The 3 sets of twin Red Handed tamarins should boost the regional population somewhat. Nice news regarding the birth of the zoos first Lemurs.
Great news! How many pairs of Red-Handed Tamarins are held at DDZ? (I'm guessing at least three considering three sets of twins being born).
Three pairs were imported by Darling Downs Zoo in early 2018 - with one pair transferred to Hunter Valley Zoo. Both zoos have bred the species, so I’d assume a third pair was formed at Darling Downs Zoo from unrelated first generation offspring to give them their third pair. I imagine the two founder pairs held at Darling Downs Zoo have first generation offspring living with them also - given offspring of this species can remain in their natal group well into maturity, gaining experience from helping raise siblings. Rockhampton Zoo and Wildlife HQ will likely have an interest in acquiring this species in the near future. Both have a strong focus on primates.
Inevitable but very sad news. Their female Brazilian Tapir Tiquie has died leaving the zoo without the species for now. From their website: "We are devastated to report the death of our beloved Brazilian Tapir, Tiquie. Tiquie’s health had been declining over the past couple of weeks and she died of a heart attack last Monday night. She will be sorely missed."
That’s sad news indeed, with the region’s Brazilian tapir holdings reduced to 1.2 non breeding animals at Adelaide. I have high hopes however that we’ll see a resurgence of this species in the region in the not too distant future. If two or more zoos could import 3.3 tapir between them, we’d have enough to sustain the population for the next three decades.
Sad news indeed. As mentioned a while ago importing from Europe is not a good option even though they can't house more
The approved countries for import are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the United States. Discounting Europe for the reasons previously discussed (and New Zealand, which doesn’t hold them), that leaves North America and Singapore as the only options. The latter exhibit the species at the Singapore Zoo River Safari.
Unfortunately the AZA are phasing out Brazilian Tapirs, so North America’s also not an option. Singapore is though. And to add to that, Singapore are actually apart of the ZAA to; and have a strong connection with our regional zoos. If Adelaide really wanted to (they’d need to get at least another two facilities on board though); they could acquire a group of Brazilian Tapirs from and via Singapore.
I don’t know what the current numbers are in the North American population (I’d guess around 10-20), but at least one facility bred as recently as last year - so there’d be a few options for importing. A regional decision to phase out would motivate zoos to offload young (reproductively viable) tapir that otherwise will be hanging around for a decade or more. Singapore alone would be unable to supply the minimum number of unrelated founders we’d need to establish a breeding population - but a combination of tapirs from North America and Singapore could be the way to go. If not, we’ll have to accept our only option is join the European breeding programme, which isn’t ideal.
We would better off not having any rather than be subject to unfair rules where any young remain the property of the EEP, If they don't have the room to breed more where is the sense in denying our region from obtaining them?.Considering the cost of transporting from Europe few if any are going to be interested in this option but its ok to take their post reproductive animals.
