Animals that should be more "high profile"

Just a quickie, wanted to see what everyones thoughts are!

If you personally could choose an Animal that you didnt believe had a sufficient Breeding/conservation in zoos, in a certain region (ie, Sun bears in Aust/new zealand are VERY high profile, Asiatic lions in europe etc..) what would it be and why?

Personally I have two/three* species in mind:

1Geoffrys cat,

2 Amur leopard - i know!, bear with me on this one, there is a reason!

3 numbat*- although EXTRMELEY rare in wild and captivity.

just gotta nip out but ill give my "whys" upon return.

 

Kagus & Mountain tapirs, worldwide

 

i too would love to see the US zoos secure some additional bloodlines of mountain tapirs from peru. they are so short of fresh blood they are breeding full sibling pairs, who's parents were full sibling pairs!!

i think they are very much trying but with so far no luck. this species is highly endangered but breeds well in captivity. i'm at the point where i fully condone carefully thought out capture from the wild to boost genetics of captive populations.

if its impossible to aquire new blood tehn US zoos should look at repatriation of the zoo population and the support of a breeding (and eventual release) centre in a home range country. that is provided that allows for better options to secure more bloodlines. not sure if there are any mountain tapirs in captivity in south america?

 

oat you make a good point in taking from 'the wild', but what about the small sanctuaries in the americas, couldn.t tapir numbers be boosted through taking individuals from sanctuaries, such has been done with jaguars, which has given increasinly vauable genetics to captive programs.

 

not sure i get what you mean Zoo_Boy? you saying rather than take mountain tapir from the wild, US zoos could source captive animals from south america?

i'm not actually sure if there are any or many, but i'm pretty sure futile efforts have been made to awquire more MT by the LA zoo.

i found some great info about them on a site someplace a while back but the info is a bit hazy in my head. in any case its not looking good and it appeared peru wasn't playing ball with the zoos.

 

There are hardly any Captive mountain tapirs in South America. Cali zoo is trying to help them, but there are other more important things to Save i.e blue billed curassow

 

@Writhehornbill: I think one should be cautious before deciding which species is "more important" to be saved...

 

Sun : You're right about kagus but before starting breeding them again, there should be more of them coming from New Caledonia because those belonging to the "french breeder" (I like better calling him : "The french megalomaniac who takes what he thinks is conservation as an excuse to have fun with rare animals") are really suffering from imbreeding, and soon or later, it will also happen with those in Walsrode.

Else, as I'm a huge bird of paradise addict, I'd really like some breeding programs to be developped in zoos around the world, especially about the rare blue bird of paradise!
I can also add mentawai macaques (the rarest macaque specie) and javan gibbon. Other langur species can be great too!

 

Have either the Mentawi Island macaque or the Pig tailed Langur ever been exhibited anywhere outside S.E. Asia? (or within s.E. Asia for that matter)

 

I'm also a BoP addict. Blue, lawe's parotia, Wahne's parotia and black sicklebill spring to mind.

 

the javan gibbon breeding program is an international one with howletts at the helm. the export of gibbons from the indonesian captive program is proving difficult so effectively the indonesian and "outside indonesia" captive populations are two distinct ones. howletts are trying to import new-blooded indonesian animals but are reluctant to give up any of their gibbons until this is secured. thus, zoos like perth have had to stop breeding their pair as they are fiding it difficult to secure mates for any of the offspring born.

as gorgeous as they are i actually think australasian zoos might as well give up on moloch (or silvery as tehy are called here) gibbons, and keep the spaces for siamang and white-cheeked gibbon instead. if we can't secure mates then the two pairs in australia which are related) may as well be sent to europe the US or even indonesia.

 

I've seen only one Mentawai macaque so far... a very old female in Ragunan zoo (Jakarta). She's the last survivor of a breeding group previously held in Bukittinggi zoo (Sumatra). It is quite possible that she's also the last survivor of her specie in captivity.
Here she is :



Concerning the silvery gibbons, it's mostly a problem with the indonesian government who regularly refuses (and wants money) to send silvery gibbons out of the country (knowing that almost no indonesian zoological institution have regular breeding success for this critically endangered specie!).
To me that's a shame...

 

numbats should be more high-profile zoo exhibits in australia-theyre gorgeous

 

I'd like to see bonobos represented more in the US, utilising some of the captive genes from those in cognitive labs such as The Great Ape Trust.

 

glyn numbats i'm fraid to admit i have never seen.

apparently they are not only interesting looking and colourful, they are diurnal, a very big plus when it comes to judging a native australian animals display potential!!

 

oh and pedro, the macaque looks gorgeous!

 

I have seen Numbats in the wild pat... zing!

 

hmmm....elephants, indian rhino, amazon and ganges dolphins and in two weeks, orangutans..............zzzzzzzZZZZING!!!!

 

lol you win

 

Sorry to go OT, can't reply in pm Ben, my reply or new pm to you gets an error message.