Birth of a Lion X Leopard Hybrid in Italy

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CONTENTS
International Zoo News No. 178, Vo1.3012
MarchlAprll1883
EDITORIAL
2
-
FEATURE ARTICLES
Birth of a Lion X Leopard Hybrid in Italy
P. L. Florio
4
Reptiles on the Air
Robert W. Henderson
Longevity of Primates at the Dallas Zoo
Kenneth R. Kaemmerer
Some Aspects of Behaviour in the Howletts
Gorilla Colony
John Aspinall
17
Live Animal-Collecting in Zaire
Charles Cordier
The Species Survival Plan of the AAZPA
Thomas J. Foose
29
Zoo Federation News
Readers' Letter
Surplus and Wanted Stock
Conservation
Miscellany
International Zoo News
34
38
38
39
41
43
EDITORIAL
New diseases that take on epidemic proportions and wipe out
an entire zoo's collection of species or family of species are
always a frightening possibility, especially if the animal
concerned is a rare one. The appearance of a new pox virus
over the last few years with the capability of killing members
of the big cat family is certainly one keeping virologists and
vets on their toes while they find out more about it. So far the
disease has been confined to a few establishments, for instance
killing cheetahs and other big cats in the Moscow Zoo and at
Whipsnade Zoo in Britain. Graham Dangerfield, director of the
Wildlife Breeding Centre i s Essex, also lost his pet cheetah
four years ago and in December 1982 another of his cheetahs
came down with the infection, but managed to survive and is
Z
-
the first known cage td do so. Meanwhile in West Germany
some circus elephants contracted a pox virus infection which
proved deadly, but whereas the disease was confined and later
eliminated in the elephants by vaccinating with a vaccine of
the type used against small pox in humans, similar treatment
of the big cats was unsuccessful and virologists came to the
conclusion that perhaps the disease in cats has taken on a new
form.
At Bristol University, as reported in the Veterinary Record
(v01112, no 8, February 1983) studies by the veterinary and
medical departments have indicated that domestic cats can
also contract the disease, although not always fatally. The
question has therefore arisen as to whether domestic cats are
the main carriers of the disease or whether they in turn have
contracted it from some other animal. Although called cowpox,
the disease does not appear to be endemic to cows. Indeed,
according to Dr Derrick Baxby at the Department of Virology
at Liverpool University, the cow is less likely to develop the
disease than the horse. He is of the opinion that the virus
reservoir may well be in populations of mice or rats, and that
the cat as well as some of the larger mammals contract the
disease from that source. The finding of antibodies to the virus
in field mice is certainly evidence in the right direction.
What is new about the disease, at least as it manifats itself
in cats, is its apparent resistance to conventional vaccines, and
in the same vein, whereas humans are known to get the disease
from infected animals such as COWS and horses, albeit in mild
form, no known cases have come to light of humans getting the
disease from sick cats. As Anthony Tucker reports in the
Guardian Futures (March 3, 1983) 'it is as if the virus has
found a new host, a new niche in the world, which provides it
with greater advantages than it had in the past or which are
more suited to its proliferation and survival in the world of
vaccines and hygienic procedures'.
The disease has not reached epidemic proportions but it is
important that virologists come to grip with disease and if
possible develop some kind of vaccine that will-protect those
big cats kept in captivity in the world's zoos. Pox viruses tend
in general to be stable, hence the target is likely to be fixed
rather than a moving one such as is the case with many other
viruses. For the time being WHO and the British Small
Animals Veterinary Association have put some money in
support of Baxby's work on the virus at Liverpool University.
Peter Bunyard
3
BIRTH OF A
LION X LEOPARD
HYBRID
IN ITALY
-- ----
BY P.L. FLORIO
W e lion X tigress ("Liger") and tiger X lioness ("Rgon")
hybride are infrequent but not very rare and are occasimally ereen
in zoos, the cross between lion and leopard is extremely rare.
Indeed, although the two species are alleged to hybridize mcasionally in the wild, the event in captivity has been recorded in
only three or four cases. Thus a hybrid between a lion and a
female jaguar X leopard hybrid was apparently born in the
London Zoo in 1929,and a lion X leopard hybrid in Schonbrunn
Zoo,Vienna in 1951.
Then, in December 1955 in the Hanshin Park Zoo of
Hishinomiya, Japan, leopard "Kaneo" and lioness "Sonoko"
were put in the same cage and proved very compatible. Four
years later in November 1959 they produced a first litter of two
"Leopons" and a second litter of 1.2 "Leopons" ("Johnny",
"Daisy" and "Cherry") in June 1961. The hybrids had stout
bodies like lions, with shorter leopard-like legs. They all &ed
black spots on their bodies like their leopard father. Male grownup "Leopons" grew a mane about 20 cm long like a-lion.
