The Wilds is now home to the only 3rd generation White Rhinoceros on the continent. There is currently a study occuring the zoos across the country to determine factors related to the lack of breeding by captive bred White Rhinoceros. Lara Metrione, the principal investigator of this project, has spent the last year traveling across the country observing rhino behaviors in various zoos for a month at a time. Hopefully she can find some correlations in factors related to successful breeding.
I was wondering about the Indian rhino breeding programme at The Wilds. Whom has left the collection recently (2008/2009) as a male has gone 'AWOL' here! I suspect the likely contender is Himal - who has now sired 3 calves - as Assam is a no-hoper (and too over-represented genes at that) and Rustam is supposed to be the next sire for the 3 Indian cows at The Wilds. I suppose Rustam has already been in with Manjula (the calf born in 2005 to Dailey) and will shortly also be made acquainted to both prove cows Dailey and Sanya. Anyone has any updates on the Indian rhinos?
You are correct, sir! Himal moved this past November (2008) to the Montgomery Zoo in Alabama. Unfortunately, I don't have any other updates ...
I finally went to the Wilds for the first time today. Here are a few updates on the park. 1) The Wilds now has only 1.1 Dholes. One of the males has gone to San Diego so hopefully they will see some breeding soon if the Toronto dholes aren't related to the San Diego ones. 2) The Park recently welcomed 3 baby Scimitar Horned Oryx, 10 American Bison, 2 Persian Onager, and 1 Asian Wild Horse. 3) They have a new male Indian Rhino - I'm not sure who but they should restart their breeding program soon. I'll post pictures later.
I need to get back to the Wilds. I've been meaning to go it just hasn't worked out. What other carnivores do they have now? There were none on my last visit a number of years ago.
Are the dholes hard to see? The carnivore cages look pretty big and wooded. If I drive 4 hours to the Wilds,the dholes will be the main reason.
The dholes are very easy to see and are well worth the trip. I'll post some pictures later of my last visit.
I got a postcard from their staff recently saying "we hope to have cheetah cubs this summer." Maybe it will happen in time for our 2009 ZooChat USA trip (since it looks like Ohio will be the trip poll winner).
I'll be traveling to the Wilds again tomorrow. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures again and I'll report on any breeding updates (Possible Cheetah Cubs and if the Indian Rhinos Have been put together). Im also going to post a "walk through" since no one has done that yet for the park. If anyone wants a specific picture or update feel free to post before tomorrow morning. I'll see what I can do.
Any photos of the Indian rhinos would be cool. Would you find out how many they intend to house there and have now. Are they using one of the imported bulls from India that came in the shipment via San Deigo zoo?
Mark, one of the females at The Wilds is Patrick and Indira's third and final offspring from 1999 I know you saw Sanjay in 97 and really liked the rhinos so i just though i'd let you kn ow about all this
Yes Thanks for that but I knew, lol, I think she was the very first IR to be used for AI work and delivered a calf which died at birth
Could not quite follow your exchanges ... At NY Bronx it is Sanjay (b. 1994). At Wilds it is Sanja (b. 1999). The AI female is Niki (b. 1991) at Cincinnati. Off topic: I do feel that Cincinnati need to get an unrelated bull a.s.a.p. in order to be able to breed natural too ... (it seems sad that 2 highly desirable cows in the right age classes have remained without access to one for so long).
Nikki was Toronto Zoo's first calf (b 1991) and she was also the first indian rhino born in Canada. She was also the first ever indian rhino to conceive thorugh AI (Although her calf was stillborn) Sanjay was the second calf (b 1994) and the only male calf of the three Sanya was the third and last calf of the three (b 1999) Nikki is at Cincinatti Sanjay is at Bronx Sanya is at The Wilds
