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Your fantasy breeding pair for your zoo

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by adrian1963, 8 Feb 2011.

  1. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Your fantasy breeding pair

    Here's my list, most of them extinct, in order of preference:
    Pink-headed Duck [kept in the UK within the past century, small chance that still exists, I've handled a skin....]
    Crested Shelduck
    Passenger Pigeon
    Huia
    Quagga
    Thylacine
    Great Auk
     
  2. Dallaspachyderm

    Dallaspachyderm Well-Known Member

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    well, in 1997 the brought Chendra in to maximize genetic diversity of the Oregon herd. They do see all Asian elephants as one species. As does Europe (Hannover is the only zoo to have Pygmies) they actually have third generation pygmy hybirds! The only place where a herd of pure pygmy elephants are breeding is at the Sabah Zoological gardens, and probably some wildlife rehabilitation places as well. In my opinion the Pygmies are the most distinct form and one of the most endangered, in my dreams I see a breeding program just for them, even if it means Chendra getting pregnant through AI from the bull in Sabah.
     
  3. lee456

    lee456 Well-Known Member

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    After seeing a documentry tonight - Lake Alaotra reed lemur.
     
  4. jwer

    jwer Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    What i allready thought seems true, the Lake Alaotra reed lemur as it was called in the BBC's "Madagascar" is known in the Zoo world as the "Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur or Alaotran Gentle Lemur. This species has been kept for a number of years, and is spreading like crazy over European Zoos in the last couple of years. It can now be seen at quite a number of zoos;

    ZootierlisteHomepage

    I never knew about their peculiar behaviour though, and don't think any zoo ever does something with it (in either their exhibit or the education signs).
     
  5. Maguari

    Maguari Never could get the hang of Thursdays. 15+ year member Premium Member

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    And yet none at all in Germany? How odd.
     
  6. lee456

    lee456 Well-Known Member

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    .

    Thank you for the information!. I thought it would makean epic exhibit to have a large lake with slow currents moving around the sides which has a mature tree or two on islands and floating platforms of static and dynmamic reed beds. It could even be nettered over and have storks, kingifishers, flamingoes and waterfowl. Even Madagascan Pochard if we are going to be ambitious.
     
  7. Javan Rhino

    Javan Rhino Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Are Chester's Alaotran gentle lemurs a breeding pair? I like seeing them but they are somewhat out of the way on my usual route around the zoo - and when I see them they are always in an awkward spot for pictures. Nonetheless, a wonderful species :)
     
  8. jerseygorilla

    jerseygorilla Well-Known Member

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    My species list are as follows:

    Giant Panda (I love bears)
    Gharial
    Indri
    Sifakas
    Jaguarundi
    Emperor Penguin
    Tasmanian Devil
     
  9. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    That was a wonderful sequence, and I can't really criticise the choice of any type of gentle lemur - indeed my first thoughts were of the wonderful broad-nosed gentle lemur. But after watching that documentary I have changed my mind.
    In an ideal world I would want a pair of indri.

    Alan
     
  10. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Do you really think there are any wild south china tigers left? The only people who believe that are the Chinese government. And if you want to know how reliable they are (I am talking about the people directly working for the alleged tiger reserve) - I suggest reading the excellent book Tigers In Red Weather. I mean, her guide pointed to the flowers that lined the road as proof saying south china tiger likes to eat these flowers!

    As for my dream pair, probably marbled cat. Although as someone mentioned, bornean bay cat would be nice too.
     
  11. Potamogale

    Potamogale Well-Known Member

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    Bit obvious bearing in mind my profile name but would REALLy want to have a pair of Giant Otter Shrews - that`s for starters anyway .

    Other species would be
    Pacarana
    Yapok
    Hoatzin
    Fanaloka
    Red colobus - or would that need to be a breeding group rather than a pair ?
    I`ll stop there before I get carried away
    :D
     
  12. Whats an Ounce

    Whats an Ounce Active Member

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    I really do not know. Sometimes, I think I'm just hoping against all hope. Yes, I know exactly how reliable the chinese authorities are, when it comes to displaying information for the rest of the world to see.

