Hartmann's mountain zebra; Linton Zoo; 14th April 2012

Hartmann's mountain zebra; Linton Zoo; 14th April 2012
22-04-2012

22-04-2012

Brilliant shot!

It's a shame they haven't bred successfully yet, however I'm still hopeful. Linton's male apparently isn't up to the job, were they all together when you visited?

22-04-2012

Thank you very much

Yes, all three animals were together in the enclosure.

22-04-2012

Not a problem. One of the females 'Heidi' was one of the two or three Zebras which were on-loan at South Lakes for a few years. I'd like her, Bette from Blackpool and another female to form a new 'retirement group' allowing Linton and Blackpool to bring in another young female maybe spicing up the group at Linton. Blackpool's are already proven to breed.

22-04-2012

“Heidi” was born at Marwell in 1992; she was sent to South Lakes in 1996 and then returned to Marwell about three years later. She has been at Linton for almost five years.

22-04-2012

Seems like the current combination of animals at Linton won't breed having been together some years. Maybe an exchange of stallions(e.g. with Blackpool) would help?

Blackpool's seems to be the only proven male in the UK currently- Paignton's died a few months back, leaving both females pregnant, while their previous one, 'Bingo', which was unsuccessful and is now at Marwell, seems very unlikely to breed there either.

22-04-2012

Hartmann's are antisocial creatures and to build up a decent sized group really will need a zoo with a big paddock. Whipsnade, are you reading this?

22-04-2012

They are very 'crabby' creatures- Marwell's used to seemingly hate each other! Seen them in the wild and they behave the same there too.

29-04-2012

The specimen in this photo (one of the females?) has a very 'clean' tail unlike Blackpool's Zebras who have a 'dirty' or 'grubby' coloring.

Blackpool's male is rather aggressive but he is a proven male. Maybe if Blackpool's foal Tebogo would move to either Linton or Marwell and the Linton male to move to Paignton? I know Paignton have a foal already and another on the way so if Paignton have two male foals then maybe they and Blackpool's male could move to another 'new' holder in the UK (Or the more obvious thing to do would be to set up a new bachelor group elsewhere in Europe) and set up a bachelor herd.

Bachelor herds in Zebras seem to make the male more successful. If the male can get all of his 'playfulness' out of him before moving onto a herd with females then that improves chances of breeding so I've been told. Blackpool's male 'Fernando' was in a bachelor group for few years.

29-04-2012

Whipsnade would be a good place to start breeding Hartmann's. They did have them for some time in the 90's I believe, I think one of the Marwell females 'Pippa' was there for a while too.

29-04-2012

It was longer ago than that. London did have Hartmann's in the 1980s for a while, and even bred a foal. But they wanted to mix zebra with giraffes again, so they went (to Paignton?) to be replaced by Chapman's. Otherwise ZSL involvement with this animal goes back a good 30 years. Tim May might know more.

29-04-2012

London had them in the 1960's to as they bred a few foals before the group (whole?) moved to Whipsnade in 1969. I don't think Paignton's mixed as they've always been on the 'hill' paddock.

29-04-2012

1. Aggression and ability to breed are often related. In a species like this unaggressive males that can't dominate mares are likely to be rejected by them. I think that's the problem at Marwell currently.
2. That's an option for the future perhaps but won't help present breeding. Paignton shouldn't need a male for a year or two now. I would advocate trying Linton's male at Marwell and Blackpool's proven one at Linton (or Marwell) depending on any relatedness with the females.

29-04-2012

In the 1960's London/Whipsnade had the only Hartmann's in the UK! At least one foal was born at Whipsnade as there is a postcard. I think they moved between the two Zoos more than once. They were finally moved to Marwell to join that group. They are listed in the Hartmann's studbook somewhere if anyone wants to research the movements/dates.

Heidi
30-04-2012

Can confirm i was looking after the Hartmans at Marwell at this time! and seems very unlikely we will see any foals at Marwell in the near furture.