Zoo Conservation in Latin America

David Matos Mendes said:
Yes, I agree with you, being the budgets around here so low most of the times, I'm in favor of keeping only the exotic species that are already held, and that are in working breeding programs. I consider very important, for zoos here that have the possibility, to hold some exotic species to do so, this way also helping in their conservation, besides providing nice environmental education and knowledge about biodiversity of other parts of the world. So what I wanna emphasize is, in my opinion, it wouldn't be good to bring much more exotic species to be kept in our zoos, but make good use of the individuals that are already around here and try to help the preservation of their species too.

Of course, we have to analyze each case very well. Giving São Paulo zoo's example, wich we were discussing, I doubt the institution would be interested in and available to elaborate a whole new breeding program for bornean orangutans, so, when it's arrived the time for "Sansão" to complete his life cycle, it would be viable to unphase orangutans at the institution and start keeping another species in his exhibit; preferably a native one, like blond capuchins, for example, as you mentioned. In the case of the chimpanzees, thinking for the conservation point, they are actually breeding quite often, so it would be less viable to unphase them for now indeed.
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I have to respectfully disagree with the idea of bringing more exotic species to be kept in South American zoos for the reasons I've already given above. However, like I said I am not a zoo curator and ultimately my opinion on this matter is not really very important and it is also a bit of a minority one too.

Zoos in this region will ultimately do as they wish and I know that they are likely to continue the trend of displaying African and Asian megafauna to the public as this is the dominant model of zoo and these institutions are unwilling to break with the mould / tradition.

Regarding São Paulo zoos great apes I am not at all concerned about them in terms of their welfare as I know that they are looked after well and I am cynical of animal rights activists claims.

I do think that the zoo will probably phase out keeping orangutangs when Sansao passes away (beautiful animal and it will be a shame when he is no longer around).

I also agree with you that chimpanzees will continue to be bred by the zoo which is a great shame in my opinion as I would prefer them to be phased out and the emphasis to be placed on breeding the blond capuchins, black lion tamarins and other native primates.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I have to respectfully disagree with the idea of bringing more exotic species to be kept in South American zoos for the reasons I've already given above.

However, like I said I am not a zoo curator and ultimately my opinion on this matter is not really very important as zoos in this region will ultimately do as they wish and I know that they will continue to display African and Asian megafauna.

Regarding São Paulo zoos great apes I am not at all concerned about them in terms of their welfare as I know that they are looked after well and I am cynical of animal rights activists claims.

I do think that the zoo will probably phase out keeping orangutangs when Sansao passes away.

I also agree with you that chimpanzees will continue to be bred by the zoo which is a great shame in my opinion as I would prefer them to be phased out and the emphasis to be placed on breeding the blond capuchins, black lion tamarins and other native primates.
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Sorry, I think you missunderstood my point when talking about bringing more exotic animals to the country. I said exactly the opposite.:)

Maybe it would be interesting to phase out the chimps in order to focus in the native primates, but I don't know what could be done with them after all. For now, I think it would be better to continue keeping them.

Indeed it will be sad when "Sansão" passes away, I definitely think he's an awesome individual; but as we said, interesting opportunities can come when it happens.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Sorry, I think you missunderstood my point when talking about bringing more exotic animals to the country. I said exactly the opposite.:)

Maybe it would be interesting to phase out the chimps in order to focus in the native primates, but I don't know what could be done with them after all. For now, I think it would be better to continue keeping them.
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Yes, of course, I think that there is no other alternative than to keep the chimpanzees and I would expect the zoo to do so too as they have a duty of care to these animals for the rest of their lives.

But I think there would be methods of stopping them from breeding such as contraceptive implants and things like that if there was also the institutional will to implement this.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, of course, I think that there is no other alternative than to keep the chimpanzees and I would expect the zoo to do so too as they have a duty of care to these animals.

But I think there would be methods of stopping them from breeding such as contraceptive implants and things like that if there was also the institutional will to implement this.
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Yes, indeed, there are different opportunities to be chosen in the case of the chimpanzees.

By the way, could you understand what I meant when talking about not bringing more exotic animals?
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yes, indeed, there are different opportunities to be chosen in the case of the chimpanzees.

By the way, could you understand what I meant when talking about not bringing more exotic animals?
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Yes I did understand that you meant to continue with programes that are already existing in terms of exotic species in Brazilian zoos but not importing new species into the country and things like that.

Don't worry :) you didn't offend me about that David ;)
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes I did understand that you meant to continue with programes that are already existing in terms of exotic species in Brazilian zoos but not importing new species into the country and things like that.

Don't worry :) you didn't offend me about that David ;)
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I was afraid you had thought I meant about bringing more exotic species indeed. My comment might had got a little confusing. I just didn't wanna look like I was showing a different opinion from what I actually have. :)

By the way, I'm curious to know what you actually think about the transference of "Sansão" to the """sanctuary""". I mean, I think you're not in favor of these activists indeed, as well as me, but do you know something more about this other fauna keeper? For what I know, it has very similar methods to GAP.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
I was afraid you had thought I meant about bringing more exotic species indeed. My comment might had got a little confusing. I just didn't wanna look like I was showing a different opinion from what I actually have. :)

By the way, I'm curious to know what you actually think about the transference of "Sansão" to the """sanctuary""". I mean, I think you're not in favor of these activists indeed, as well as me, but do you know something more about this other fauna keeper? For what I know, it has very similar methods to GAP.
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No, don't worry :) I understood what you meant and there was a great argument in your comment and one that is quite valid too.

