Felids in Australasian Zoos – News, History and Discussion

They were Mara's only litter. No stillbirths or unsuccessful pregnancy's. She was only 5 when the cubs were born so hardly an older animal

 

What are your picks for Auckland Zoo’s new pride (arriving next year) @Nisha? I’m really hoping they carry on Kura’s legacy (which wouldn’t be hard considering she has over 30 descendants in the region) but either way I’m guessing the offspring of Lazerus and Maya will play a key role in any future plans.

The offspring of Taronga Western Plains Zoo’s South African born pair, Lazarus (2002) and Maya (2011), are surely some of the most genetically valuable lions in the region and in my opinion, most of the zoos future plans will revolve around them. Their son Baako (2015) has already been sent to Mogo Zoo, while their two daughters, Zuri (2015) and Makeba (2015), and four more sons, Bakari, Karoo, Virunga and Sheru (2016) remain in the pride.

Given the fact that Lazerus is getting on in his years, it seems common sense to keep his 3 year old daughters in the pride as upon his passing, Zuri and Makeba (as well as their mother Maya), could form the basis of a new pride along with an unrelated male/males. The four young males however, will soon start to clash with their father for dominance and require relocation.

I’m predicting 1 of the young males at Taronga Western Plains Zoo will come to Auckland Zoo as their new breeding male, while the 2 females will come from Kura’s line at Werribee Open Zoo. The 2 females there (mates of Kura’s 15 year old grandson Johari) have 4 daughters between them (2 born 2016 and 2 born 2017). Even if the zoo wishes to keep 1 daughter from each female to found a new pride upon Johari’s passing, that will still leave 2 daughters available for relocation.

Perth Zoo could take 1 of the 4 cubs since they are also looking to import a new breeding male in the near future and the remaining 2 could be sent to Monarto Zoo.

Monarto Zoo have 8 females, 4 are post reproductive (born 2004) and 4 are reproductive (1 born 2011 and 3 born 2013) but the 3 males at Monarto (1 born 2007, 2 born 2013) are directly related. If these 3 males (none of which are highly valuable genetically) could be relocated to a zoo to fill a non-breeding role, then this would free up space to import the 2 young males from Taronga Western Plains Zoo and continue Monarto’s pride into the future by breeding them with Kiamba's daughters (born 2011 and 2013). Note: Tiombe's daughters (born 2013) are related through Lazarus.

Just my opinion of course. Alternatives could include imports from outside the region, which would also be great.

 

If they go into a breeding situation again (which I hope they do) then I'd want them to receive one of Lazuarus's male cubs from Dubbo. Then import a female or females from outside the region. Preferably Africa or the USA again since most of the European stock isn't of known subspecies

My concern with taking Werribee females would be that.

A) They might get into the same situation as Sumatran Tigers and everybody ends up related to each other in years to come. Whilst if they regularly bring in new blood then thats far less likely to happen (or at least not to the same level)

B) Most of the Australian and New Zealand are pure Krugeri subspecies. Including those at Dubbo. The Werribee breeding females came from Givskud in Denmark and are not of a pure species.

 

I'm not 100% on how concerned the Australasian region is with maintaining a pure line of the Krugeri subspecies. I'm not saying it isn't on their agenda but the recent import of the two lionesses from Givskud (and the decision to breed several cubs from them) suggests it is not a goal supported by the whole region.

Having said that, I vaguely remember on the Zoo programme, something about Lazarus and Ngala when they were in South Africa and how Lazarus was a purebred and Ngala wasn't or something? Maybe this is why Lazarus was chosen over Ngala to go to TWPZ in 2012. This always seemed a strange move to me at the time, given Ngala had never bred (and was therefore unrepresented) so appeared more valuable. In addition, Ngala struggled to maintain dominance over the three lionesses at Auckland and would have done better with a single female.

Were Tonyi and Tombo pure Krugueri subspecies? A lot of Kura's line (Amali at Adelaide; Kuchami at Taronga; Kiamba and Tiombe at Monarto) were mated with lions from Mogo Zoo so it'd be interesting to know if these were purebred subspecies.

 

Yes. Tombo, Tonyi and Kura were all pure Krugeri (hence Amira was too)

Don't know about Mogo's line. Would probably have to get an international studbook to find that out

 

It'd be great to a studbook of Mogo's lions. For one, I'd like to learn about the litters born there as there are multiple zoos in our region with lions from Mogo. Secondly, I'd like to know about Kura's son Amani (2004), who went there in 2005 and if he's still alive, if he bred etc. I'm wondering if he died quite young as I can't find a thing about him on the internet.

 

Endangered Sumatran tigers fly to Tasmania Zoo in state first - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Tiger's, Jalur and Cinta are in transit to Tasmania Zoo today

 

Taronga Western Plains Zoo - Cheetah Cubs

Zoo welcomes six Cheetah cubs!

Taronga Western Plains Zoo is proud to announce the arrival of six healthy Cheetah Cubs born on 6 June 2018. The cubs were born to experienced mother Kyan and father Jana.

