How Well Do (BLANK SPECIES) Do In Captivity?

I've made this topic so people can discuss how well certain species do in captivity. I always find myself asking those questions, so I'm assuming other people do too.

I'll start it off by asking about walruses. How well do they do in captivity? They're really big, but are they basically the same as caring for a larger sea lion?

 

The main problem with walruses in captivity is that it is hard to create an enclosure for a tusked walrus - the enclosure usually damages the tusks or vice versa. A walrus without tusks isn't harder to keep than any other pinniped.

 

All species can do well in captivity if their needs are met. Some species' needs cannot be met -- I'm thinking large whales. Possibly deep sea organisms.
Everything else, once a protocol for meeting its needs is established, does well.

 

Mountain gorillas are really hard to keep in captivity, due to their not easily accessible diet.
If there were any in captivity though I think they would do well. (If they had their diet needs met.)
I believe that's the reason as well with Red colobus's not doing Well in captivity.

Indri's live between 15 and 18 years in the wild, and do not fare well in captivity. No indri has ever survived more than a year in captivity. Research suggests that the diet of the indri is nuanced (they eat certain foods at certain times of day) and cannot be replicated in captivity. Also, when taken from the wild, these lemurs, for reasons which remain unclear, do not reproduce. Captive breeding is not always straightforward; potential impediments to success vary from overlooked social cues, idiosyncrasies which can’t be replicated in captivity, or just too large a rift between the wild setting and the simulacrum created in captivity.

 

There is a whiff of tautology here.

Luckily we have a wealth of previous threads about this topic:

To Zoo or Not to Zoo: What to Do About Husbandry-Challenged Species?

Can Any Animal be Held in Captivity?

animals that should not be in zoos
(this last one is quite contentious)

 

And cold conditions.

 

Why is Bulwer's Pheasant almost nonexistent in captivity? Is there something about their biology that makes it harder to keep them than it is to keep a lot of other pheasant species?

 

According to Philip Ware's old 'Guide to the Pheasants of the World' they are only found in remote parts of Borneo and patchily distributed. A few birds arrived in Europe before World War 2, they lived happily but remained timid and did not breed. He suggested that they might need a warmer climate to breed. Having seen the 2 males at Pairi Daiza, which I believe came from Al Wabra, I can say that they are kept in a fairly small aviary in the heated Oasis greenhouse and they do not seem timid - although one has a crippled leg. I don't know of any reason why they shouldn't breed if a pair could be found and housed in suitable accommodation.

 

Why are goliath frogs so rare in captivity? I've seen one at KawaZoo in Japan, but no other zoos, in Europe or the USA, seem to have them.

 

@FunkyGibbon I agree. Easserwarrior you should explore some of these links, We have already discussed numerous topics similar to this thread.

 

I took a peek at them. This topic is just for people to go in-depth about any individual species they may wonder about.

 

Ok, If there were one species I would wonder about it would be deep sea species, interestingly enough. I know many people say deep sea creatures are hard to keep in captivity, but I am kind of skeptical about deep sea creatures in captivity. Many Japanese aquariums, have kept flapjack octopuses, Which live on the sea floor. And salamander sharks, and Phronima, and deep sea isopods, skeleton shrimp, and more. Its funny because we say deep sea creatures are rare in captivity but when we think about it, we have managed to keep a lot of deep sea creatures over the years.

 

Is it difficult to sustain them or do other facilities not attempt caring for them?

 

I would say a mix of both.

 

I feel like in terms of mammals, anything that primarily has a diet of jungle leaves like the indri and Sumatran rhinoceros isn't really gonna thrive in captivity. On the other hand, Western lowland gorillas seem to be thriving so idk. Maybe it's some specific dietary components that can't be duplicated in a zoo.

 

They have bred in at least one US (or was it Mexican?) collection.

 

This thread, and all these animals, were very well discussed several years ago.

The Bulwer's Pheasant is said to be nomadic and associated with fruiting of fig trees on Borneo.To my knowledge, nobody knows what they actually eat - figs or maybe insects breeding in rotting figs. Maybe, given high budget of Pairi Daiza, they could try feeding their Bulwers raw figs and insects for part of the year, to simulate fig fruiting season? Another possibility is that they need more warmth than average pheasants, but subtropical zoos also couldn't regularily breed them.

Of course, other pheasants breed quite easily in human care and thrive on more mundane diet.

 

This statement is too wide to be accurate. I saw a pair of Bulwers in Antwerp some years ago. Both of those birds also had badly crippled feet. This only happens in captivity, so proves the birds must be captive bred. It is usually worse after a number of generations of in-breeding. Many tropical species from similar habitats are difficult in captivity, and very sporadic breeders. Not all other pheasants (or indeed other galliformes) breed like the commonly kept ones. Tropical Crested and Crestless Firebacks, Salvadories, some of the Peacock Pheasants are all far from breeding 'quite easily', and many stocks come from a tiny number of founders. Subsequent in-breeding affects different species in different ways, some being much more susceptible than others.

 

If we could figure out how to grow the diets of indris and Sumatran rhinos in captivity, would they do better in captivity?

 

As far as I know, there was no sustained breeding of Bulwer's Pheasant for many generations. There were sometimes broods, of which often females stopped breeding after one brood.

Note that 'tiny number of founders' does not equal difficult species to breed, but more that the species is rarely exported and/or there is little interest.