The rare event of a lion X leopard crossing has now occurred
*againquite unexpectedly, in Italy in the collection of the private
animal breeder, Mr Franco Stenta of Barberino Mugello near
Florence. What is really exceptional is that the hybrid is the
outcome of the crossing of a large lion "Puff"(weighingover 250
kg, 1.08 m tall at the withers and 1.80 m long from tip of nose to
base of tail) and a leopardess, "Miccia", whose weight is only 38
kg. Both parents were born in captivity in the Rome Zoo. The
cub, a female, wa born in the night between 26 and 27 August last
year and at the time of writing is about 5 months old and weighs
more than % of her mother.,Since the father is a lion, the hybrid
should not be called "Leopon", but more correctly "Leonard" (in
analogy with "Liger" and "Tigon").
4
Mr Stenta owns two hale lions, two male tigers (one Stud-book
registered pure Siberian, born Rome Zoo), one tiger cub and the
female leopard-all very tame, almost domestic-plus a number
of dogs (three Alsatians, one Afghan greyhound, one Italian
sheep-dog). Some animals are kept in cages with a friend of Mr
Stenta's on the outskirts of Florence, but the lion "Puff", the
leopardess "Miccia" and the tiger cub are in two large adjoining
cages in the court of a factory in Barberino Mugello that Mr
Stenta runs together with his five brothers, and which produces
toilet paper and tissues. Barberino Mugello is on the hills north of
Florence, about 25 km from the city and at an altitude of 500 m
above sea level. The cages measure 5 X 4 m each and are 3 m high,
and can be connected through a gate. They are made of steel rods
of diameter 1.5 cm. The cage floor is of wood, the cage roof of
corrugated perspex. The dens are made of wood, 2.5 X 1.5 m, and
1.5 m high. The cages have been placed at the end of the court, on
the edge of the banks of a small river, and are backed by trees on
the river side, so that in the summer they are in the shade from
11.30 am onwards. The animals are fed on whole chicken,
turkeys, rabbits and sometimes calf's heads from an abattoir.
The mating of "Puff" with "Miccia" took place at the end of May
1982. Therefore the gestation period has been calculated out as
92-93 days. The lion was only 2 years and 2 months old at the
time of mating, the leopardess 3 years and 4 months old.
Mr Stenta had no previous experience in the breeding of big
cats, so the birth of the hybrid cub was completely unexpected.
The day before the delivery, Mr Stenta found in the cage a ball of
hair from the lion's mane, about the size of a soccer ball, which he
removed, annoyed for the damage done by the leopardess to the
majesty of his beautiful lion (whose mane is still now a bit thin).
Nobody saw the delivery. In the morning of 27 August Mr
Stenta, noting that "Micciaf' was not coming out of her den, went
Lion and Leo~ardesshvbrid cub at 3 months
inside and saw the new-born cub. At first he did not realize, and
wondered who had put a "cat" into the leopard den! But then he
saw "Miccia" nursing the baby, and was amazed and happy for
the "miracle".
Miccia initially proved a perfect mother but soon started
licking incessantly the undertail of her baby so as to make it sore.
Then, after two days, unfortunately bit the cub's tail off. I t was
therefore necessary to separate her from her daughter. They were
put together only a t nursing time (5-6times per day and 2-3 times
per night) under the strict watch of the owner, for about two
weeks. From then the cub was hand-reared on the Rome Zoo's
formula for leopard cubs (whole cow's milk lOOg soy protein 95
per cent, or Albusol7.3 g 'margarine or butter 2.6 g).
The hybrid cub was not weighed after birth, but its weight at
the time was estimated to be much nearer to that of a leopard cub
(500-600g) than to that of a lion cub. Now at 5 months of age the
cub weighs 13-14kg. The hybrid therefore has the body build of a
lion cub, with its typically large head (but receding forehead as in
a leopard cub); moreover the fur is fawn as in a lion and shows,
rather faded, the thick spotting of the leopard. The eyes are blue
as in the leopard. (See photographs).
The two parents are now separated, following a new mating
that took place at the beginning of November. The leopardess is
pregnant again, and the birth of hybrid cubls is expected any
time now.
On the day of my visit (25 January 1983),"Puff"and "Miccia"
were put together so that I could take photographs. But the lion
immediately mounted the leopardess, and they had to be separated again for fear of endangering her advanced pregnancy.
