I recall hearing about the male being from the US and the 3 females from Europe. They are part of the EAZA breeding programme.
I guess they will be part of EAZA / EEP management like now the majority of international / regional zoo conservation breeding programs. I wonder how this relates to Singapore Zoo's involvement with SEAZA as the regional zoo organisation. How will the latter evolve?
WRS will certainly always be a member of SEAZA by geography. And being probably the best resourced organization among SEAZA members, WRS will play a large role in capacity building. But SEAZA doesn't have any coordinated breeding programmes at the moment so i believe WRS will still leverage EAZA and ZAA to a large extent for animal acquisitions and exchanges.
Thanks for your observations. Would be nice and good if SEAZA would set up their own regional conservation breeding programs which would stimulate and promote cooperation and animal exchanges (along with the expertise exchange already happening in SEAZA conferences) and increasing in situ and ex situ conservation work locally.
How probable it is that SEAZA would start its own breeding programs for at least few prominent species?
In my personal view, it would still be some years before that could happen. There needs to be better records management of the animals in SEAZA member institutions first. Very few SEAZA members have joined ZIMS and those that have don't seem to be updating their records regularly. They would also need to improve their husbandry standards and build up the relevant expertise. All these require substantial resources to be committed.
@DannySG, please note the contribution at the top of the page by @Zooish. He mentioned the M ex US and 3FF ex Europe. We - me and others - probably will endeavour to check which zoos made the transfers to Singapore Zoo possible. It might take some time and digging though.
The Grevy's came from the SSP and were all bred in the US (male from San Diego, females from WHite Oak). Once they moved to Singapore, with WRS being a member of EAZA, they were transferred to the EEP. SEAZA does have a few managed programs, but they are nowhere as structured as the EEPs and SSPs, though the coordinators do communicate among each other.
I hope with the good influence of a few committed SEAZA zoo members in individual East Asian nations that might change in good time. Generally, though I really do applaud close cooperation between regions. Certainly, the ties with Europe are getting better in recent years, not just Singapore, but with Indonesia, Seoul and Taipeh Zoos to name a few ...
With Singapore and Taipei being EAZA members, the communication between SEAZA and EAZA will surely continue to improve, . The species coordinators for the SEAZA ex situ programs are all in close communication with the international studbook keepers and respective EAZA/AZA species coordinators. By the way, the species are : Orangutan (Bornean and Sumatran), Lar Gibbon, Malayan Tapir, Sunbear.
Agreed, it would be nice if they can expand the 5 current target species to say 25 by 2022. I would appreciate it very very much if SEAZA would be able to muster at least some of the high profile endangered species of the S.E. Asian region. BTW: Seoul Zoo in South Korea seems also very close to getting some form of cooperative management with EAZA / EEP programmes (examples would be Somali wild ass, western lowland gorilla et cetera). Also, some of their native species breeding programs have also caught the attention of EAZA (and their journal JZAR).
It would be great if the managed programs could increase (and they will), but this will happen quite slowly. The biggest challenge the coordinators face is lack of information from the species holders and also lack of compliance with transfer recommendations. There are quite a few energetic, motivated and talented people that want to drive this forward, but it will take a (long) while to get to 25 functional programs
Singapore Zoo have announced the birth of a Celebes Crested Macaque. From their Facebook page: Security Check
Mediacorp (Singapore's national broadcasting station) has released a roughly 20-minute segment on how WRS was operating during the country's 55-day-long circuit breaker. You can catch it online here: On The Red Dot: Inside The Zoo - meWATCH
There will be several episodes for this "Inside the Zoo" series . New episodes are released every Friday. These can be watched on Youtube as well (new episodes uploaded on Mondays I believe): https://www.youtube.com/cnaconnect/videos
Hi, Taipei says they are now negotiating the introductions of Edward's Pheasants, White Rhinoceros, Pygmy Hippos, Sri Lankan Leopards, Bongos from EAZA. And, Taipei has cooperated with EAZA with Somali Wild Ass, Gorilla, Black-capped Squirrel Monkey, Malayan Tapir, Siamang, Cotton-top Tamarin.
Thank you @ISAO! Both Singapore, Taipei and Seoul Zoos are increasingly cooperating with European zoo region. You might want to put this in the Taipei Zoo thread too (as this is relevant). And I would like to discuss what you just posted there in more detail!
