Last of their kind in a zoo

They're not harder to keep they're just more expensive then. I think I read somewhere on the forum that Chleby imports leafs from a farm in Vietnam. If I recall correctly, it's a ficus species native to south-east asia.

 

Regarding the Douc langurs at Chlelby I've just found this paper / report that can be accessed for free online offering an update of these monkeys a year on from their arrival.

It is actually really interesting and gives a background on the individuals, their diet at the zoo, their behaviour and husbandry etc.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327386484_Red-shanked_douc_in_Zoo_Chleby_-_a_year_after

 

Yes, you are correct that a lot of it is about sourcing the right kind of diet to replicate their folivorous feeding ecology but there have been historic problems with keeping them alive in captivity due to gastro-intestinal illnesses and also high infant mortality.

 

If you want to know species in captivity I would suggest this thread
Are These in Captivity?

 

I agree, it is very sad what has happened with the Northern white rhino indeed and I'm sure it is even more shocking given how many times you saw this particular individual rhino, are there any photographs of him in the gallery by the way ?

Not sure I understand but in the case of the Barton's long-beaked echidna were these animals sent from ZSL London to Taronga ?

 

Yes, as @Rayane and @Onychorhynchus coronatus have commented already. In the 1970s and 80s they were kept by a number of European and American zoos and they bred in some of them, but the numbers dwindled away and the last of the long-term zoo animals died quite recently in Cologne and Philadelphia. The more recent importations at Chleby and Beauval may benefit from the experience gained in South East Asian collections.
Douc are not the only delicate Asian leaf-eaters, if anything, proboscis monkeys are even harder to keep.

 

The northern white rhino bull 'Ben' is on the left, the female was a southern white rhino. With hindsight , Ben was sent to Dvur Kralove far too late. But it must be remembered that in the early 1970s very few white rhinos had been born in captivity. The importation of larger groups from South Africa to San Diego and Whipsnade advanced knowledge about their management considerably.

White rhino pair 1972 by gentle lemur posted 27 Dec 2015 at 2:28 PM

 

I believe the illnesses probably came from non appriopriate diet?
But anyway, it is nice to see at least two zoos in Europe are giving another try to Doucs as the husbandry and the knowledge is better than it was in the past.
Just did a quick search on the Zoo Chleby news thread, the langurs get fresh leaves twice a week from Vietnam, the rest of the time raspberry leaves and other (mint, zuchini, vietnamese bananas) work fine.

One species of leaf-monkey that qualifies for this thread, although only in Europe as there are still many in the US, is the last Silvered leaf-monkey - Trachypithecus cristatus in Zoo Usti.

 

Thank you for sharing @gentle lemur ! Much appreciated!

Ben would be the animal on the left I assume ?

He looks like a very charismatic and placid invidual, this would have been in the enclosure which is currently occupied by the bearded pigs wouldn't it ?

 

Yes, true, the biggest challenge to maintaining a species successfully ex-situ / in captivity often comes from working out what the adequate nutrition is.

To give a case in point, it took a long time and a huge learning curve to establish the buffy tufted marmoset in captivity here in Brazil but thanks to the staff at zoo Guarulhos things are now looking up, they are not perfect but the species is doing far better than it ever did historically.

I also totally agree that it is good that Chleby zoo are getting back into keeping the Douc langur. I think this goes for all challenging species that with enough persistence and research the majority of them can indeed do well in zoos and ex-situ.

 

Sorry I was editing my post while you were asking these questions. You can see the comments from the Gallery above. The oudoor enclosure became half of the bearded pig enclosure: the other half was used by a pair of black rhinos, and each rhino had an indoor section inside the building. The enclosure behind, one of Sobell Pavilions, has been remodelled externally and now holds mangabeys.

 

Should note, London no longer holds bearded pigs.

 

Yes, I can faintly remember seeing the black rhino within that enclosure in the mid 1990's (remember the elephants too, which seems very strange).

When I last visited ZSL in 2019 there were a couple of bearded pigs there and I definitely remember the enclosure for the white naped mangabey too which I spent quite some time watching.

 

I saw them there in Autumn of 2019 in the enclosure which held the Northern white rhino why are they no longer held ? what happened ?

If I remember correctly there were a pair that I saw (there may have even been more) and they seemed fine and healthy rooting around the substrate of the enclosure.

 

The bearded pigs were euthanized A year or two ago, and replaced by red river hogs.

 

I didn't see any red river hogs, I certainly saw bearded pigs or warty pigs and the Malayan tapir and muntjac on the other side.

 

If I'm remembering right, currently the former bearded pigs side holds red river hogs and the former tapir side holds babirusa.

 

The two in London died in 2019, maybe not long after your visit (since London does not have warty pigs - but I thought they did), the last one in Europe is in Berlin and is doing well.

 

I visited a couple of times in the summer and Autumn of 2019, roughly around the time when I joined this site.... and I saw both Malayan tapir, bearded pigs and muntjac using those enclosures.

I can say with 100% certainty that I didn't see any red river hogs or babirusa in those enclosures during those visits.

 

Well then I was very lucky to have seen those suids then I think and of course I had no idea that they were on the brink of disappearing from European collections.

Do you know why were they euthanized ?