The Zoo posted on their Facebook page that they lost their only female giraffe (and her unborn calf) to a birthing complication today. Previously another female also died due to pregnancy complications. There are only 2 male giraffes left at WRS parks. https://www.facebook.com/wrs.sg/
Very sad news. However, giraffes in european and us zoos aren't rare. How difficult is it for Singapore to get specimens from there? (Afaik, Singapore had different subspecies, I don't know to which the remaining males belong to)
I think it is a logistics issue of transporting the giraffes rather than availability. For some reason the Zoo could not acquire the same subspecies when it created its new herd in 2005, so it ended up with a male Rothchild's and two female Cape giraffes. Both females have died, leaving behind the male Rothchild's and one of its male hybrid offspring.
Interesting that that has changed as only a few years earlier Singapore successfully imported a Rotschildt's Giraffe from Burgers' Zoo in the Netherlands. May it have something to do with stricted food and mouth disease regulations?
Oh transporting a giraffe to Singapore is certainly possible, as you mentioned with the example of the giraffe imported from Burgers'. What I meant was that factors such as high cost, air freight versus sea freight, charter schedule, etc would limit the options available to import giraffes. For air freight for example, i understand that only very young giraffes can be transported using that option as there are height restrictions. I'm not sure why imports from regional collections were not considered. Safari World in Bangkok for instance has a huge herd of giraffes, i'm sure they could spare a few for export. Perhaps disease control might be a reason.
Media article on the new fossa exhibit, including a short video. S’pore Zoo debuts new Madagascar predator that looks like cross between cat & otter
The park welcomes yet another Southern White Rhinoceros to the collection. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=575542763022118