 500 self-sustaining populations with good carrying capacity and sufficient/adequate number of founders.

It remains a veritable headache of a challenge if one realises how many species are endangered and all ...!!! Quite a humbling experience I am afraid.
 
This situation has bugged me for many years as caprines are one of my favourites animal groups. Almost any animal collection on the continent (especially in Germany) seems to have at least one species (usually more), but I can't come up with any sensible explanation for their unpopularity in UK zoos.
 
You forgot Africa Alive, they have a thriving breeding group of Barbary Sheep.

What surprises me is that the Highland Wildlife park haven't to my knowledge jumped at the chance to take on the Rocky Mountain goats from Colchester. Does anyone know why this is?
 
johnstoni said:
You forgot Africa Alive, they have a thriving breeding group of Barbary Sheep.

What surprises me is that the Highland Wildlife park haven't to my knowledge jumped at the chance to take on the Rocky Mountain goats from Colchester. Does anyone know why this is?
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I forgot AA:o

I too have raised this point with the management at RZSS, reagrding the rocky mountain goat, but the reply was that the goats are not a recommended species for the EAZA region therefore, their valuable space would be suited to another species.

Anyway, is it not time that other collections stood up and took a species into their collection, as mentioned above.
 
That's interesting, I wonder what caused Colchester to decide to try this species, given that they were housed in the childrens farm of all places?
 
Like any other species, wild sheep and goats need to be displayed well. Apart from the enclosures at HWP and the Barbary sheep enclosure at Paignton, I can't think of any UK zoo which has a rock face to show the climbing abilities of these species.
To be fair, few UK zoos have suitable physical environments for this type of display: apart from the ones mentioned above, I can only think of Whipsnade and Edinburgh which could construct reasonably natural-looking enclosures of this type.

Alan
 
Vulpes said:
Chamois absence is a real shame I think they are one of my favorites!
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Chamois is a difficult species and requires special care and climatic conditions. It is however a species - and certainly some of the ssp. (Pyrenean and Abruzzo) - that would benefit from more EAZA attention in Europe. Their potential for species recovery should be explored more widely.

With regard to Rocky Mtn. Goat, I can follow the gist of the EAZA. It is a species that would rather benefit more from exhibition in the US/Canadian zone than in the European. Potentially, this species has flagship status for N.American mountain range biome (but alas not for Europe, that is the domain of ibex (Pyrenean, Abruzzo and Carpathian).
 
^Chris^ said:
Isn't that also true of Himalayan Tahr?
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It is true. Both species are hunted as game, admittedly probably pretty tricky game. There are also tahr on Table Mountain in Capetown. There was some talk a couple of years ago to acquire animals (tahr) to restock in their natural range. I think the plan fell down a bit with the difficulty in capturing animals and the sheer cost.
 
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