What caused the decline of the Sulawesi babirusa being kept in European zoos ?

Interesting paper I've downloaded from the early 90's about the husbandry of the babirusa in captivity with reference to several Indonesian zoos and Antwerp zoo.

It is called "Behaviour of the babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) with suggestions for husbandry" and can be downloaded as a microsoft word document.

 

According to the Bartlett Society's "Historic Species List for Jersey Zoo", Jersey kept babirusa between 1984 and 1997

 

Thank you @Tim May ! Much appreciated !

I wonder what prompted Jersey to discontinue the keeping of babirusas.

 

By the way, how can I access the Bartlett Society's archives ?

Is this function only available for members or is there a search option on the site ?

Sorry, for the odd question, its just I have never used that site before and it seems to be a bit of a goldmine in terms of information about zoos and species kept in them.

 

No you don't need to be a member of the Bartlett Society to access the data although, for anybody seriously interested in zoo history, membership is thoroughly recommended.

See the link below:

The Bartlett Society - Projects

 

Thanks again @Tim May, much appreciated.

Have now worked out how to use the system and am really enjoying looking up what species different zoos used to keep.

 

These are quotes from an interesting but quite short historic paper from 1993 called "CREATING A PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIOLOGY OF THE BABIRUSA (Babyrousa babyrussa) WITHIN A CARING ZOO ENVIRONMENT".

On what was known about the reproductive ecology of the babirusa in 1993 and how this translated into their management in zoos.

"The reproductive physiology of the babirusa is poorly understood. Observations of animals in zoological collections suggest that the continual presence of the boar within the same enclosure may depress the production of young. By way of contrast, however, the separation of the male and female into adjacent pens, with mixing restricted to during oestrus seems to promote fecundity (Vercammen, 1991). Both the presence of several boars within a single pen of females, or individual boars with sight and scent of one another in adjacent pens of females also appear to stimulate competition and enhanced reproductive activity."

"The ability of the animals to interact in a series of interesting ways without causing one another serious damage suggests that holding them in larger group sizes might be explored."

On zoos and their role in the conservation of the babirusa and in educating the visiting public about the plight of this animal in the wild.

"Increasingly, however, the attention of zoo staff is being called away from the individual to the care of the species as a whole. In a corresponding way, there are changes and an adjustment underway in the role of the zoo, moving it gradually from that of a park exhibiting the range of forms of animal species in the world towards something more akin to an informed teaching and research institution (Macdonald and Leus, 1993). Progressively, the current and prospective status of groups of animals, such as the pigs, are being evaluated and species are being classified as “rare”, “vuInerable”, “endangered” or “critically endangered” (Oliver, 1993). World-wide the zoo community is being invited to participate in and increasingly concentrate their resources on the captive breeding of species which fall within these categories."

"Taxon advisory groups (TAGs) are increasingly liaising with workers in the field to help ensure the conservation of species. Effective conservation of the available genetic variability depends upon more thorough collection and dissemination of information about their numbers and distribution in the wild as well as the biology of individual species. Crucially, however, funding and other support of these activities can be expected to rely heavily upon information and the explanation offered to the general public about what is going on within the zoo in this regard and why. Greater effort will be required of the zoos in the future to show and tell the public more of the details of the biology of the babirusa, and to illustrate how and why the animal is being conserved within zoos for its eventual return to a restored natural environment."

Unfortunately the above role in the conservation of the babirusa seems to have been neglected by many zoos for quite some time from what I have so far been able to gather from other comments on this thread.

Hopefully this idea is now thankfully once again ascendent and seemingly being given the appropriate prioritization within zoos.

 

A shortlist (as requested):

EAZA: Chester, London ZSL, Berlin TP (new), Berlin Zoo, Kronberg (new), Stuttgart, Wuppertal (new), Jihlava, Lisieux.
AZA: New Orleans (Audubon), Brevard, Riverbanks, Disney AK, Fresno, LA Zoo, Louisville, Tampa Lowry Park, MZ Miami, NY Bronx, Roger Williams Park, San Antonio, San Diego Zoo, SD-WAP, St. Louis, Toronto, White Oak.
SEAZA: Singapore.
PKBSI: Jakarta (Ragunan), Surabaya, Taman Safari (Bogor), Taman Safari (Prigen/Pasuruan), Batu Secret, Siantar Zoo, Bali Zoo.