+
+
NOTE-Should any zoos be interested in exhibiting this zoological curiosity, Mr Stenta, in view of the imminent birth of other
hybrid cubs, would be willing to sell the 5 month old cub to the
highest bidding qualified zoo, or to trade it with other animals.
M . Stenta would also consider a loan for a limited time of exhibit
(period and conditions to be agreed). Interested zoos can write to
P.L. Florio, c10 Union of Italian Zoological Gardens, 20 Viale
Giardino Zoologico, 00197 Rome, Italy.
REFERENCES
- "Mammalian Hybrids" by Annie P. Gray, Commonwealth Agricultural
Bureaux, Farnham Royal, 1954.$
- Kazumasa AkakiIsai Akagi, 'Honshin Park Zoo, Niihinomiya, Pers. Comm.
1973.
6
I
e
REPTILES O N THE AIRArmed with radio receivers, scientists tune in
snakes that have been electronically bugged
BY ROBERT W. HENDERSON
The radio receiver beeped loudly in my hand: A fer-delancepossibly the most dangerous snake in South America-was close
by. Night had descended on the jungle of Peru's Upper Amazon
Basin; I searched the yellow beam shooting from my miner's
headlamp, but could see no sign of the "bugged snake.
The radio signal grew stronger, then weaker, then stronger
again.As I manoeuvred the awkward antenna through the dense
vegetation, I skimmed the light across the ground, not wanting
to tread on the deadly subject of my research. I was confused.
Why couldn't I zero in on the snake? Then I pointed the antenna
upward, away from the leaf-littered jungle floor, and the beeps
came in loud and clear. In less than a minute I spotted the yardlong reptile coiled at shoulder height among the branches of a
slender tree.1 must have brushed against those branches several
times while trying to find the animal on the ground.
I was soon joined by Max Nickerson, a colleague from the
Milwaukee Public Museum who had been collecting along a
nearby trail. We paused to enjoy the sight of the fer-delance, but,
not wanting to disturb it, retreated quickly to the trail. That
night, rather than return to our hammocks in the village of
Mishana on the Nanay River, we camped under a dilapidated
palm-thatched roof and made periodic checks on the snake.
Monitoring the fer-de-lance was part of my introduction to
radio tracking reptiles in tropical New World jungles. My
museum associates and I have since used the technique to study
snake and lizard ecology in the Dominican Republic, Belize,
Costa Rica and-closer to home-Missouri and Wisconsin. We
have investigated the movements and habitat use of half a dozen
tropical species: two fer-delances, Bothrops asper and B. atrox;
the spectacular yellow and black tropical rat snake, Spilotes
pdlatus; the green parrot snake, Leptophis depressirostris; and
the beautiful green basilisk lizard, Basiliscus plumifrons. In
Missouri Max Nickerson has researched movement ecology of
water moccasins, and in Wisconsin several of us have studied the
eastern milk snake, Lampropeltis triangulum.
Electronics has allowed us to examine, in just a few months or
a couple of years, aspects of an animal's lifestyle that a decade
ago would have taken many years to understand.
7
It used to be that reptile ecology could be studied only by
catching the animals, marking them, releasing them, and then
hoping to catch them again. By plotting the locations of captures
and recaptures and noting interim changes in weight, it was
possible to determine movement patterns, growth rates, and
population densities. This system works well enough in
temperate areas where populations are large. During spring in
northeastern Kansas or southeastern Wisconsin one can capture
100 snakes of only one or two species within a few hours simply
by turning over rocks, logs, and man-made debris. In the tropics,
however, population densities tend to be low. There, the rule of
thumb is that catching one or two snakes a day is doing very
well-and then the snakes probably will be of different species. I t
might take weeks, or months, to collect two of the same species,
let alone the same individual twice. Thus the capturemarkreleaserecapture system is useless in the tropics.
About 15 years ago, Henry S. Fitch and Hampton Shirer at the
University of Kansas began inserting radio transmitters into
snakes. Radiotelemetry eliminated the element of chance so
prevalent in mark-recapture studies. With it, a researcher can
monitor an animal daily, hourly, or continuously.
The transmitters I've used weigh .03 ounce, plus batteries,
which are similar to those in hearing aids but slightly modified
for soldering. After transmitter and battery have been soldered
together, we coat them with an acrylic resin. This protects the
delicate instruments from the animal's digestive process and the
snake from any sharp edges on the transmitter. With its acrylic
coating, the transmitter and battery package may weigh as little
as .l0 ounce.
