What happend to the rheboks at San Diego Zoo ? There are only 2.3 listed on Isis for the zoo and one single male for the WAP. In 2005, I've seen more than 10 animals in a breeding group and a bachelor group of some males behind the scenes.So what happend to all these rheboks ? What are the plans for crowned duikers in the USA, there are just a few left at the San Diego Zoo and one animal at Lowry Park Zoo ?
Another Antelope which I feel is not to be seen in any US zoos anymore is the Hunters Antelope if I remember some years ago Brownsville zoo had a herd and San Deigo WAP had a very small herd I am sure they all gone now
Hunter's antelope used to be exhibited at 5 collections (4 US and 1 European). In 1978 US zoos (Brownsville, LAZoo, Tampa and San Diego Wild Animal Park held 8.10 individuals (2.2 captive-born). Breeding did occur, yet longevity and husbandry may have been an issue in long term sustainability of the US Hunter's antelope herd. I have a paper on the Brownsville herd somewhere, which I will dig out for you folks! Currently, it is considered too complex to breed Hunter's antelope (genus Beatragus) in captivity. I am not wholly in agreement with this assessment and feel we did not adequately address all husbandry issues in Alcelaphinae (hartebeests and topis). With the experience of Brownsville and Dvur in their successful breeding and maintenance, I feel in situ conservation breeding may be considered an option (several conservancies in central Kenya have both the infrastructure and facilities to do so). More on that later though!
Lowry is keeping some small antelope species, so crowned,blue and redflanked duikers and Steenbok. Do they keep all of them alone or in mixed exhibits ? What are the plans for the suni antelope, San Diego is the last zoo in the US with them.
ISIS shows that Baton Rouge zoo has 0.1 Suni (Neotragus moschatus), and both San Diego Zoo and Lowry Park Zoo have Royal Antelope (Neotragus pygmaeus). San Diego has 6.6 and LP zoo has 2.3.2.
Some of the rheboks have been transfered to at least 2 private facilites in texas and florida. The ones in texas are doing well and producing great i hear.
The San Diego Zoo still has 1.5 rhebok but are not on exhibit. Some were sent on breeding loans. As for suni, San Diego only had females so they too were sent out for breeding somewhere else. Sorry don't know where. There are 10 royal antelope in San Diego. It's been pretty successful in breeding this pair. It has a pair on exhibit near the camels. It's a small little exhibit tucked away that many people miss but they are on exhibit.
As has been lamented here and elsewhere, the majority of San Diego's hoofstock collection has dwindled in the past few years, either through attrition or through transfers to private holders. Both the royal antelope and rhebok were imported by San Diego with the hope of creating a sustainable population that could be loaned out to other zoos (probably while retaining ownership ... see red river hogs and koalas as examples). Over the past decades they have been bringing in new hoofstock by the boatload, but an unfortunate number of them end up dwindling off. In the case of the two species mentioned above, I'm not sure if there are enough spaces for "tiny little antelope" or "plain gray gazelle thingies" in other zoos, especially with more established programs (e.g., blue duiker) trying to expand. (FYI, the exhibit the royal antelope are housed in used to be the Tasmanian devil enclosure, for those that remember back to then). Other species which San Diego has imported (and then fizzled with) in recent history include bay duiker, Spanish ibex, blue sheep, forest buffalo, Persian fallow deer ... and the list goes on. A few have done reasonably well, notably the steenbok, Japanese serow, goral, and the addition of new blood to the red-flanked duiker population. The breeding male suni died in 2004, leaving them with an all-female group which have slowly aged and died off. The last few were sent to a private facility in Florida ... I'm not sure if it was for "breeding" or just to clear up space. When I last saw them in 2006, they were acknowledged as being "functionally extinct" in North America ...
