Animals that have gotten easier to take care of in captivity

Due to innovation and improving husbandry, some animals have gotten much easier to take care of in captivity, and have gone from being rare to now easily breedable and almost commonplace outside their native ranges in captivity. One example that I have heard of is that the Komodo Dragon used to be quite rare and hard to take care of, whereas now many institutions keep them in their Asian sections without too much fanfare.
I'm sure there are many more examples, but let's set a somewhat arbitrary 'last 3 decades' cutoff point because nearly all animals have 'gotten easier to take care of'.

And, for fun, what animals do you predict or already see becoming easier to keep and expect will become more widely distributed in the next 10-15 years?

 

The animal that first comes to mind is the pangolin.

I don't think these animals will become "common" within zoos by any means, however, I think that more zoos than currently do will begin to hold pangolins.

The worsening situation for all species in-situ (which will grow with the geopolitical expansion of Chinese influence in the regions of Asia / Pacific and Africa) and an increasing recognition of the urgent need for their ex-situ conservation will drive this focus on pangolins in zoos IMO.

In recent years there have been important advances in their husbandry in captivity in terms of zootechnical research into the nutritional requirements which have led to higher survivorship in captivity and successful breeding.

U.S. zoos learn how to keep captive pangolins alive, helping wild ones

 

Seahorses, especially the Big-bellied. Although getting them to feed on dead foods can still be difficult, some commercial breeders are now training their seahorses onto frozen foods from a young age. Mind you, seahorses are still difficult to keep but less so than they were in the past.

 

Apes, especially gorillas.

 

This is a perfect example, I'm hopeful pangolins will become more widespread. The breeding programs in the US are seemingly doing well, so we may start to see more on display.

 

Excellent point, across the aquarium hobby, fish are getting easier to keep and more are being captive bred. Another example I can think of is the now captive bred 'aiptasia eating filefish' Acreichthys tomentosus.

 

Cheetah.

 

I have one of these in my aquarium, easily one of the hardiest species I have ever kept.

 

I should say that our buffy tufted marmoset has become far easier to care for in captivity thanks to the research and hard work of my colleagues.

I would also say (albeit provisionally / tentatively) that this species will become more widespread in captivity / ex-situ at least within Brazilian zoos and perhaps one day in the future outside of the country too.

 

I think that (like with most challenging species) with the pangolin it has come down to intensive work and research into the diet / nutrition and veterinary requirements of these very sensitive creatures.

Now that both of these issues have been vastly improved in addition to success with captive breeding I'm sure that this will translate into a greater ex-situ / insurance population of a number of pangolin species in US, European and Asian zoos.

 

Leaf-eating primates like sifakas or colobus are now easier to keep and breed. But importing them to Western zoos is hard to impossible.

 

Red colobus too ?

Somehow I'm skeptical about that.

 

Southern white rhinoceros in terms of reproduction. This is partly circumstantial as 30 years ago, many zoos had the first generation offspring of the prolific San Diego Zoo herd (which were notoriously poor breeders); but an influx of wild born founders over the last two decades has seen many zoos successfully breed this species.

I’ve heard many theories debated over the years regarding reproduction - with estrus suppression amongst females (especially mother/daughters); and diet affecting oestrogen levels remaining the leading theories.

 

It's possible that in the next years we'll see more species of leaf-eating monkeys as Langurs, Lutungs... including rare species, both in Asian countries where they're native (Thailand, India, Vietnam, China...) and elsewhere.
(And Beauval Zoo has imported Douc Langurs last year)

I think that Pangolins will become more represented in zoos.
The husbandry and breeding is managed in some zoos, and they gained interest for conservation (uplistings of all species in the IUCN red list, and even the interrogations about the emergence of the COVID-19 [if it emerged in wildlife markets] have raised interest for them).
In Beauval, a lot of visitors asked the staff and the Internet Forum (I'm a member of the latter) about these animals, and about their status in the wild and in zoos.

It's possible that in next years we'll see more underrated species like most desert antelopes (Gazelles, Gerenuks), Asian species of bears, wild dogs, pigs...

 

I think the main reason for better reproductive success of white rhinos is realization that rhinos see animals they grew up as part of their family and see no sexual attraction in them for the rest of their lives.

This was also the main reason why northern white rhinos at Dvur Kralove eventually died out. They were imported in bulk from Sudan before this information was known. So after importation at young age, they were allowed to grow up together, both sexes mixed. They developed sibling feeling and refused to mate with each other, ever.

 

A great many marine fish are becoming available captive bred, and many more have been successfully bred though not on commercial scale. Many angelfish, mandarinfishes, nearly all the seahorses carpet sharks, cardinalfish, fang blennies, surgeonfish, basslets, and even a butterflyfish or two are becoming increasingly available as captive bred individuals. There are still many species and groups not yet available captive bred, but successes are constantly being announced. Even some invertebrates like cleaner shrimp and tuxedo urchins are becoming available.

 

About white rhinos, I read in EAZA magazine that they also need a low nutrition fodder, and commonly used alfalfa / lucerne hay shuts young females' reproductive system. The responsible chemicals are called phytosterols. But I am not a rhino expert by any means.

 

The last red colobus in Europe lived over 40 years ago, at the time when black colobus were considered to be difficult animals to keep. With half a century more experience in animal care, especially understanding that they are leaf eaters and how to get tree leaves in winter, the situation could be very different now. Black colobus are common now. It seems that the last were some (two?) Sierra Leone red colobus which lived in Banham then Frankfurt 1973-1978. So they lived at least 5 years, not immediate death.

The only recent sportive lemur in Europe was a single Red-tailed sportive lemur in Paris Vincennes 1986-1993, for 7 years. Not a low age for a small primate, which was probably imported at unknown age.

Of course, there are no plans to import either, and they are not even found in rescue stations in Africa and Madagascar. However I feel that the idea that leaf-eating primates like sportive lemurs or red colobus don't survive in zoos is very much clouded by decades of gap in experience, and that few individuals were ever tried. More leaf-eating primates could, theoretically, live and thrive in modern zoos.

 

Ok, with langurs I certainly agree with you but that is a rather large and bold claim / extrapolation to make from langurs to red colobus and suggesting that husbandry learned from one could just as easily be applied / transferred successfully to the other.

For one the leaves that red colobus consume as part of the majority of their folivorous diet are from numerous tree species that do not occur in Asia and vice versa with the langurs.

Yes, there could be analogues out there but I would think it would be very hard to find out what these are and with high rates of attrition during trial and error.

 

Do you think that, expanding on this, in 20 years indri would be able to be kept in captivity (not counting for availability of course)?