The unit's final weight depends on the battery size and, to a
lesser extent, on how much acrylic is applied. The large (and
heavier) the battery, the longer its life-and the less often one has
i,
to disturb the snake to replace it.
But there are limits to battery size. If the transmitter is to be
carried in the snake's digestive tract, the package should not be
so big that the creature behaves as if it had just consumed alarge
prey animal-that is, to crawl into a retreat and wait until its
meal has digested. The acrylic-coated unit will not digest and the
snake wuld starve because its feeding response is depressed. In
addition, a rigid body-distending lump could cause problems
when the snake wriggles through crevices, or even when it tries to
shed its skin. For these reasons, we always keep the weight of the
transmitter package to less than 5 percent of the snake's weight.
Thus, using our smallest packages of .l0 ounce, we can study
snakes weighing as little as two ounces. Battery life in this case is
only about two weeks, however, and we prefer to work with larger
8
site, In south eastern Wisconsin.
~
a
. *
animals that will accept units with larger batteries lasting 50 to
l00 days or more.
Once a transmitting unit has been assembled and coated, the
next step is to get it into the snake. I have used two m e t h h
force-feeding aqd implantation. In the first, one person carefully
opens the snake's jaws and another eases the package into its
mouth, avoiding the backward curving teeth, then gently
massages the device down the digestive tract and into the
snake's stomad. This method has several drawbacks: Even more
likely than the foreign object inhibiting the animal's feeding
response, the snake may regurgitate the package, or, in the case
of a large make, excrets it along with l a d body wastes.
Because of these difficulties, we prefer surgical implantation.
method, after the snake has been anesthetized, an incision
In t h i ~
is made in the midbelly or to one side of it. The transmitter is
inserted behind the.stomach and, in the case of pregnant females,
in front of the oviducb. This positioning eliminates the danger of
interfering with food' intake or depressing the snake's appetite.
FoUowing implantation, the incision is cl@
with the same kind
of nylon sutures that sulg801m use for stitching up humans. The
reptiles show no sign of discomfort during the operation. Snakes
have caught and eaten rodents within 24 hours after surgery and
have incubated and laid egga after undergoing several implantations.
Q
Once the snakes are released, their movements are monitored
by means of a portable receiver approximately the size and
weight of a full lunch box. The hand-held antenna consists of a
four-foot aluminium tube with three perpendicular crosspieces.
The antenna is directional-that is, most efficient when aimed
toward the bugged animal. By swinging the antenna back and
forth a researcher can pick up signals from the implanted transmitter. They register as high-pitched beeps, their strength
indicating the animal's proximity.
By using transmit&s with different frequencies and tuning in
different channels on the receiver, it is possible to monitor up to
two dozen animals at a time within a radius of abaut 100 to 200
yards. The size of the area that can be surveyed depends upon the
terrain and the amount of man-madeinterference in the vicinity.
A barbed wire fence between the receiver and a snake reduces
signal distance, sometimes completely obliterating it even if the
transmitting animal is only a few yards away. Nevertheless, the
advantages of working with radiotelemetry far outweigh such
minor impediments.
In southeastern Wisconsin's Walworth County, where I have
studied the ecology of the eastern milk snake, I radio tracked
some males as they dispersed from their denning sites in early
spring; they traveled up to a quarter of a mile in 24 hours.
Females apparently lingered at the den until after laying their
eggs.
Both sexes were drawn to roadside debris, trash, and woodpiles. Two males, separately tracked for a quarter of a mile,
wound up in the same farmer's backyard woodpile. One of them
later moved on and took up summer residence in a mound of beer
cans about 10 yards in diameter. In fact, in springtime all the
males sought out islands of man-made debris, probably for a
variety of reasons: The debris provides cover; discarded metal
heats up in the sun and hence helps the snake raise and regulate
their body temperatures; and trash attracts rodents, the
principal food of adult milk snakes in Wisconsin.
Pregnant females, meanwhile, made extensive use of blacktopped roads. Not the surfaces, but underneath! During the day,
they might stay beneath a discarded piece of tin for t h e m
regulation. But at night, as temperatures dropped, they crawled
underground, eventually moving under the highway, which had
absorbed solar radiation all day long. Radio transmitters
sensitive to changes in temperature showed that the body heat of
snakes under the blacktop remained nearly constant all night.
When the sun came up, the snakes left the safety and warmth of
the highway and returned to the shelter of the discarded metal.
Thus, milk snakes at my study site exploited the presence of
10
?
*%3
humans. The reptides'are probably more common now than they
were before the land was littered with the excreta of civilization.
