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Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by animal_expert01, 20 Oct 2015.

  1. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I am not going to pick a side, but I find that generally optimism helps a lot when discussing stuff like this, because you get more hope and so you aren't as down in the dumps and you also don't feel like your goals are impossible to reach.
     
  2. animal_expert01

    animal_expert01 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Only 22 gibbons left now

    Still only one frog

    Some more really rare animals:

    Island fox 700 left

    Kakapos around 150 left

    Chinese alligators around 200 left
     
  3. Nikola Chavkosk

    Nikola Chavkosk Well-Known Member

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    How can be that possibe, for Mauritius kestrel, for population to expand from just only 6 individuals, are you sure that they were 6? What about inbreeding?
     
  4. animal_expert01

    animal_expert01 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Hopefully. They need to breed them than clone the baby.
     
  5. savethelephant

    savethelephant Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    there's lots of info on the internet about the Mauritius kestrel recovery. This article is concise and has references at the bottom: Mauritius kestrel: A conservation success story - Scientific American Blog Network

    Island species tend to be very resilient against inbreeding, probably because they descend from small populations originally and deleterious genes have long ago been weeded out. There are many examples of insular species rebounding from lows of just a few individuals with no apparent bad effects.
     
  7. Nikola Chavkosk

    Nikola Chavkosk Well-Known Member

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    Lol I am not expert in genetics, but seems that diferent animals differ in their resistence in expression of inbred genes, and it seems that after several generations, inbred individuals apparenty adapt and recover from genetic imbalance of inbred genes and related phenotipic features.

    I taught it is not possible to recover some species, if there is not at least 12 genetically different founders.
     
  8. Nikola Chavkosk

    Nikola Chavkosk Well-Known Member

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    That is to wonderfull information, I've never heard of. Great. But that's probably case for animal species from very smaller islands, not like Sumatra, is that can count for islands mamalls, for example for Javan rhinoceros?
     
  9. Nikola Chavkosk

    Nikola Chavkosk Well-Known Member

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    I am affarid also for:

    Sumatran rhinoceros
    Numbat
    Golden island lancehead
    Balkan subspecies of Eurasian lynx
    Indochinese tiger (in wild)
    Kagu
    Orinoco river Crocodile
    Indian vulture
    Red headed vulture
    White-rumped vulture
    Black rhinoceros
    Aye-aye
    Regent honeyeater
    Dwarf crocodile (in wild)
    Endangered sea snakes
    Threatened sea turtles
    Threatened corals
    West African giraffe
    Bornean elephant
    Gharial
    Sri lankan leopard (in wild)
    Philipinian harpy eagle (monkey eating eagle)
    Doucs (3 species)
    Chinese pangolin
    Utila spiny tailed iguana
    Bay cat (Borneo)
     
    Last edited: 21 Feb 2016
  10. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Not sure if there has been any new information on this topic as it's been maybe a year since I last heard anything about it, but I believe most of the animals labeled as "P. t. amoyensis" are believed to be either Indochinese Tigers or hybrids of the two. This unfortunately includes the animals in the South African complex. If the South China Tiger proves to be a valid subspecies, it is likely either completely Extinct or only present in a small handful of pure individuals between maybe two zoos in China.

    The Chinese member Baboon could probably offer a more up-to-date summary of the situation. He was the source of my information as well.

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  11. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    yes, for smaller oceanic islands. Other examples besides the aforementioned Mauritius kestrel include the Mauritius echo parakeet (c.580 birds today from only c.10 birds in the 1980s), Mauritius pink pigeon (c.395 birds today from c.20 birds in the 1970s), Seychelles magpie-robin (c.200 birds today from 12-15 birds in 1965), Chatham Island black robin (c.200 birds today, all from one pair in the 1980s), Laysan duck (over 600 today, from 12 birds in 1912). It wouldn't be difficult to find more examples.

    Continental islands such as Java or Sumatra, however, are basically sections of the continent which have been separated by rising sea levels, so they came complete with existing large animal stocks. Not the same situation at all.

    However continental species can still recover amazingly if given the chance. The crested ibis has a wild population of c.500 birds in China, all descended from two pairs at a remnant colony discovered in 1981. The European bison has a wild population of c.1800 today, all from 12 founders. The Pere David's deer population is in the thousands, all from 11 founders. There are a number of other species in similar situations.
     
  12. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    no, there are more than 22. I wondered where you got that number from - I figure Wikipedia where it says "The most recent count found 22 Hainan gibbons split between two families, one of 11 and one of seven members, with four loners, all residing in Bawangling National Nature Reserve on Hainan Island", but that line (repeated endlessly on other sites) lacks a reference or footnote and actually comes from 2010 research. There are probably between 26 and 28 individuals currently on Hainan (see BBC - Earth - World's rarest ape is teetering on the edge of extinction).
     
  13. animal_expert01

    animal_expert01 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Oahu tree snail only one left
     
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    do you have some sort of reference for that, or more information at all? There are 40-odd species of Oahu tree snail.
     
  15. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I'd imagine they are referring to Achatinella apexfulva, which has been reduced to a single male individual kept at the University of Hawaii. An article on the animal can be found here: The last snail: conservation and extinction in Hawai?i | Thom van Dooren

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  16. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    thanks for that. That does seem to be the case, although it is a poorly-written article (e.g. the snails are hermaphroditic, so the animal isn't a "he") and there is precious little information about the species otherwise.
     
  17. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    No problem.

    The same Wikipedia page that I originally found that information a while back also lists the snail species Partula faba as being reduced to one individual behind the scenes at Bristol Zoo, though I'm denied from opening the listed reference for some reason.

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  18. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    Unless something catastrophic has happened such as a pathogen getting through the biocontainment - not impossible, as one species which was doing well in captivity became extinct in the 1990's due to this occurring - Bristol Zoo holds a single colony of P. faba, rather than a single individual.

    Regarding the aforementioned taxon, I have found a post I made on the subject some time ago which I shall quote rather than re-hashing old ground:

     
  19. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I think the Wikipedia page referred to may be the one for "endling" (a word I had never heard of before, and a particularly stupid word in my opinion). Anyway that page says "A tank in the Bristol Zoo is the last refuge of Partula faba, a land snail from Ra'iātea in French Polynesia. The population dropped from 38 in 2012[19] to one in 2015.[20]"

    The reference for [20] is Captain Cook's bean snail Partula faba where it says "Over the past 20 years the captive population has declined slowly. They have bred, but always at slightly less than the replacement rate. Today just one snail survives, making this the rarest of all living animals."
     
  20. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    Ouch :( quite the rapid decline, then - the numbers in 2010 were reported to be 88, if memory serves, so it does somewhat sound like a pathogen might have compromised the population if it halved in the space of two years.