Zoo Reproductuion

Zoo Reproductuion
15-09-2007

for our aussies- 8.30 and sbs, there is a program on zoo reproduction (a.i among otehr things) on endagered species, looks good, and focus' on elephnats

it comes from our favorite germans! yes the A.I guys as affectinattly known in our region, present this program.

will be interesting!

16-09-2007

I just watched the show. I thought you ment it was last night and I had missed it but it was tonight.

Very interesting and complicated procedures with elephants and rinos. I would have prefered they were learning on a more common species of rino as they did not have much in the way of results and it did look slightly risky for the animals. I thought they were going to break the rinos leg when they were rolling it over while unconsous and the male died two days after semen colection. Either lucky they colected the semen just in time or possable reaction to drugs or handling. They were autopsying it and I did not hear the findings (distracted by children) did they give a cause.

17-09-2007

Sorry Monty, I missed that bit too.

A very interesting program, however, particularly the segments on the northern white rhino.

A lot of people have the misapprehension that A.I. is easy and run-of-the-mill.
It might be with dairy cows, but with wild animals it's gotta be the last resort.
(Extremely risky; high failure rate and very expensive to do.)

excuse my ignorance , but ......
18-09-2007

..... is it true that rhinos are very difficult to anaesthetise but kept alive ?
I have heard that the same anaesthetic needed to knock out an antelope would kill a rhino
That will make the job od AI all the much harder if this is the case .

19-09-2007

I have never herd that it is difficult. They seem to knock them out regually in Africa to do such things as cut off their horns to deter poachers. Never heard of any dieing while they do it.

19-09-2007

they also tranq a lot of rhino for game auctions in africa and this seems to be popular. I haven't heard of there being that much trouble. but there are always going to be complications when it comes to animals of that size.

20-09-2007

This programmed aired in the UK a while back, it was really interesting. And usefully in certain cases, i.e. large mammals that are always more differcuilt to move but then over natural conception the later would win with me.

23-09-2007

I'd agree with that. AI is often portrayed as the way forward with 'difficult' or non-breeding animals and the impression is often given that with the right technical know how, its quite simple. But efforts with AI are still largely unsuccessful with many species. Techniques are still by no means perfected and AI is not yet the 'saviour' of wildlife its sometimes projected as.

23-09-2007

Cincinnati Zoo in the US has done AI with their rhinos and now have a pregnant Indian rhino. They use operant conditioning and are able to do ultrasounds on a very frequent basis with no problems. A friend of mine works with that program and has had some fascinaing stories to tell. It amazes me!

23-09-2007

Yes, Cincinnati are pretty much in the forefront of these developments. However, AI still seems very much a 'hit and miss' affair for most exotic species, and the success rate is still very low...