NOTE: the PKBSI listing is the most incomplete as no sites for Sulawesi are reported.
I know for a fact that this is inaccurate and live individuals are held across the island in various facilities, both Govt. and private.

 

Thanks for sharing @Kifaru Bwana

You seem very knowledgeable about this species and its status in captivity so I have to ask have you worked with the conservation of these animals?

 

Thank you Rhino man

 

This is quoted from a paper called "The Conservation of the Babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa)" which was published in 2005.

On maintaining genetic viability of the ex-situ population of babirusa in zoos.

"It is a necessary adjunct to the long-term conservation of the animal in the wild that a metapopulation of babirusa is maintained in world-wide zoological collections. A population size of somewhere between 250 and 300 individuals, from a founder base of 40 unrelated individuals, if properly managed would enable 95% of the variability of the founders to survive for 100 years (Manansang et al, 1996). It is noteworthy that although only this relatively small number of babirusa need to be housed in zoological gardens, it is just as essential that these widely distributed zoos are able to exchange genetic material in order to maintain the genetic variability of the species over the long term."

On looking to the future of babirusa conservation both ex-situ and in-situ.

"Integration of the populations of species in the wild and in zoological collections has been achieved for a number of other species threatened with extinction. These demonstrate that the process is long term and involves the continuous investment of time and resources. It is not a ‘quick fix’. One reason why it has to be a long-term commitment lies intimately linked to the large size, rapid growth and increasing expectations of the human population. It also takes time to build expertise in small population management, to teach conservation in the forests and to successfully engage local communities and their governments with the protection of resources in the wild. Increased team-work between zoos and other conservation organisations, lies at the heart of the new strategy document (WAZA, 2005)."

 

I was wondering if zoos like Singapore would be one place of which to source new bloodlines for some of the zoos in the US/Europe?

 

To complete :
London ZSL and Lisieux were new ones for 2020 and 2019. Wuppertal is not new as they have animals for a long time. Not to forget that Nuremberg received a pair in 2019 that sadly died this year.
In 2020 two births are reported : one in Lisieux (a girl) and one in Kronberg. I was expecting some from Chester but it sounds not.

 

@Antoine . Any idea to why the Jersey zoo no longer hold them?

 

No sorry.

 

That was the interim plan that never got to be reality.

The original plan was 7 new founders wild caught from Sulawesi, Indonesia (Surabaya Zoo) to be bred to one another and export offspring to ex situ zoos overseas.

The new plan is a hybrid of all of the above (including the existing European and North American populations).


@Antoine, EAZA region correct.

 

I was trying to find out information about that earlier and though I didn't find out any rationale behind why they stopped keeping babirusa (circa 1997 / 1998) I did find quite a number of references to the Jersey animals.

There is a paper that was written on a results of a study on the agonistic behaviour of the babirusa in captivity and the Jersey animals were studied as part of this.

There are also several references online to Jersey (and the Aspinall parks) being involved in sponsorship of IUCN specialist meetings regarding the species and population and habitat viability assessments throughout the 1990's.

The Durrell trust (or then the Jersey wildlife preservation trust) even wrote an article in the dodo journal on what they had learned on the husbandry of the babirusa too.

Sadly, although I've tried I just can't seem to access the paper but the reference is : "Bowles, D. (1986). Social behaviour and breeding of babirusa. Dodo, Journal of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust 23: 86-94.".

 

Interestingly, the first record of the species being kept in Europe was apparently a pair of animals in 1820 in the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris where a single male offspring was born.

Apparently for the next 150 years the population of babirusa in European zoos never exceeded 20 individuals kept.

 

I'm looking at a paper on the IUCN population and habitat viability assessment for the babirusa.

This was a 1996 conference at Taman Safari Indonesia Bogor, Java Bar at, Indonesia during the month of July.

You are absolutely correct that this was the original plan decided upon back then.

 

Here is an old photograph of one of Jersey's babirusa taken in 1988 by zoochatter @Hix.