The fer-delance in the jungles of Peru also makes daily
migrations-from the forest flm to arboreal perches in the early
evening, then back to the forest floor at dawn. Alert and active at
night, it usually slows down and seeks cover during the day. In
Costa Rica the fer-de-lancelingers near disturbed areas including
roadsides, where it poses a threat to unwary pedestrians.
Various environmental factors affect snake behaviour. Coal
temperatures, occurring even in the tropics, curtail activity. And
rain causes the parrot snake and the tropical rat snake to seek
shelter; they may not leave until it stops.
Monitoring. the green basilisk revealed two kinds of activity
ranges. One is large and may overlap that of another individual;
the other is amaller, is used more intensively, and usually does
not overlap the ranges of other members of the species. In Costa
Rica, where much of the land hag been deforested, the spectacular
lizards will travel over wide stretches of pasture to get to a small
island of remnant forest-sometimes only a single large tree.
Little of this information, either in the tropics or in southeastern
Wisco~min,could have been gathered without radiotelemetry
equipment.
Rapid deforestation has made wildlife preserves a necessity in
the Neotropics-a biogeographic region that includes tropical
North America and the West Indies as well as South America.
Unfortunately, biologists seldom know how much space the
hdequately studied animals need for normal activities.
TelemetryLis helping scientists learn the habitat requirements
not only for makes but for many other types of crsatures. The
same holds true for species in the temperate zones, where
commercial exploitation of previously undeveloped areas
continues. Still one of the newest W s in the biologlrrt's kitbag,
radiotelemetry is potentially one of the mdgt valuable in
studying, understanding, and possibly, eneuring the survival of
many forms of wildlife.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author and Animal Kingdom, Auar/Sept.
1982,New York Zoological Society.
,
LONGEVITY OF
PRIMATES AT THE
DALLAS ZOO
BY KENNETH R. KAEMMERER
Upon my examination of the animal records at the
Dallas Zoo, it became evident that many primates in
the collection had reached an age of ten years or older.
When these data were summarized and compared to
longevity records for species and genera (Table 1) I
found that some primates at the Dallas Zoo had either
set or were close to age records. The one Dallas
primate setting a record for the genus was a spider
monkey, Ateles geoffroyi. She probably exceeded 33
years since she was born elsewhere at an unknown
date. The white-faced saki, Pithecia pithecia, has set a
record for the species but not for the genus; however it
is definitely older than 15 years 4 months since when
donated, it was described as "old" (G. Henderson,
personal communication). Other primates setting
species records include whitefronted capuchins,
Cebus albifrons, and an Illiger's saddleback tamarin,
Saguinus fuscicollis illigeri, although they are below
the generic records.
REFERENCES
EISENBERG, J.F. The Mammalian Radiations. Chicago, University of Chicago
Press, 1981.
HENDERSON. G. Personal Communications. Dallas Zoo. 1983.
JONES, M.L. kammals in captivity-primate
longevity.
- - - Laboratory Primate
Newsletter 1(3):3-13,1962.
JONES, M.L. Longevity of mRmmals in captivity. International Zoo News
26(3):16-26.1979.
JONES, M.L. Longevity of captive animals. Der Zoologische Garten N.F. Jena
52:113-128, 1982.
JONES, M.L. Personal Communications. Zoological Society of San Diego, 1983.
VIRGULAK, D. Personal Communications. New York Zoological Society, 1982.
Table I. Primates at Dallas Zoo aged ten years or more with comparisons to longevity records.
Sex
Species
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
M
F
F
M
M
F
28 yr.
28 yr.
25 yr.
15 yr.
16 yr.
12 yr.
Pan troglodytes
F
M
F
F
F
M
2 4 7 yr.+
25 yr. 9 mo.
24 yr. 3 mo.
24 yr. 2 mo.'
18 yr. 0 mo.
17 yr. 10 mo."
Pongo pygmaeus
F
M
F
M
27 yr.
27 yr.
25 yr.
15 yr.
Symphalangus
syndactylus
F
M
20 yr. 4 mo.
20 yr. 4 mo.
Hylobates lar
M
F
F
F
M
F
26 yr.
19 yr.
13 yr.
10 yr.
10 yr.
10 yr.
&-',
..
-
.
$6'.
A
Age Record
for Species
and Source
Age at Death (+)
Departure (*), or
at 111183
.
8 mo.
4 mo.
3 mo. +
1 mo.
4 mo. +
5 mo.
47 yr. 11 mo.
Jones, 1982
53 yr. 0 mo.
Jones, 1982
59 yr. 0 mo.
Jones, 1982
7 mo.
5 mo.
