is there somewhere online where I can view the annual reports for Marwell? Or alternatively, is there anyone with them who can answer some questions I have about movements, specifically (to start with) scimitar-horned oryx exports to Australasia in 1986 and 1987 -- did they go to Orana Park in these years or to somewhere in Australia?
I don't know about on-line , but I have copies of all Annual Reports and Newsletters up until a few years ago when I reluctantly gave up on Membership . No exports of oryx are reported for 1986 , but in 1987 , I quote ' a total of 5.4 animals were exported to Australia , to form a new group at the Pearl Coast Zoological gardens , Broome , Western Australia ' . Hope this helps .
Marwell helped set-up the Pearl Coast Zoo with a large amount of animals, of various species, and some keeping staff were sent initially.
hmm, thanks for that. Orana's original import was four animals from Marwell in 1978 and I thought they were the only ones to that zoo. But in one of the scimitar-horned oryx manuals I found online it said there were also imports to Australasia in 1986 and 87 from Marwell so I thought they may have gone to Orana as well (although I knew some went to the Pearl Coast Zoo as well in 87). The 1986 date must have been an error in that case.
my next question is not as straightforward because it would require looking through several annual reports for the answers, so if anyone would like to do so that would be very much appreciated! The South African crested porcupines in NZ zoos were imported from Marwell. I am interested in dates and numbers of animals. Orana imported two females in 1995 and Wellington imported some in 2005. Orana also imported a male (which turned out to be a North African crested porcupine) but I'm not sure of the date for that one -- it may have been 2001-ish or earlier. I'm not sure of any other dates for imports. An easier search is: were any waterbuck sent to Orana from Marwell in 2003 or 2004? Thanks
I had listed from the annual reports the hoofstock exported to Broome in this previous thread. http://www.zoochat.com/24/pearl-coast-zoo-276/
the porcupine has been answered now so no need for anyone to look that up for me. I'm still interested if there was an export of waterbuck to Orana in 2003/4 though.
Orana received 2.2 scimitar-horned oryx from Marwell in 1978 2.0 on 3rd December, born 14th July 1977 and 20th April 1978 0.2 on 5th December, born 3rd September 1977 and 5th November 1977 Source page 557 of the studbook http://www.marwell.org.uk/downloads/SHOISB2011.pdf
and from those four (plus some imported semen from Toronto Zoo in the early 1990s) Orana bred over 80 oryx. Now they only have 4.1 animals, most of the males of which are castrated. They ended up with some really munted-looking oryx from all the inbreeding too! It seems like every oryx in Australasia is descended directly from Orana's lot and the lot that went to Pearl Coast Zoo in 1987, and all of both lots came from Marwell.
I am sure we are all aware / convinced that this program me in Australia / New Zealand really requires good population management and regular imports / exports on the part of the studbook keeper and the participating zoos. As it is I am a proponent of regular exchanges between the various regional programs, even including new founders from in situ (when available / logistically feasible). In fact so as the CBSG bible … and Vortex would have it.
The 2003 report records one waterbuck leaving the collection, but there's no mention of the destination. No departures in 2004.
Rob I believe this would have been an adult male which was sent to another collection for breeding reasons, with probably another male coming in perhaps at a later stage ? They did not always name the destination of the animal I am afraid. They rarely sent any female Waterbuck away.
Chlidonias I am fairly sure that no Waterbuck were exported from Marwell to Orana in 2003 or 2004. I do not think they would send a single animal on such a long distance, ungulates like that were always exported in small groups on long haul destinations.
thanks to Nanook and robmv. Orana got in one pair of waterbuck in 2004 and because they generally imported from Marwell and Toronto I thought I'd check if it was Marwell. (Some of you may be thinking "this is the sort of thing he could just email Orana Park about" but I have a lot of stuff I am working on so I'm trying to dig out as much information as I can first, rather than send each zoo a huge long list and asking them to look it all up in their records because they wont bother! Hopefully I can reduce my "request list" to just a few items for each zoo.)
You are absolutely right- you'll get better results on here and then save your emails to the Zoos for the most important unanswered questions you still have. Rule of thumb- some zoos will respond to such queries once, rarely more.
Just a little more detail. The 2.2 Scimitar-Horned Oryx that went to Orana Park in December 1978 bred quite quickly, both cows became pregnant by end of 1979 and two female calves were born one on New Year`s day, and one on the 13th Feb. By the end of 1980 two more calves were expected from those two original females. One original bull die of a severe fracture and dislocation of his left hind hock. Incidentally Marwell exported a female Nilgai, (along with a male from Whipsnade), however the female died in quarantine afterwards during an electrical storm which caused her to sustain concussion after hitting a wall.
exported to Orana Park? I didn't know they had imported any themselves (I thought all their stock came from Auckland Zoo). Did the female die in quarantine in NZ, or in pre-quarantine in the UK? And I presume the male did survive at Orana? Anything else you happen to come across regarding exports to NZ I'd be happy to hear about too.
Yes 2.2 Oryx were exported direct to Orana Park in 1978, it was the first time that species had flown that sort of distance before. The female Nilgai died in quarantine in NZ. The male Nilgai remained at Orana. One of the male Oryx died at Orana of the broken leg. So all the resultant Oryx were bred from those original 2.2 animals.
thanks Nanook. The nilgai was the one I hadn't heard about being imported from Marwell. With the oryx all were bred just from those two pairs up until the 1990s when they imported frozen sperm (the resulting calf was the first born from artificial insemination). They bred over 80 calves at Orana in total. There were a lot of wonky horns by the 90s! Now they have just two males and one female left. The waterbuck pair I asked about earlier in the thread turned out to have been imported from Werribee in Australia. (Check out the two mammal lists stickied at the top of the New Zealand part of the forum, for why I was looking for information. I have tried to add origin data for all the species in NZ which has been largely accomplished).