“This Kyan’s fourth litter,” said Cheetah Supervisor Jennifer Conaghan. “Kyan is showing very positive maternal behaviour. Having so many cubs at one time is her biggest challenge, but she is being a very attentive and patient mother.”

“Two to four (cubs) is the average litter size for Cheetah, so six is pretty extraordinary. This is the largest litter we’ve had at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, with 20 litters produced here to date,” said Jennifer.

Cheetah are notoriously challenging to breed. The successful introduction of Kyan and Jana and subsequent pregnancy and birth is a testament to the hard work, dedication and experience of the Zoo’s Cheetah keeping team.

The Cheetah cubs will be reliant on their mother until up to 18 months of age, initially for food but also to learn behavioural and hunting skills. Between the ages of four and twelve months the cubs will start to explore, chase and play with one another.

“Any scratching, climbing and chasing behaviours will be well practiced on mum, which she will graciously tolerate. Cheetah teeth and claws are razor sharp from a young age. At twelve to eighteen months, the cubs will begin to learn and perfect their hunting skills,” said Jennifer.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo has a long history of breeding Cheetah, with the program established in the 1980s. The Zoo now holds 17 Cheetah in total. Female Cheetah tend to be solitary, whilst males will live in a coalition, so visitors will often only see them in their natural groupings on exhibit.

“The arrival of Kyan’s cubs is extremely exciting, as it means visitors will be able to see a large family group on display in the future.”

“The Cheetah cubs still have some growing to do before this happens. Kyan and her cubs will spend the next couple of months behind the scenes before making their debut on exhibit,” said Jennifer. “We’ll keep everyone up to date on their progress in the meantime.”

This time behind the scenes is critical for the cubs to bond with Kyan and develop during this initial period, and for Kyan to feel relaxed and concentrate on the task at hand.

 

Dreamworld - Tiger Cubs

It doesn't seem to have been mentioned on here already but on 24/01/2018, Nika gave birth to 0.2 cubs named Melati and Mya. The father is Raja and this is their third litter together:

Tiger Cubs | Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation

 

Hybrids again.

 

I agree it's a shame they're stocking up on hybrids again.

Rama (born 1998) passed away in late 2017. Along with his three littermates (who all died between 2013 and 2017), he was the last of the 'early' Dreamworld Tigers, which also included the six founders of course.

These tigers were much loved by the staff and the public, and a Sumatran tiger breeding programme wasn't extensively established in the region in the 1990s like it is today so I can understand the original decision to import (and breed) hybrids; BUT NOT the decision to breed a fresh generation of them in the 2010s. I can't see what benefit further orange hybrids (like the 5 cubs bred from Raja and Nika between 2015 and 2018) would have over purebred Sumatran tiger cubs with regards to bringing in visitors (earning money for conservation).

It almost seemed like Dreamworld turned a corner in 2007/2008 with the births of the two Sumatran litters (after a decade of not breeding hybrids) only for them to go straight back to breeding hybrids again.

 

The reason is likely that the Sumatran tigers are part of a managed program. Despite the way zoo PR spins it, the idea behind a managed breeding program is not actually to necessarily breed MORE tigers but just to MAINTAIN tigers. Thats especially true for a subspecies with a low genetic founder base, such as is the case with Sumatran tigers. Thats why zoos so regularly leave breeding until right at the last moment when the animals are near-post reproductive. The less generations of tigers that tick over, the slower the rate of inbreeding and the longer the subspecies survives. As a result many zoos in Australia who might want to acquire or breed Sumatran tigers might actually find there are none immediately available and no breeding recommendations on the horizon either.

Could Dreamworld just breed surplus of their Sumatrans for display? Probably, but likewise they could do exactly what they are doing: Make a responsible contribution to the ZAA's Sumatran breeding program and breed additional hybrid tigers, at will, for their own commercial interests. Interests that I might add probably make a much larger contribution to tiger conservation that most of the other zoos combined.

But if I may suggest another angle here, my own personal opinion: My attitude towards hybrids has come full circle over the years, shifting from an original purist stance that they represent nothing more than space wastage, to actually having concern that we are going to phase out hybrids from zoos at the expense of captive genetic diversity.

Take leopards for example. There was a time when a leopard was a leopard and hybrids or leopards of unknown ancestry constituted most of the captive population of leopards in the world. Then we shifted into a purist stance and started only keeping pure bred leopards. But we didn't actually have purebreds of every single subspecies of leopard, and of those we did have we had only a very small number of founders. Meanwhile leopards continue to go extinct in the wild. Fast forward to 60 years from now - The leopard is extinct in the wild. What we have is a few separate breeding programs for lets say, five pure leopard subspecies. But each breeding program is now suffering form inbreeding depression due to a low genetic founder base. The only way we can save the leopard is to start introducing the odd purebred animal of another subspecies into the others gene pool.

