An overview of Brazilian zoos and their specialities

Thank you!

Yes, let's wrote! Gonna search about more conservation programmes to post here. Some of them are stuck for now (like zoo BH's african elephants) but are really worth to be posted here, and I hope they return to activity

 

So following on from @David Matos Mendes awesome post about some other Brazilian zoos and their specialities with native species conservation I thought I would add another zoo but this time located in the Southern state of Parana.

Curitiba zoo : Located in the capital city of Parana State the speciality of Curitiba zoo (like Sorocaba zoo in nearby Sao Paulo state) has been without question their contributions to the ex-situ conservation of the Southern muriqui (which is also found in the wild in this state).

Curitiba zoo and Sorocaba zoo are actually the only public zoos / institutions which currently keep breeding groups of the Southern muriqui (two male individuals are kept at the Sao Paulo zoo) and so the group in Curitiba is a very significant population in terms of the ex-situ conservation of the species through captive breeding.

It is still a rather small group of animals that are maintained here (currently standing at five individuals ) but breeding is occurring and offspring have been born twice (once in 2018 and more recently during the christmas of 2019).

In addition to this an orphaned muriqui named "Mona Lisa" (she was found wandering a road this year) will soon be joining the zoo and will hopefully settle in well. With luck she may eventually contribute her genetics to the breeding programe.

Worth mentioning that Curitiba zoo has quite a selection of both native (a decent collection of native primate species can be found here) and exotic species but it leans more towards exotics (African lions, chimpanzees, Bengal tigers, Andean bears, giraffes, brown bears, hippos, sacred baboons, llamas to name but a few).

 

Such a nice update to the thread! The Sorocaba zoo also keeps a muriqui called "Mona lisa", right? Or is her name just "Mona"? Because I have read about her a few times.

 

Yeah , its strange the amount of muriquis called "Mona" right ? I think it must be a popular name for muriqui conservationists hahaha

However, these are two different animals but both females and with somewhat similar stories and names.

The muriqui "Mona" at Sorocaba zoo (the founder of the zoos population that has bred several times ) was also discovered as an orphan but this was in Carlos Boetelho National Park (if I am remembering this correctly ?) and way back in the early 2000's.

The muriqui "Mona Lisa" who will soon be moved to Curitiba Zoo was also found as an orphan but this occurred earlier this year. She was apparently found on a busy road somewhere in the State of Rio Grande do Sol which is bizarre as it is a huge distance from the nearest wild population so perhaps she was being kept illegally as a pet ?

 

Ah, yes, I thought the same person named both of them hahaha

That's a sad reality that they passed through, but fortunately, both of them had a happy ending

 

Yes definitely it is a happy ending and especially because they could have both quite easily ended up as a bushmeat churrasco.

It may be hard to believe but these monkeys are actually frequently hunted in the South by some people to eat their meat which is grilled on a barbacue.

 

Oh my god, I have never heard about that, and it's so tragic... many people really don't know anything about what environment means

 

I read several years ago that the word 'monkey' came from the mona monkey. It's just as well it wasn't called the monkey monkey.

 

Yes, can say that again , it is absolutely enfuriating.

Well a lot of people associate bushmeat with Africa or Asia but there is a thriving trade of it a mere hour or two away from Sao Paulo.

The tragedy is that every time this happens it reduces the population of species like the muriqui even more and honestly we cannot afford to lose anymore as there are just not that many left in the wild.

 

Well this could be true because the word "mono" in Spanish (which may have been derived from this) generally is used to refers to most monkey species in Spanish speaking countries across Latin America.

Yeah, haha , just as well I suppose.

 

I seem to remember some old publications of International Zoo Yearbook looked at the Brasilia Zoo giant otter program.

 

Today I heard from the studbook keeper of the giant river otter (biologist Igor Morais) that Brasilia zoo might return with it's reproduction program for this animal. Now it only depends if other zoos that keep this animal in Brazil will agree to send a female otter to Brasilia, to start reproduction again. Besides that, the Studbook keeper also recommended another female giant river otter to be sent to the zoo of Americana, in Brazil, to start a new reproduction program with a male that lives there.

 

This is interesting news and very encouraging. However, so far I don't think (I may be wrong on this matter though) that there are many available females in Brazilian zoos for this kind of exchange between zoos for captive breeding purposes.

Very hard to breed this species in a lot of facilities here too , breeding success unfortunately seems to be mostly a sporadic event in many zoos.

To add to this the matter is complicated further by some issues of lack of cooperation / collaboration between zoos which leads to communication breakdowns, delays and an unwillingness for dialogue that become institutional "cold wars" (very common / endemic problem from what I've observed in zoos in Latin America in general).

