Also some news on the Indian rhino front, four have been killed by poachers in the last two weeks in India, can the pouchers ever be stopped?.
The San Deigo wild animal park now holds 16 Indian rhinos the worlds largest captive collection, not bad as they only started with one pair from the city zoo which did not like the cramped conditions there, the much bigger area seemed to work for them. I did hear they have bred more then 50 calfs now.
Yes, compare that with Whipsnade's very poor performance during an even longer period (since 1950's) of keeping/breeding this species. Only eleven calves born in total- only 6 of which survived, only 3 of which went to other zoos to breed. Then an interval of 17 years with no breeding at all, despite still having their rhinos....
I think the San Deigo zoos have been more focused on the breeding side of things more so the whipsnade, maybe times have now changed for the better with their Indian rhinos, maybe having two other zoos in the UK holding them now as well will help with their breeding they could swap animals around between them in the furture if needed instead of Whipsnade being the only UK zoo to hold them.
I went to Chester last night and the indian Rhino Patna isn't Gaidi's son. Well that was what a zoo man told me. I trust him.
great to see the dogs again mark, hows the breeding going, and the herps as well i hope kua gets to dubbo soon, the new area is looking fery nice
The Herps are going well Zoo_Boy and i got a few new species this seaon which i have been waiting for for a long time. As far as the Dogs go we are trying for a litter at this time. I dont think i will get to Dubbo for quite some time as i have commitments here for a while, but i will get there.
So was he fathered by East Berlin's bull(Belur) then? If Patna was born at Berlin then it must be one or other of these, I think.
Exactly. For years if there was no breeding at Whipsnade there wasn't much they could do about it. Even the current Bull had to come from Switzerland. With three zoos keeping this species now,there's obviously a better chance of promoting breeding at each(as long as they each have male/female, that is)
I am surprised that Port Lympne dont hold at least a pair of them, having another zoo there with them with the record they have for breeding rhinos.
A few years ago there was talk of Port Lympne having Indian rhinos- but it didn't happen. I'm sure they would be very successful with Indians though, if they kept them. More recently I heard a rumour about them wanting Javans instead- but it was only a rumour.
The keepers at Port Lympne told me in 1988 that they were trying to get Javans but i dont feel this will happen at any time.
Zoos should stick with one species of Rhino. If they do have have 2 one should be for breeding and the others should be more to show the strenght of Rhinos. People should remember that they are very strong. The second species should still be bred just not be the main species, eg. Whipsnade has indian rhinos but it has more sucess with whites.
i dont think theres any real justification for a zoo to focus exclusively on one species of rhino-where its practical (not in australia for example) and where resources allow it, id say go for it to any zoo willing to commit to all three species. certainly, there are lots of zoos with all gorilla, orang and chimp, or several big cat and bear species. it makes sense to specialise in particular groups of animals, and i think its interesting for zoo visitors to make the comparison. western plains zoo in central nsw, australia (for all our international forum members ) is forging ahead with bold plans to display the big three rhinos and breed all of them. whilst their white rhino and black rhino programs have met with success, the program for indian rhinos does go against regional collection planning guidelines, set down because in australia our space to handle large number sof animals is limited. on the other hand, theres no reason whyzoos in the uk or north america can easily pool resurces with other zoos in the region and manage more than one or two rhino species effectively!
Absolutely glyn, I couldn't agree more. The notion that any zoo that has the space and the resources to hold more than one species of rhino should not breed one of those species makes no sense at all. Having said that, I strongly support pairing and import/export of rhinos (and other managed species) that follow the appropriate regional breeding recommendations as developed by the studbook keeper or species coordinator and/or regional breeding program.
