Another pair of female cubs or the same ones that Jarkari reported? If different do you know the parentage?
Sorry, I didn't spot the post but yes they are the same ones that Jarkari mentioned. Next time I should read ALL posts before posting news that is old
Altina is doing a great job! They are currently asking for suggestions of wolf names for their 2 girls. Altina are the only facility that are willing to breed wolves in Australia and have already welcomed the first 2 pups born in Australian for 7 years! Plus are importing 2 unrelated males next year to pair with their 2 pups as well as other females like "Arapey" & "Luchador" that are related to the current males. They have 4 other zoos that are after wolf breeding pairs and display animals with 1 girl "Esquivo" moving to Mogo zoo next year before the breeding season to make room for more pups & imported animals at Altina. If it were not for Altina existing WPZ would of just let Maned Wolves die out in Australia!
Altina is asking an unusual question of Facebook to be answered by the public: "How many maned wolves should Altina breed this year and what is the acceptable limit of inbreeding?" to those lines. I hope Altina isn't thinking of inbreeding the maned wolves.
it is an odd question to pose on Facebook. There are a few Zoochatters that have answered on there already, and some staff from other zoos as well, so it's actually a very sensible line of comments that have been posted but still, a bit of an odd choice of thing for Altina to do. Basically, from my point of view, short-term inbreeding is of no significance at all (so long as the parents don't have genetic defects of course) and new animals imported from overseas will offset that when bred into the population. Altina has already shown it is willing to import animals for this purpose, so there's no reason to not breed, say, a male maned wolf with his daughter. The problem would be if they were going to be continually inbreeding and then eventually you'd lose the population (as has happened repeatedly in Australasia with all sorts of different species). The only real stumbling block is that you can't have all your wolves in one basket and the other Australian zoos have already quite firmly shown that they have no interest in maned wolves any more (hence why all of them are now at Altina).
For us one reason to: attempt to become overseas member to another region's captive-breeding programme? I take it there are no limiiting import / export restrictions re. carnivores into / out of Australia (like with hoofstock)?
depends on the carnivore species, but for maned wolf there is no problem importing animals. As for exporting, anything can be exported so long as its exotic! Apparently Queensland zoos aren't allowed to keep maned wolves (someone said that on the Altina facebook comments), which would be another problem in keeping them going in Australian zoos.
I commented. If it successful and has no negative effects it is line breeding and is fine. If it causes problems it is inbreeding and should be stopped.
that is a farmer definition. Inbreeding is mating relative to relative (e.g. father to daughter, uncle to niece, etc). It does not matter if there are problems or not, it is still inbreeding. Farmers and breeders of domestic animals (e.g. dogs or cats) just use the word "line-breeding" because it sounds better and enables them to make a distinction between "good" and "bad" for their purposes.
As a farmer that must be where I got it from them. It is a common practice in breeding more productive animals. Then where 2 lines which have been line bred are crossed hybrid vigour can improve production more. Used in both plants and animals.
I'd just like to say (just in case anyone interprets it the wrong way) I didn't intend that comment to be taken as a put-down of farmers or anything like that. It was just a comment that inbreeding means breeding any two related animals together. Line-breeding can be seen as being a facet of inbreeding, but it is used I think mostly when breeding domestic stock and things like reptile morphs. (I posted this comment because I didn't know if my earlier one sounded harsh or disrespectful or anything like that, and I didn't want it taken the wrong way )
My impression has always been that breeding any related specimens is inbreeding. However, if the relationship is down the line - father to daughter for example - that can be, in some instances, quite OK and even beneficial for at least one generation. This is commonly referred to as line breeding. However, breeding across the line - brother to sister for example - is usually a no-no. Please correct me if that impression is incorrect.
breeding brother to sister is undesirable but it will have no ill-effect on the offspring of that pair (assuming there hasn't been a lot of inbreeding prior to produce that brother and sister). The key is obviously limiting the amount of inbreeding and allowing for the regular introduction of new (unrelated) blood. Thus to preserve a captive population you can breed related animals together if you have to, so long as new animals are also coming into the population to introduce new genes. What often happens (in both zoos and private husbandry) however is that a male and female produce offspring. The females are mated back to the father. Their offspring are mated back to the original father. When the father dies, the females are mated to one of the sons. Example being the sitatunga in Australasia, which it has been mentioned on the forum in the past are all descended from one pair imported from America. Orana's giraffes are another case of chronic inbreeding.
Inbreeding can be any related animals. Even very distantly related individuals (like 8th cousins) is still inbreeding. But the greatest the distance, the less the chance of problems. Inbreeding doesn't necessarily lead to mutations and deformities (although it does increase the frequency of existing abnormalities), but more seriously it leads to a loss in genetic diversity. The more inbred an animal is, the greater the loss. Hix
True! The less genetic diversity, the more chance of the concentration of deleterious genes, leading to weaker stock. There are some species in Australian zoos which, despite having very few founders (and therefore very little genetic diversity) have managed to thrive. Himalayan tahrs and Barbary sheep are two which come to mind.
There are a few things to be said about inbreeding. The first is that linebreeding is inbreeding deliberately engaged in by the breeder to establish an "abnormal" or new variety. Examples might be breeding sheep to get finer wool, or aviculturalists establishing another colour mutation. The wise breeder then returns to the "normal" population to reintroduce genetic variation once he/she has established the variety. Inbreeding itself may or may not introduce reproductive problems that may or may not lead to the extinction of the population. There are plenty of inbred island species, for instance, while many dassyurid species are inbred because they go through boom-bust cycles. In effect it is a crap shoot. But of course reproductive problems are not the only medical problems that can become endemic in an inbred population, and there are plenty of domestic animals that could be used as examples of that. The conservation problem with inbreeding is that it reduces genetic diversity, and so when it comes to reintroducing a species they may not have the genetic diversity within the population to adapt to varied conditions. There maybe nothing at all wrong with inbred animals. All it really means is that they belong to a population that all have common ancestors and therefore very similar genetic makeup. Take an inbred animal and mate it to an animal that it is not related to (even if that animal belongs to another inbred population) and you have progeny that is not inbred. Inbreeding is something that should be avoided in wild animal populations, but sometimes there is no choice. Sometimes a decision has to be made to deal with what you have got.
Altina has welcomed 4 maned wolf pups. 2 boys and 2 girls to mother olinta (russian import) and father Senna (ex dubbo). That is six pups born there in around twelve months and brings their numbers to 13 maned wolves.
