Species not in zoos that we'd want to see in zoos

31-01-2008

@Perinax: Yes, the conservation center in Calabar might be a good source for new specimen. Hannover Zoo & the ZGAP and various others support the project, and as Hannover has enough money at the moment, a tiny bit of that could be successfully invested in drills. Still, I'm still a little doubtful whether this will be enough...
Pandrillus

01-02-2008

The most flourishing groups of Mandrills in the UK at present have a similarly small founder-base as the European Drills but they have been doing very well of late...

01-02-2008

@Pertinax: ...yet in difference to Drills, it shouldn't be difficult to find replacements, f.e. from mainland Europe, in the case the groups break down...

01-02-2008

True -and there are other unrelated ones in the Uk too.

01-02-2008

To go back to the original question, while I understand the reservations that people have expressed, I think there will be cases in the near future when adding new species to the world's zoos will be justified.
I think it is inevitable that there will be a few species that will become gravely endangered and where there will be no possibility of a successful in situ breeding programme. For example Jersey's work with the Montserrat oriole was, and is, entirely justified - further erruptions could threaten the entire island again. It is quite possible that other species could be so threatened by disease or uncontrolled hunting/poaching that ex situ breeding might be their only chance.
The other way that new species have arrived is from animals originally collected for scientific research. For example the naked mole rat was originally studied in labs around the world before some colonies were put on show in zoos. Likewise the lemur collection at Duke University has been very important in developing expertise and building populations of several species.
The species that I'd like to see regularly in zoos has been exhibited for a while at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, on loan from Oxford University, but wasn't there last summer. It's the wonderful New Caledonian crow, which seems to be a very ordinary small black crow, but is really the cleverest bird in the world. These birds have been kept, bred and studied at Oxford for several years (in parallel with studies in the field and at other universities). I would love to see a pair of these birds in a special display aviary where they could be fed in ways that require them to show off their ability to make tools. For examples of the amazing behaviour of this species see Introduction to tool use in New Caledonian crows

Alan

__________________
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

27-03-2008

POTTO,
In your wish list of animals you would like to see in zoos, you mention the beira antelope. There is a captive breeding program for this species at the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation located in Qatar on the Arabian Pennisula. The current population of beira is about 40 individuals. Hopefully, the population will grow and beira will be sent to other facilities. Al Wabra is also trying to obtain dibatag for captive breeding.

10-06-2008

I would love to see a live kouprey. But we don't even know if this animal still existed in the wild.

11-06-2008

@yangz: Currently, the status of the kouprey as a species on its own has been re-affirmed;
The Extinction Website Forum - The forum about extinct animals and plants - Login
Whether or not it still exists, is another matter; judging from the still occuring reports of sighting and kouprey body parts turning up on markets, I think that there is a (though rather) slim chance that the species still exists, at least in relict populations.

The book I mentioned in "Which zoo(s) keep(s)", regarding the husbandry of Asian River Dolphins makes me wonder once again whether it wouldn't be such a bad idea to catch at least a few specimen of either the Ganges or Indus Platanista-form or even the Vaquita to assemble an in-situ and/or ex-situ captive, managed population "just in case", to avoid a scenario similar to that of the Baiji.

11-06-2008

I think river dolphins would do great in zoos because they are nearly blind and wouldn't need a naturalistic tank just lots of obstacles. As well as Ethipian Wolves because they're just another canine species that will most likely thrive.

12-06-2008

I would like to see a Platypus in real life . I know that the export to other zoo's is forbidden by the Australian governement. I know the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium had one in 1993 because they celebrated their 150th birthday but it was just for a short period.

12-06-2008

Never knew Antwerp had a platypus so recently!
Anyone got any info on this animal, pics etc

12-06-2008

@PAT: just because their sight is limited doesn't mean that one doesn't have to care about the enclosure design. And why should there be many obstacles?

12-06-2008

Drills are apparently not that difficult to breed, only they need herd/harem structure.

There was a kind of demographic low in zoos, because many zoos had too old animals, only pairs, incompatible individuals etc., only now zoo drill population starts to recover.



About kouprey - unfortunately, I read that recent searches with local interviews found it probably extinct since over a decade - "although it is not impossible that one or two individuals remain overlooked".

12-06-2008

any info or links to this? It sounds very unlikely that Antwerp would have had a platypus in 1993

12-06-2008

No I haven't. I can't find anything about it on the web. It was just for 1 season. They also had a couple koala's from the San Diego zoo.