Gaur; Whipsnade; 8th June 2013

What is their current tally with the Gaur- is it 3.1?

I believe it's 2.1: the two adults, and this six-month old male calf. I think the previous calf died shortly after the birth of the current one. Made me wonder whether, given the rocky ground the captive population are on genetically, whether a longer weaning period would have been preferable before another calf arrived. I think the older calf was around 2 years old?

Yes, it is currently 2.1; I’ve only seen the adult pair and the latest youngster on my recent visits to Whipsnade and, sadly, I’m sure that I read that the previous youngster died earlier this year.

(The previous gaur calf, 'Odin', was born on 25th July 2011.)

The problem with doing a longer weaning period though, is he could still in with his mom once he has reached maturity, and this could lead to the risk of inbreeding.

Of course, but I would argue he wasn't quite at that point? He would have shown aggression towards the bull before there was any chance of him mating successfully with his mother, and he was still living with the bull up until his death.

I love Gaur, and I applaud ZSL's perseverance with these marvellous beasts, but there are so few of them in Europe that I do fear that this species will never be viable in the UK. Does anyone else think that it might be an idea if the Whipsnade trio were sent to the US, to be replaced by Banteng?

Why not the other way around, keep them but get a couple more females from the US. Is that feasible?

I don’t disagree with you about the long-term viability of this species but surely it would be preferable to try to import some more stock to introduce fresh blood into the European gaur population.

Personally the gaur are one of my favourites at Whipsnade (alongside the hippo, pygmy hippo, Indian rhino, onager and wolverine) so I would be very disappointed if they were sent away.

(Of course banteng in the Whipsnade collection would be very nice too but preferably in addition to not instead of gaur!)

This brings us back to an old chestnut - how does a UK zoo import hoofed mammals from outside the EU.

Apart from unrelated Gaur, US zoos hold stock like Giant Eland, various duikers, Cuvier's , Grant's and Speke's gazelles which are all absent from Europe. The rules allowing the import of these animals are allegedly daunting - yet East Berlin has just acquired Gerenuk.

Does anybody know what the rules REALLY allow?

And okapi have been imported to Basel from the US .