4 mo.
0 mo.
0 mo.
9 mo.
0 mo.
9 mo.
8 mo.
8 mo.
Age Record,
if longer,
for Genus
and Source
-
>23 yr. 3 mo.
Jones, per. comm.
31 yr. 6 mo.
Jones, 1982
+
.
,
,
>,..-P
.
,
-
.
. - . _. -
.-.-
34 yr. 8 mo.
H. pileatus X agilis
Jones, 1982
c
* , :;
,
l
. ,-
vi.i,:,
F
.
A
:n.d
-:#g-
Table l (Cont.)
=
+
Species
Sex
Papio hamadryas
.-
Age at Death ( )
Departure (*h or
at 1/1/83
Age Record
for Specks
and Source
25 yr. 2 mo. +
20 yr. 0 mo. +
19 yr. 0 mo.
15 yr. 2 mo. +
37 yr. 6 mo.
Jones, 1979
I
Age Record,
if longer,
for Genus
and Source
.. L
-- . r
8
- -
-
.
"
Papio sphinx
17 yr. 10 mo.
17 yr. 10 mo.
14 yr. 3 mo.'
13 yr. 2 mo.+
12 yr. 0 mo.*
31 yr. 8 mo.
Jones, 1982
37 yr. 6 mo.
Presbytis obscurus
12 yr.6mo.
210 yr. 6 mo.
17 yr. 5 mo.
Jones, per. comm.
31 yr. 1 mo.
>l7 yr. 4 mo.
>l7
- yr. 4 mo.
20 yr. 7 mo.
19 yr. 3 mo.'
217 yr.+
10 yr. 7 mo.
23 yr. 9 mo.
Jones, 1982
19 yr. 9 mo.'
15 yr. 0 mo. +
10 yr. 10 mo. +
13 yr. 6 mo.*
22 yr. 8 mo.
Jones, per. comm.
->10 yr. 6 mo.
Nasalis lawatus
Colobus guereza
kikuyuensis
Cercopithecus cephus
cephus
F
M
M
M
-
l -!I
P. hamadryas
Jones, 1979
P. cristatus sondaicus
Jones, 1979
Virgulak, per. comm.
33 yr. 0 mo.
C. campelli
Jones, 1982
Age Record,
if longer,
for Genus
and Source
Age at Death (+)
Departure (*), or
at l11183
Age Record
for Species
and Source
27 yr. 3 mo.
Jones, 1979
33 yr. 0 mo.
C. campelli
Jones, 1982
12 yr. 4 mo. +
20 yr. 10 mo.
Jones, 1962
33 yr. 0 mo.
16 yr. 2 mo.
14 yr. 1 mo.
21 yr. 7 mo.
Jones, 1982
33 yr. 0 mo.
C. campelli
Jones, 1982
Macaca nigra
13 yr. 2 mo.
13 yr. 2 mo.
13 yr. 2 mo..
18 yr. 10 mo.
Jones, per. comm.
37 yr. 1 mo.
Macaca fuscata
14 yr. 2 mo.
14 yr. 2 mo.
14 yr. 2 mo.
33 yr. 0 mo,
Jones, 1979
37 yr. 1 mo.
>33 yr. 0 mo. +
226 yr. 6 mo. +
25 yr. 0 mo.
21 yr. 0 mo.
33 yr. 0 mo.
Jones, 1982
species
Sex
Cercopithecus diana
diana
M
F
F
20 yr. 9 mo.'
17 yr. 7 mo. +
13 yr. 7 mo.+
Cercopithecus petaurista
petaurista
F
-> l9 yr. 8 mo.'
Cercopithecus patas
F
M
M
A teles geoffroyi
F
211 yr.+
1 2 0 yr.
o mo.
17 yr. 11 mo.
17 yr. 2 mo.
C. campelli
Jones, 1982
M. fascicularis
Jones, 1982
M. fascicularis
Jones, 1982
SOME ASPECTS OF
BEHAVIOUR IN IETE GORILLA
COLONY
With special reference to the reaction of males to
their infant progeny.
BY JOHN ASPINALL
The Howletts gorilla band now numbers 24 animals, 9 males and
15 females. These include the breeding male, Kisoro, on loan for
the past 9 years from Lincoln Park Chicago, and Lomie with her
son Jomie aged two, who belong to London Zoo. The colony was
founded 23 years ago and the total input from the wild and from
other zoos has been 18 apes, 8 of which have subsequently died.