    As with most things, when it comes to the Chinese and conservation, the party line is very much, everything's fine - we can handle it, without foreigners trying to infiltrate us. I mean, the growing list of endangered/extinct species in China says it all doesn't it?

    I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic for probably non-existant (or soon-to-be non existant) feline subspecies, whether it be the south china tiger, or the sinai leopard, or the saharan cheetah, or the onza, or the barbary leopard or the asiatic cheetah. What can I say, I like cats.
    Thank for the tip about Padel's book, I'm off to the library tomorrow!


    Concerning the Lac Aloatra Bamboo Lemur, I don't know what this peculiar behaviour is (because there's no BBC here in Canada... God I miss it sooo much) but Jersey Zoo is the only zoo I've noticed where the Bamboo Lemur's enclosure has included flowing water and a large reed bed in case it involved reed living.


    Also, oh my god, a red colobus group would be soooo awesome!! (on the condition someone figured out how to keep them alive)
    Also an Indri pair would be equally awesome, actually I'm starting to think about trading in the most lifely non-existant pair of SCTs for an Indri pair
     
  13. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Well, asiatic cheetahs and sahara cheetahs have been seen recently, so they are not in the same league as south china tigers that have not been seen in four decades. (Remember the recent alleged photo by a chinese farmer turned out to be a copy photo of a picture in a calendar).

    You will LOVE the Ruth Padel tiger book - honestly the best book on tigers ever written IMO. The only one that covers both natural history and folklore of all subspecies of tigers. And written by a non-scientist, so very easy reading.

    If you like the onza, you have to get this book also. Again, deals with folklore as well as natural history - written by a fellow southern Arizonan who has been in my lab a couple times.

    [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Onza-Hunt-Legendary-Neil-Carmony/dp/0944383289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297394984&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Onza! The Hunt for a Legendary Cat (9780944383285): Neil B. Carmony: Books[/ame]
     
  14. Paleo_Orca

    Paleo_Orca Member

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    Any species? Hm... well... there's very little we know about baleen whales, especially rorquals, so I would probably have a pair of Minke whales, since they are much smaller than the giant Blue or Fin whales. It'd be great to study their intelligence and how they compare to toothed whales.
     
  15. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    maybe you could ask the japanese to catch you a couple alive? They're quite big on whale research.

    I would want a pair of giant anteaters, they would be pretty cool and a great drawcard, I've never seen them and theres none in NZ/Aust.
     
  16. Paleo_Orca

    Paleo_Orca Member

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    I would have very big ethical concerns doing that. Really, I'd rather get a live, stranded Minke whale than a deliberate capture.

    With all the aquariums Japan has, I'm surprised they haven't tried doing the same thing I'm talking about... but then again, I'm not surprised.
     
  17. Meaghan Edwards

    Meaghan Edwards Well-Known Member

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    At Toronto, I would like to see a breeding pair of Giant Pandas, but since it looks like the zoo is getting them, for some species or additoins the zoo doesn't have:

    Asiatic Dhole (there's three females but I'd love to see a male join them)
    Tasmanian Devil
    Asian Lion
    Ethiopean Wolf
    Bontebok
     
  18. soozthecat

    soozthecat Member

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    I believe some at Durrell are in breeding groups?
     
  19. Panthera Puss

    Panthera Puss Well-Known Member

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    I was lucky enough to meet Ruth Padel a little while back. She has a balanced searching, questioning intelligence that sees through the phonies in bad 'conservation'. A lot of scientists and celebrity so-called conservationists could take some lessons from her.
     
  20. BjoernN

    BjoernN Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    My favorite species list for Leipzig Zoo:

    - Two new unrelated breeding pairs of Indian sloth bears
    - Two further breeding pairs of Chinese pangolin
    - Pale-throated sloths
    - At least two pairs of Tamaraus (Bubalus mindorensis) to start a new breeding program
    - Fossas for Gondwanaland
    - Antillan manatees, Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius) and Cuban crocodile for the next project, South America.