Last of their kind in a zoo

Agree. It was more a joke, but as I said, zoo community at least is very interrested.

 

I know don't worry.

I know that zoo enthusiasts are but do you believe that the zoo industry is ?

 

It depends, I am aware that zoo enthusiasts are not the majority of zoo visitors, a lot of them just go there because of their children and expect to see tigers, giraffes, elephants. I don't know how many zoo deciders just go with that flow, I have no contacts to such persons. Beside the interrest zoos could have in the species, it's always said that artiodactyl imports from Africa are nearly impossible because of the laws to prevent animal deseases.

 

Unfortunately, I would say that a zoo that doesn't cave in to the lowest common denominator dynamics of what the public apparently "want to see" (or what they percieve the public want) is a very rare one indeed and almost as rare and threatened as the Jentik's duiker itself.

I wouldn't hold my breath for the arrival of Jentiks. It would be excellent if it happened and if it was matched by a long term commitment to the management of the species ex-situ and support of important in-situ work and research, however, sadly I just cannot imagine such a scenario happening.

You never know though, maybe zoos will one day decide to get back into the species.

 

You can buy 'Duikers of Africa' from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Duikers-Africa-Masters-African-Bushmeat/dp/0620337737

 

Theoretically, it's cheaper from Waterstone's if you're prepared to wait: Duikers of Africa - Masters of the African Forest Floor by Vivian J. Wilson | Waterstones

 

Thanks for sharing @Dassie rat ! Hopefully some zoochatters might purchase this book, it looks like a great reference book.

 

I found something interesting. There is a wildlife sanctuary in Liberia, the only one in this country as they say. It exists since just a few years. A possible candidate (maybe the the most likely?) to see a Jentink's duiker one day. https://libassawildlifesanctuary.org/

 

Sadly, the Margibi county (where the sanctuary is) is not that close the known Jentink's duiker range and many rivers separate its range from that county.
But they have had many other interesting species, from pangolins to mangabeys and bay duikers.
In the absence of anything else, it might be the most likely but still highly unlikely.

 

It could be, but I would strongly advise against travelling to Liberia in the near future, Ivory coast seems a far better (and safer) option.

 

I know but they wrote somewhere that they are responsible for all confiscated animals from throughout Liberia. But I understand the doubts.

 

For reason that I don't plan to go there at the moment I did not some research how safety a travel in this country would be. Thanks for the advice. I have read at least that liberian airlines belong to the most unsafety in the world.

 

Yes, it is a very troubled country indeed.

Still hopefully you will achieve your dream of seeing a Jentinks duiker one day.

 

Thanks for Your wishes! And sorry I changed the topic a bit, it is no more the discussion You started.

 

No worries actually you didn't change the topic. The Jentinks is an interesting species and it was precisely what I wanted people to discuss, the last individuals of species in zoos.

 

Not to further derail this thread, but this is something that I wanted to comment on, briefly. Even if it was possible to source more Jentink's (which it's really not, currently), there is not enough space in zoos, at least in the United States, for them to become well-established and sustainable. Like all duikers, Jentink's duikers would be pair-held species. Something that has proven to become quite an issue with the yellow-backed program is that when breeding recommendations suggest forming new pairs, by the time it is all said and done, you are looking at losing, on average, three years of an animal's life during which it could be breeding. For a relatively short-lived animal, that is a lot of wasted time. Duiker are notoriously fractious and spook easily, so in most cases, their husbandry is not easy, let alone their transport between facilities. Also being a paired species, it is not always easy to place offspring, so breeding facilities need to be able to house any offspring they produce for upwards of three years. The AZA is currently recommending yellow-backed duikers be a consortium species, where there are few facilities that are designated breeding facilities with multiple pairs, and offspring are distributed from there to cut down on all of the above issues

 

No, dont worry about it Kudu21, this is interesting to read and definitely relevant to the discussion regarding Jentinks and other duiker species.

Perhaps it is best to conserve the species in-situ ?

But there are enormous challenges in achieving that effectively too.

 

I’m pretty sure the Bronx Zoo keeps the last Guanay Cormorant outside of South America.

 

While it certainly has been a while, and I definitely was not alive during that era, I believe that the last passenger pigeon in the world (up to current knowledge) was held in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Her name was Martha and she has a memorial there now. I think if I were alive during that era, I would have found the story of the entire species of the passenger pigeon to be really quite tragic. Once a populous species dominating the skies in huge flocks, to the point of even blocking out sunlight, passenger pigeons were merely seen as a pest.

As such, many farmers back then wiped out many of them at a time with traps and hunting. Since passenger pigeons can only breed well in a highly social environment (I think there has to be many more passenger pigeons with them), as the population numbers started to dwindle, they were less able to breed and eventually died out.

If I were to see Martha in her cage in the zoo back then, it would just feel so ironic that a once-common species that nobody cared about was suddenly on the brink of extinction, with the last member (that visitors probably did not care about in the zoo when the passenger pigeon population was still high) right in front of my eyes. Really quite tragic. :<

 

Thanks for your comment @Sauroposeidons !

Have to say that as the biodiversity loss crisis intensifies those complex emotions that visitors to Cincinnati zoo in the early 20th century experienced when seeing Matha in her cage will likely be experienced again by current and future generations ad infinitum with many more species.