Fifteen have been born, four of which have not survived,
including a stillborn infant. The increment of successful births
over deaths is still only 6 animals. The male infants, Koundu and
Kambula have been sent to Chicago and our 320 lb. eleven year
old Toumbi has been swapped for Tebi, a young female from the
Franceville Ape Centre in Gabon.
At the moment of writing we have got 6 adult females all rearing their own young. Juju has two offspring with her and Baby
Doll, as a consequence of the recent birth has three, all of them
males.
Kisoro, our senior patriarch, has four adult females in his band,
all with their own young numbering 6-totalling 11 apes.
The second family is headed by the 14 year old Djoum, our
largest gorilla who tips the scale at 408 lb. He has three wives,
the senior two, Lomie and Mushie, with children by him, the
third, Founa, though 11 years old has not yet managed to conceive in spite of regular and vigorous matings.
A third breeding male, Mumbah, 17 years and weighing 375 lb.
has only mated successfully with Mushie whom in fact he has
'lost' to Djoum who is younger by three years.
I t could be said the colony comprises a fully formed band of 11
animals under Kisoro and one in the making with 6 animals under
Djoum, and Mumbah a proven breeder but definitely the odd one
out. In addition to these we have a further black-back male Bitam
aged 11 years weighing 300 lb., and three hand-reared females
not yet assimilated into either family group.
17
To summarise then, we have three breeding males, Kisoro,
Mumbah and Djoum, of which only Mumbah has failed so far to
form a group-a spare young black-back male Bitam, 11 years, 6
adult females with 8 young between them, plus three orphaned
females.
Now you have a rough statistical picture of the colony I would
like to tell you some of the things we have learned over the years,
but before I do this I think you should get some idea of the surroundings that the gorillas live in at Howletts and get to know
the appearance of some of the apes.
Here is a diagram of the existing structures and the proposed
new enclosure that will be completed in two years from now. The
present enclosures in diagram (a) house the existing colony and
are already becoming cramped and awkward to administrate. The
proposed structure in diagram (b)when completed will ease the
pressure considerably. We will probably put Djoum and his
young family in the new compound and there will be ample space
for his group to expand over the years to about 20-22animals
through assimilation and breeding. The carrying capacity of the
old and the new enclosuredin terms of accommodation should be
about 40-45 apes. I t is our intention to shift the groups from one
large enclosure to the other from t h e . t o time to provide them
with a change of environment. When the new housing is completed we will have about a 10 year respite before density
problems would be likely to affect us again. All being well we
should be breeding about 4 gorillas a year by 1992 from possibly
16 mothers.
-.
S .
R
. F .
1.
Large Exercise Enclosure
a
I
)
L,T'
,
.
I
. -
,
L.'
, :I
j
,
-.. . . ,
,
- 8
.. . ,+c At Howletts we have found inborn differences between male
-
:.
!,-n
I.
.='
i
,i
and female infant behaviour-thus, the young male infant even
at a few months old is apt to be more adventurous than a female
of similar age. I speak here particularly of mother-reared children
of which fortunately we have 4 males and 4 females from the ages
of 8 years to 10 months. This generality is compromised by one
exception, Juma female, the youngest of all, who is more independent and travels further distances from her mother than her halfbrother Jomie did at the same age, though we believe this difference is probably caused by the off-hand treatment Juma has
always received from her mother Mushie. Play between young
males is often of a rougher nature than that of young females.
Nevertheless, the larger juveniles temper their play activities
when engaging tiny infants, and there can be no doubt that a
special bonding is established between full brothers as in the case
-.-,! .
..L
-
19
'1
of Kibabu and Kibobo, and brother and sister in the case of Kijo
and Kaja. The relationship of the two brothers is noticeably
stronger and more affectionate than that of Kijo and Kaja. This
difference we feel is within the norms of the variation of die
positional behaviour one finds in the highest mammals. Neither
Kijo or Kibobo have ever shown any discernable sign of jealousy
on the arrival of a younger sister or brother. Having spent every
night of their lives in their mother's arms they moved away
without resentment from the first night of the births, and rested
down adjacent to their mothers.
We have seen that in general a mother will allow a young
female to handle or even, on occasion, take away her baby. This is
a concession she very rarely makes to an adolescent male-unless
of course he is her own son. Display behaviour is quite often
observed in young male gorillas of one year and upwards. Display
behaviour with young females is legs frequent and starts at a later
age. The defence posture when a real or imagined threat looms, is
the preserve of the male almost without exception. I have seen
two year old males in full defence posture in comic adumbration
of their adult roles.