About this "sanctuary", I'm not sure I know what you mean, are you referring to GAP ? or is this some other place ?

With anti-zoo "animal rights" activists I'm just not convinced by their argument at all as I think many zoos are crucial institutions for ex-situ conservation of endangered species.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
No, don't worry :) I understood what you meant and there was a great argument in your comment and one that is quite valid too.

About this "sanctuary", I'm not sure I know what you mean, are you referring to GAP ? or is this some other place ?
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The sanctuary that is supposed to receive him is called "Anami" of something. I don't particularly know a lot about it, but for the kind of discurse they make, I'm considering them very alike.

I was curious if you had more information about this place in particular. Would like to know if their methods are questionable or simply unacceptable such as GAP's.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
With anti-zoo "animal rights" activists I'm just not convinced by their argument at all as I think many zoos are crucial institutions for ex-situ conservation of endangered species.
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Ah, sure, these are all people with a big lack of knowledge. I was mentioning if you had more information about what the institution is claiming to transfer him. Like, what was the discurse of the time, once I have very recently started to keep up with this case.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
The sanctuary that is supposed to receive him is called "Anami" of something. I don't particularly know a lot about it, but for the kind of discurse they make, I'm considering them very alike.

I was curious if you had more information about this place in particular. Would like to know if their methods are questionable or simply unacceptable such as GAP's.
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I have no idea about this particular place at all but I know there a number of animal sanctuaries here in Brazil for things like big cats, elephants and great apes.

In terms of animal sanctuaries, I'm sure many of them do great work in rehabilitating exotic animals and wildlife and things like that.

However, these kind of things are individual animal welfare issues and this isn't conservation of species / biodiversity / ecosystems so it isn't something that really interests me.

I think a lot of the methods of sanctuaries are unacceptable and ethically questionable and this is often related to extremist ideology and stances on animal rights.

I do not think that animal rights activists are qualified to talk about complex conservation issues or to impede or sabotage conservation work from being done and I don't like ideologues.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I have no idea about this particular place at all but I know there a number of animal sanctuaries here in Brazil for things like big cats, elephants and great apes.

In terms of animal sanctuaries, I'm sure many of them do great work in rehabilitating exotic animals and wildlife and things like that.

However, these kind of things are individual animal welfare issues and this isn't conservation of species / biodiversity / ecosystems so it isn't something that really interests me.

I think a lot of the methods of sanctuaries are unacceptable and ethically questionable and this is often related to extremist ideology and stances on animal rights.

I do not think that animal rights activists are qualified to talk about complex conservation issues or to impede or sabotage conservation work from being done and I don't like ideologues.
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I totally agree. Sanctuaries are usefull for dogs, cats, rescued chickens, cows or whatever, but not for conservation, nor for "rescuing" wild animals from zoos.

Their ideologies sometimes unfortunately affect the good work that many zoos develop.

Also don't think these activists are qualified to talk about it and change anything in the conservation of one nor any species.
 
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David Matos Mendes said:
I totally agree. Sanctuaries are usefull for dogs, cats, rescued chickens, cows or whatever, but not for conservation, nor for "rescuing" wild animals from zoos.

Their ideologies sometimes unfortunately affect the good work that many zoos develop.

Also don't think these activists are qualified to talk abou it and change anything in the conservation of one nor any species.
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The problem is that here in Brazil and Latin America it is zoos that are actually the places where rescued wild animals that cannot be rehabilitated to the wild end up so a lot of the rhetoric that is anti-zoo that comes from animal rights activists is actually incoherent.
 
Perhaps some of the Latin American zoos could rise a few $ catching some of the feral wild Hippos living there and exporting the young to overseas zoos while making a documentary/s about it and selling that to the TV channels perhaps some income for the zoos ;)
 
Zorro said:
Perhaps some of the Latin American zoos could rise a few $ catching some of the feral wild Hippos living there and exporingt the young to overseas zoos while making a documentary/s about it and selling that to the TV channels perhaps some income for the zoos ;)
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I would love to see the hippos go from that river in Colombia for sure, they really do need to be removed.
 
Zorro said:
Perhaps some of the Latin American zoos could rise a few $ catching some of the feral wild Hippos living there and exporting the young to overseas zoos while making a documentary/s about it and selling that to the TV channels perhaps some income for the zoos ;)
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Yeah, they really need to be removed. Although I don't think there are any efforts happening to do so in the moment...
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
It would be nice if zoos could take them rather than the lethal control options but even in regions of the world where hippos aren't kept very frequently in captivity I don't know if there would be any zoos who would have the interest or money to take these feral ones in Colombia.
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Yeah, it might be too out of hand to transport them, but some of them would probably fit well in some zoos around the continent.

Does somebody know how many individuals they are now and if there's some kind of organization doing something about them?
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yeah, it might be too out of hand to transport them, but some of them would probably fit well in some zoos around the continent.

Does somebody know how many individuals they are now and if there's some kind of organization doing something about them?
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I had read something on the net a while ago saying there were around 100 of them also one made its way to and came out on a Mexican beach :D
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yeah, it might be too out of hand to transport them, but some of them would probably fit well in some zoos around the continent.

Does somebody know how many individuals they are now and if there's some kind of organization doing something about them?
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Perhaps some of the American zoos would love to help out moving them and kick in a few dollars maybe sell any film to animal planet or some other tv show!
 
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