Could be interesting to have a read of this , is this publication available to read online ?

 

Very interesting stories. Guarulhos Zoo is planning to reopen on September and I can't wait to see the lions and marmosets with their respective new enclosures!

Not sure if you're talking about on-show species only, but maybe the contribution to the brazilian merganser conservation project could be considered Zooparque Itatiba's"speciality.
Golden capuchin, Lear's macaw, Ololygon alcatraz and probably more exclusives were at least kept by São Paulo Zoo at some point, some on-show, but it's been many years since my last visit so I don't know much.
Not to mention the legendary Alagoas curassow story.

 

@FelipeDBKO Regarding the reopening of Guarulhos zoo , I am very excited about this too.

This is not specifically related to the species they keep but worth mentioning that they have really worked in improving some areas of the zoo with public art murals and things like that.

It is a really small and humble zoo but in terms of the work they do and achieve there (especially with the buffy tufted marmoset) they are absolutely incredible. I cannot overstate this enough, they are brilliant and particularly the work of Dr Igayara.

I agree, it would be brilliant if you could write a post here on this thread about Zooparque Itatiba and their specialities with primates and birds.

Please do feel free to contribute with a post on this zoo, it would be very cool.

 

Alright, I'll have to do some research about it first but I'll see if I can come up with anything about the brazilian mergansers

 

That would be brilliant , thanks !

Will be a fantastic contribution to thread and very interesting to hear about these birds in captivity!

 

Indeed, and I think it's very sad that some zoos sometimes deny to send animals for reproduction programmes... This shows that some institutions, sometimes worry more about their "collection" to be as complete as possible, instead of really helping in the reproduction of the species... On the speech that Igor Morais made yesterday, I could see that what made him most uncertain about the return of the giant river otter conservation program was the fact that the zoos might not follow the orientations and not sending their animals to the "base" in Brasilia, nor to the new try of program in Americana...

 

Yes , I agree, I find it very sad and frustrating too.

I think there is definitely a thing with some institutions being possesive of their "star species" (for reasons of status) because of not wanting to share the limelight in breeding success or a sort of "We've got this species and you havent , nah-nah NAH na naaaah-nah" childish mentality thing.

These are all very silly behaviours in my opinion and maybe ok and understandable in a 10 year old child collecting pokemon cards, but totally unacceptable in grown adults working on something as important as ex-situ conservation. But some organizational cultures seem to promote and attract people who have this kind of deficit of emotional matury.

So there can be a lot of thinking in very narrow, myopic and narcissistic terms of rivalry rather than seeing or recognizing the bigger picture of the necessity for cooperation and collaboration between institutions to achieve the common goal of ex-situ conservation.

Often it can be down to current or historic interpersonal issues in communications between directors or zoo staff. This seems to particularly be the case / dynamic with some of the bigger more famous zoos in the region in their dealings with some of the smaller zoos where there can be an attitude of arrogance and "superiority" (I won't give any names though , haha). However, I've also seen this kind of rivalry occur between the bigger zoos and it can get pretty toxic.

 

Zooparque Itatiba - Brazilian merganser (Mergus octosetaceus)

Due to its habit of diving to eat small fishes like lambaris and plecos from the 5th day of life, even the slightest disturbance and pollution of rivers narrows today's range of the brazilian merganser to the Serra da Canastra region mostly, where probably most of the less than 250 ducks in the wild reside.

All the captive individuals are held in Zooparque Itatiba as part of the brazilian merganser PAN, started by IBAMA in 2006, propelled in 2012 after CMIBio's creation and of which the second cicle has begun in 2019.
(National Action Plan / Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources / Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation)

The first birth of 4 birds of the species under human care took place in August 2017 via artificial incubation. In July 2018, from 7 eggs, 4 new mergansers were hatched and raised by their own parents.
Zooparque currently holds 29 adults and 14 ducklings, as of the births earlier this month: 7 captivity recordists, 5 from a first-timer couple and 2 from eggs collected in Serra da Canastra. According to biologist Camila Piovani, that's the second generation of ducklings born from the ex situ program. Zooparque still expects a higher sum by the end of this month, since the reproductive period of their merganser population is still ongoing.

Each enclosure contains a 100 sqm for each monogamous pair, running water artificial pond, vegetation, nest in a wooden trunk, natural cavities and cameras. They are fed living young fishes and live with as little human contact as possible.

Besides the ex situ breeding, as of 2015, another important part of the action plan are the in natura egg collection expeditions, led by PAN consultant and vet Alexandre Resende, which contributes to the genetic variability of the captive population. The eggs are incubated by adoptive mothers.

Report about one of the egg collections: