Short news from European Zoos

Berlin Zoo: Giant panda female Yan-Yan died a few days ago. Apparantly she just toppled over and died in her exhibit, exactly why isn't known yet. She arrived at Berlin in 1997 on a breeding loan from China to breed with the male Bao-Bao who is in Berlin since 1980 when he was gifted to the chanseler of Germany by the president of China. Unfortunately Yan-Yan never produced off-spring, not with Bao-Bao nor with AI.

There are now 3 panda's left in Europe, Bao-Bao and the breeding pair in Zoo Schönbrunn, Vienna (Austria).

 

ther reckon she died of lack of attention because of that little polar bear cub - personally i don't buy it

 

what do you think on tht pat, should it have been put down?

 

Berlin's Panda male Bao Bao is now the oldest captive Panda outside China, possibly in the World? He spent some time at London Zoo in the early 1990's on a breeding loan but it never worked out so he hasn't fathered any offspring. Only a Newspaper could suggest that the female Panda died from neglect due to the interest in the baby Polar Bear 'Knut'

Why was it suggested at 'Knut' should be destroyed anyway?

 

Indeed, rubbish

She died of a intestine-blockage. Weither or not this was due to worn-down molars (because of age) i don't know.

Naturalists suggested that because he is being hand-reared (due to mother's neglect) he could never have a normal polar-bear's life and therefore he'd be better off dead...

Remarkable to me, because polar bear's (and especially males) are as far as i know solitairy animals anyways. It's not that you can't keep him with other polar-bears because he doesn't know the social structure, you can't keep him with others because he'd kill them...

I also heared about bears becoming very human-orientated which is not a very good thing for zoo animals (begging for food, for instance), but i never heared of bears being totally unable to breed or keep with other animals from their species due to lack of social training by their mother... Perhaps anyone else would have examples?

 

I think a fair few Polar Bears(and other bears) have been handreared in Zoos over the years and this seems the first time that such a suggestion has been made. My guess too would be that those handreared bears were successful breeders in later life. It seems only with the higher primates that handrearing can adversely affect future social and breeding prospects- but even handraised monkeys,chimps and gorillas, at least those which have had reasonable early contact with others of their species, have bred successfully, though often not such reliable breeders as mother-raised offspring.

Presumably Berlin now have another superstar in 'Knut'- people will flock to see him now he has been in the news.....

 

CXan I just make a distinction. It wasn't really 'naturalists' that suggested the cub should have been put down, it was really animal rights groups and I think a few politicians from the green party who was saying it. I got the impression that it was really an excuse for a bit of zoo bashing.

 

the animal-rghts activists suggested that "he would never have normal life" did they?

but of course he wouldn't! isn't this guy gonna live the rest of his life at the zoo or are the suggesting they will release him?

if so, i doubt that will work, a polar bear habituated to humans is a very dangerous animal. best he stay at the zoo.

in regards to other animals that have failed to live with their own kind jewr,
i guess again it depends on if you are talking about in a zoo environment or in the wild.

remember keiko the orca of "free willy" fame? he never managed to assimilate with a pod of wild orcas and eventually died in the wild.

 

Jay has it right- an excuse for some zoo bashing.

Polar Bears have largely been phased out of zoos- there is now only one left in the Uk(at Edinburgh Zoo), they were the first major species to disappear as a result of public/media criticism about their captive conditions/stressed behaviour. Now Elephants have followed suit in many urban zoos.

With the threats to wild Polar bears from Global warming etc, maybe zoos will again have a stronger reason for keeping them in future? After saying that when their old female dies, they won't keep Polar Bears again, Edinburgh Zoo have now changed tack and are talking about a major 'Arctic' exhibit, to include- Polar Bears.

 

The brand new Gorilla exhibit at the London zoo looks really good on their website, much better than the one I saw there in the mid 1980s, the indoor gym looks like a good idea with plently of light, I wonder how many Colibus monkeys they have in the exhibit. The big silverback Bobby looks very impressive.

 

London's silverback gorilla's real name is Bongo. He has an interesting history, being rescued from a circus as a baby and then lived in Rome Italy zoo for many years with a female Romina in a really bad barred cage. In 2001 both went to Bristol zoo and then in 2003 Bongo was exchanged with London's male Jock(frm France) as Bongo wasn't interested in his two females at Bristol, while Jock was proving aggressive to his at London.

Jock has since fathered young to both females(Romina & Salome) at Bristol and they're a really settled group. Bobby/Bongo hasn't done anything so far at London.

Photos can be very misleading- Bongo/Bobby, now 23, is actually the SMALLEST silverback I have ever seen- he's no bigger than a very large female- possibly because of malnutrition as a baby and therefore is stunted. But he's a wildcaught male with no offspring so valuable genetically- they still hope he'll breed with a new younger female 'Effi' who has recently come from Leipzig zoo to coincide with the opening of the 'Kingdom'. Provided Bobby/Bongo is stunted(rather than just genetically small) there's no reason any offspring would be the same. The main worry is whether he's too humanised for breeding.....

The Gorilla Kingdom looks good and Colobus should go well with the Gorillas.

 

They could always do a AI from him so his wild genes are not lost??.

 

yes, but it still seems very difficult to achieve successfully with Gorillas. Melbourne's Mzuri was the first ever in the World and I'm not sure there have been any successful since? Jersey Zoo also tried to use this procedure recently with Mzuri himself, and the female Bambuti(also from Melbourne) as they don't mate either, but it failed.

My guess is London will try this if natural mating doesn't happen with Bobby/Effi. A very experienced keeper once told me you can tell within a couple of months if two newly introduced gorillas have any potential as breeders or not- if not, after that its just so much wasted time. Bobby/Effi are well matched for age, he's 23, she's 14. The other London female is Zaire(33, born Jersey Zoo) they say she is infertile now though I'm not convinced...

Its a great pity AI isn't more reliable in Gorillas, there are still several old non-breeding wild caught males with no offspring dotted around European Zoos, their genes would be very valuable but can't be utilised.

 

AI in gorillas

Grant,

That is a good point you are making. I am not sure why AI as a technique is not used more often in gorillas. Whether it has not been tried as much as in for instance rhinos (where the technique is now well advanced) because gorillas breed more readily .......... That would be my best guess.

On gorilla introductions I can confirm what you said on gorilla breeding by experiences at Amsterdam zoo. Over a 10 year period 3 male gorillas have been introduced when the old proven silverback died in the late 1990's. The first Kumba, a wild caught and unrepresented male from Cameroon who had languished in zoo in Germany, turned out to be infertile. The second Ivo, a captive-born male, turned out to be an grumpy man who was not adept at interacting too much with the females and his posse just was not a natural gorilla group (the chemistry was just not there). Only the third male Akili, also a captive-born male, knew how to handle things ..... Within weeks all sorts of things were happening and the zoo staff were outwriting their daily reports. Suffice to say he has now successfully mated with all 3 females in his group and 1 has given birth and rearing her offspring while the other 2 are pregnant and due somewhere in late summer!

 

Yes, events at Artis are a good example. After Tembo died, I didn't know that Kumba(whom I saw at Artis) was infertile, only that he hadn't bred, you probably know he's now at Antwerp, living with the Eastern females. Ivo is a superb male but something is not quite right, from Artis he went to Berlin where also not much has happened but there's better news since they got the young female Bibi from Apenheul- they are very compatable and mating has happened so they are hoping for a baby, otherwise he must leave again! Now Akili at Artis has certainly proved that it was the previous males rather than the females where the problem lay. I think a mother-reared male tends to have a higher/more normal sex drive than the hand-raised male, so he functions better in a group situation.

I know of instances where a new male has been introduced to a group of previously non-breeding females and mating has occurred within the first hour!(Jomie, a previous male at London Zoo, Asato at Beauval Zoo) In those cases you know there's a good chance of success obviously.Asato was mother-reared at Jersey and spent time in the batchelor group at Paington. Another young silverback Awali (born at Artis?) and the same age as Asato also went on from the Paington batchelor group -to Barcelona- where he directs sexual attention at the female keepers-I'd rate his breeding prospects very low. He was handraised.
But I also know a few instances where mating has started only some months after a new male was introduced, so there is no hard and fast rule.

AI just hasn't got off the ground with Gorillas. There are still a few older wild caught non-breeder males around in Europe who could add their valuable genes if this technique was used- London(Bongo) Duisburg(Catou)
Antwerp(Kumba- is he really infertile?) Madrid(Niky) Lisbon(Bak?) Rostov(Ex Blackpool Kumba) Longleat(Nico) Farsano Italy(two males) possibly one or two others....

 

any news about london's clore rainforest outlook opening yet???

 

have i got this right? since 2004 london zoo has built...
2004-komodo dragons, happy families, penguin exhibit
2005-meet the monkeys, african bird safari, small mammals in casson pavilion, tiger exhibit reno
2006-african safari, butterfly paradise
2007-clore rainforest outlook and gorilla kingdom

 

Yes, but be aware not all of these are completely new exhibits- some are refurbished/altered existing buildings. The 'African' area is centred round the existing Decimus Burton Giraffe/Okapi houses on the Cotton teraces and there have been considerable changes around the buildings, but is not a new area built from scratch. The new Clore Rainforest again I believe is within the existing building. 'Meet the Monkeys' is probably new. Gorilla Kingdom is a completely new build obviously.

I am due a visit there this year so could update later.

 

well i left england in december 2005, so everything completed up to then i know about. the penguin exhibit is situated on the old flamingo exhibit, the squirrel monkeys exhibit is new, sits on land where maned wolves lived previously.
african birds safari, a new exhibit on site of old crane paddocks.
phots would be good.

 

You've probably been to ZSL more recently than I have, in fact...