History of Jersey Zoo & Durrell Trust ex-situ / in-situ conservation efforts.

I was originally planning to do similar threads on the history of ex-situ conservation efforts for the 1970's and 1980's .

The problem is that for the 80's you have only a couple of species that arrive like babirusa, Pzewalski's wild horse and snowleopard which arrive at the zoo don't really achieve anything remarkable and then get phased out in the 1990's.

Conversely there are others in the 1980's like the golden headed lion tamarin and black and white and red ruffed lemurs which arrive during that decade and do well at the zoo and are in fact still there today (except the tamarin). However, nothing pioneering achieved like with the Lac Alaotra gentle lemur or aye aye during the 90's.

A couple of species are interesting from a conservation perspective that arrive in the 80's like the Mallorcan midwife toad while there are some historic failures which are also of interest like the Saint Lucia whiptail.

The 1970's is quite an interesting period and you do have some notable species success stories like the Rodrigues fruit bat, golden lion tamarin, Jamaican hutia (though these no longer at zoo), Mellers duck, pink pigeon, St Lucia Amazon parrot, Bali starling, radiated tortoise, Round Island boa and rhinoceros iguana.

There are also some interesting historic failures from this period like the St Vincent Amazon parrot, volcano rabbit and Round Island skink (new chapter begun with this species I guess as it is now kept at the zoo again).

 

Mario arrived in 2007 at zoo Berlin, I belive he was 'gifted' from the madagasgan government? I've posted a link of his picture below.

"Mario", the Aye-aye - ZooChat

Amazing project! Can't wait to see what you dig up involving Duke University and Jersey!!!

 

Interesting, I didn't know that these kind of exchanges of aye-aye were still permitted by the Malagasy government.

Well , I'll see what I can find regarding Duke and Jersey but of course I think there have always been quite strong links between the two institutions considering that Lee Durrell was a student there.

Slightly off topic from the subject of the aye-aye but the only species that I didn't cover from the 1990's was unfortunately the Saint Lucia Racer which was sadly a historic failure to establish at Jersey.

I did intend to write a little bit about the story of these snakes and how and why they arrived at Jersey in the mid 90's but somehow it slipped my mind which is a bit annoying.

 

Yea I think it was abit controversial at the time. But a founder member in a small gene pool is a bonus.

We can forgive your for over looking the Saint Lucia Racer after the wealth of information you've provided over all.

 

Controversial it may be but it could well be argued that it was necessary because of the small gene pool and the aye-aye did go to Germany at the behest of the Malagasy government which is great.

Well , I feel a bit irritated by it slipping my mind as it would have made things more complete in terms of covering the 1990's and that species of snake does interest me greatly.

 

@Sausagefingers sorry, my bad, the snake species that I was referring to was the Anguillan racer (Alsophis rijersmai) not the Saint Lucia racer (Erythrolamprus ornatu) which Jersey zoo have had success with.

 

So in terms of information on Jersey working with the Duke lemur center with the aye-aye there was a lot of cooperation back in the 1980's with in-situ and ex-situ in country conservation of the species and through the 1990's.

This collaboration was primarily in improving the Parc Ivoloina zoo and setting up the Madagascar fauna and flora group (MFG) and assisting its work both financially and logistically.

The 2018 studbook for the aye-aye does have a bit of information about animal transfers between the two institutions though these have only been from Duke to Jersey.

One of the male aye-ayes "Pan" (love the name ) that is currently held by Jersey was loaned to the zoo by the Duke lemur center and similarly another male called "Imp" kept by Jersey who sadly is now deceased was also loaned to the zoo by Duke.

 

@Sausagefingers In terms of connections between German zoos / institutions and Jersey I don't know much about this other than many animals from the 1960's onwards were exchanged with and to zoos in that country.

I would imagine that the connections and working relationship between Jersey and German zoos are very strong indeed and I believe they also have staff who are German and who previously worked at top institutions in that country.

In terms of the aye-aye, yes, according to the 2018 studbook there have been a couple of Jersey aye-aye that were historically sent to German zoos.

A male aye-aye "Malala" who was born at Jersey in 1999 was sent to the Frankfurt zoo where he presumably and hopefully remains to this day.

A female aye-aye "Zanvie" who was born at Jersey in 1997 was sent to Bristol and then to Berlin zoo before returning to Jersey where she hopefully remains alive and well in to this day.

Duke lemur center have also apparently sent one of their aye-aye to Frankfurt zoo, this was a young male called "Vinny" who was born at Duke in 2011.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

Thanks for posting! Very interesting that it's been mainly one way transfers. Hopefully the captive population will continue to grow with 2 way transfers in the future.

 

No problem, yes it is quite strange that it has been one way so far, but perhaps there will be Jersey aye-ayes heading to Duke in the future ?

Especially considering the recent births of the species that have been occuring at Jersey.

 

Thanks for sharing @TeaLovingDave,

That is really interesting to learn, have to admit that I didn't know much about the reasons for the decline of the Round Island skink at Jersey zoo but it does appear that there was some mismanagement and hubris on their part and that this was an underlying cause of the failure.

Obviously it is never a good idea really to have all your eggs in one basket in terms of ex-situ conservation and when this is the case then the likelihood of failure increases exponentially.

I dont know everything surrounding the case of this particular species but from what you say you have learned from others it is such a shame that there was this attitude at the reptile department at that point towards other zoos.

I wonder what the cause of this was or why ?

 

Yeah, I agree. This thread has been a joy to read. Jersey is a fantastic zoo/breeding centre and their Dodo is a wonderful resource.

On the topic of Aye-aye in Germany and France in 'modern history' (1990s+), Paris Zoo held one from 1986 - 2001. In 2001, they moved it to Frankfurt where it died in 2004. Gerald Durrell mentions this one in his book. Berlin held a male from 2007 - 2013 from Tana Zoo, Madagascar. I believe I read he was an official gift (I think 'A Zookeeper's War). He was briefly joined by a female from Bristol before she moved to Jersey. Frankfurt continues to maintain this species, currently with 3.1 from Jersey, Bristol and San Fransico.

Jersey has conducted some work with Duke. In 2014, they recieved 2.2 from them (and 2.0 from Denver) and I believe they imported 5 more recently.

 

Thank you @Dylan ! I appreciate your kind words about the thread !

Thanks for sharing that information about the aye-aye!

 

When you say imported 5 more do you mean Jersey or Duke ?

 

Jersey importing from DLC

 

Oh wow ! and this was last year ?

 

I'm not sure. Honestly, I might have just imagined it as I can't find anything to back me up.

 

Its ok, no worries , it would certainly be amazing if five aye-aye had arrived at Jersey from DLC.

 

Much appreciated, do you happen to know if the male in Berlin moved? Or passed away? Or remains?