Now lets imagine that at this time we actually had a 6th breeding program. One of genetically vigorous hybrids. Instead of mixing those five purebred (but inbred) populations with each other, we can introduce a bit of healthy hybrid into each population. I dare say, the hybrids are not just genetically healthier, but also likely to be carrying at least some genes of of the purebred species they are being bred back into and thus technically keeping the lines just that little bit purer. In either hypothetical we are forced to hybridise. But its with the hybrids that the leopard is better off - both as a subpecies AND a species (and I won't even go into the risk of losing melanistic genes through hybrid phase-out).

My concern is that we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I fear we are phasing-out hybrids under some false pretence that zoos can preserve purebreds in the long term. Most zoo species actually don't have the genetic diversity to maintain themselves in the long term and you're kidding yourself if you think many more will filter in from the wild before extinction occurs. One only needs to look a Sumatran rhinos, Andean tapirs, Indian tigers. Good luck convincing the politicians of their range countries to share any of those last specimens with the world's zoos.This is despite them dwindling to the brink of extinction in the wild. Or take the northern white rhinos. We deliberately phased out some hybrid-whites only to a decade or so later attempt to start hybridising figuring something is better than nothing.

I say value and manage and the hybrid tigers as an distinct and isolated breeding program just as you do the purebreds. When the Indian tiger goes extinct in the wild, we might just appreciate those mostly-indian hybrids a lot more than we do now.

 

I'm sure I remember black leopards there a few years later, and then by the 2000's they had Persian leopard and indochinese clouded leopard also.

Also a very large primate collection around this time.

 

It's depressing to think about the decline in diversity in cat species at any of our region's zoos, though I think Melbourne's collection in the 1990s (compared to now) illustrates it best of all.

Incredibly, they were breeding most of the species you've listed as well, which indicates a fair bit of space and resources were once dedicated to these cats; not just a single animal for exhibition purposes.

 

Are you sure you don't mean the melanistic jaguar?

 

Melbourne definitely had black leopards. I can't tell you when from but definitely into the '70's and the '80's. One was "Trooper Pardus", the mascot of an Australian army cavalry regiment.

 

Finally! Someone talking sense on this issue. Removing healthy animals from an endangered species gene pool because they aren't from a "pure" subspecies is madness. We should be maintaining genetic diversity at all costs. A hybrid tiger is better than no tiger at all, or worse yet, a "pure" Sumatran that's more inbred than most breeds of domestic dog.

 

Orana Wildlife Park - African Lions

One of Orana Wildlife Park's male lions, Masai (born 2011), has died:

Orana Park vet 'disappointed' by 'malicious' complaints

A lion, named Masai, had a "healthy life" until an episode in which he suddenly went off his food. They waited 72 hours and anesthetised him, and blood tests were carried out.

Seven days into the episode, Masai cleared his bowels and cleared himself. He started to put on weight and appeared to be on the mend.

Four months later the lion stopped eating suddenly and again fell ill. The call was made to euthanise him.

A post mortem revealed Masai had a tumour.

His death has reduced his pride to 2.2 animals:

Rah (24/09/2002)
Leah (13/01/2004)
Meeka (13/01/2004)
Mambila (04/01/2011)

Rah, Leah and Meeka are full siblings (from two different litters) born to Toby and Priscilla (both now deceased). Meeka is the mother of Masai (now deceased) and Mambila.

More info can be found on these lions (and the other pride of 4.3 held at Orana Wildlife Park) here:

Orana Wildlife Park - Lion

 

Monarto Zoo - Cheetah Cubs Update

https://www.monartozoo.com.au/cheetah-cubs-clean-bill-health/

During their check-up, the cubs were microchipped, received their first round of vaccinations and were given full-body examinations to determine their sex and general health.

We’re thrilled to announce the litter consists of three females and one male, with each cheetah cub being in perfect health!

The feisty felines are now eight weeks old and absolutely thriving under doting mum Kesho, weighing around three to four kilograms each – the perfect size for cubs their age.

Monarto Zoo carnivore keeper Jaimee Button says the little cubs, born on May 21, are already a confident bunch.

“The cubs are starting to venture out of their private den every now and then with mum,” Jaimee says.

“They are quite playful and adventurous, so they’re really enjoying exploring their new surroundings with Kesho as a guide.”

The cubs will continue to bond in a private den, but will be ready for their public debut in the near future.

Classified as vulnerable to extinction in the wild, these cubs mark an important contribution to the global breeding program working to secure the future of the species.

Sadly, cheetah numbers in eastern and south-western Africa are scarily low, with only 6,700 estimated to be left in the wild.

“These little ones are the second litter born to Kesho in two years and, like their brothers and sisters, they’ll play an important role in helping to educate people on the plight of their wild cousins,” Jaimee says.

“These cubs were sired by Saadani, a different male to Kesho’s last litter, which is also hugely beneficial to the global cheetah population.”

Five-year-old Kesho was born at Monarto Zoo in 2012 as part of Zoos SA’s cheetah breeding program, while six-year-old Saadani was born in the Netherlands and arrived in South Australia in 2014.