We can detect a more competitive attitude to life in a young
male than in a female of the same age. At feeding time males
snatch food with greater vigour and tend to cough with more intensity than their female counterparts in an attempt to deter
challengers. Young gorillas however are soon apprised of the constantly shifting balance of power within the group in terms of the
changing whereabouts of siblings and adults. Each animal can
soon work out the direction and weight of support he or she can
call on at a given moment and in a given place. There is a definite
hierarchy among the mothers and the status of the mother seems
in some degree to rub off on her own progeny. 'Position' is largely
inherited matrilineally but here we must be cautious as the bands
of Howletts have not been formed for long enough to allow us to
establish~conclusiveevidence of this. From our studies it is
already quite clear that the progeny of a high status mother like
Shamba, who is in fact the 'first lady' of the Kisoro band, is considerably advantaged over her half-brothers and sisters. Children
of high ranking females seem more confident than those lower
down the scale. Nevertheless, one must remember the constant
probability of exceptions. While on the subject of division of role
we can report that on the whole, the females are more frequent
and usually better bed makers than the males. Only females
bother to make beds in the outside enclosures, although in the
sleeping dens the adult males will take the trouble to create a
large bed for their own comfort often using so much wheat straw
that the females have to steal some of it back to avoid sleeping on
20
1
,
43.*
bare shelves. In the .open playground, which is over 18 inches
deep in straw, nest making is a popular pastime with the adult
females and their daughters.
From our lengthy experience of,these apes a t Howletts it is
quite clear that the male as he, so as to speak, grows up through
the females, finds it extremely difficult to establish his authority.
It is not easy for an animal that the adult females knew as a baby
of 12 lb. when they themselves were already full grown, to work
his way through the ranks of his elders. The mothers accept no
god-given right of male over female an&each step upwards has to
be hardly won. Eventually the male's overwhelming superiority
in size and weight settle the issue. I t is possible that a youngster
reared within his family group might never quite establish his
authority in the easy manner that an outsider can. Certainly
when Kisoro came from Chicago nine years ago when he was 12
years old and weighed 314 lb. he had few problems in asserting
his dominance over the resident Howletts senior females,
Shamba, Mouila, Baby Doll and JuJu. He was soon breeding
from all four and his dominance was never questioned. Djoum
and Mumbah raised within the group from infancy have had a
very tough time gaining ascendancy.
Kisoro and Djoum, the two silverbacks in charge of families
differ in their approach and treatment of their own children.
Kisoro's attitude is one of benign but negative toleration. He
seems to quite like the proximite of his children but seldom plays
with them. His four wives trust him with their young and are not
in the least perturbed when they slip through into his enclosure
through an aperture not large enough to admit themselves.
Kisoro in effect acts as a 'baby sitter' for his sons and daughters
and no doubt supplies the mother with periods of welcome relief
from maternal duties. Positive action from him towards his offspring is fairly rare. He occasionally pokes them in the bottom to
feel their genitalia and sometimes chases them away from
morsels of food he wants to eat himself. He has been known on
several occasions to punish his ~hildrenwith a pinch or a bite if
they are slow to respond to his warning coughs. Play interaction
between Kisoro and his offspring is a very rare occurrance
although I have seen them climb on him two a t a time and on one
occasion I saw his 2 year old daughter Killa Killa take food from
his mouth. Kisoro is a short tempered animal and successful
mood interpretation becomes a required skill for those that live
with him, whether mothers or infants. In contrast to Kisoro,
Djoum positively revels in the company of his children. Juma at
10 months is really still too young to engage much of his
attention but even at this age he makes a point of touching her
whenever he can. She can frequently be seen foraging between his
21
.,
feet completely dwarfed by his presence and gurgling back at him
with contentment as she slowly munches a tiny portion of his
feed. With his son Jomie who is just coming up for two years of
age he plays consistently. Jomie has inherited his father's playful
nature and the two of them can be seen everyday sparring and
wrestling. Djoum who weighs in at 410 lb. exerts, I suppose,
about 2 per cent of his strength when 'fighting' Jomie who
weighs 25 lb. Sometimes, as he finds it difficult to stoop down low
enough to play with Jomie, Djoum lifts him up to face height and
play-bites him on his shoulders . . . both of them grunting with
satisfaction all the time. Apart from his majestic personality and
appearance he is the possessor of a rare courage. I have known
him for 13 of his 14 years of life and have watched him grow from
12 to 408 lb. in weight. When as a young male he was cornered by
an enraged adult like Gugis or later on Mumbah, Djoum would
stand his ground and fight. Mumbah who had three years march
on him never forged a band from the material availableMumbah we suspect is a natural loner; the type of male we read
about in the studies of Schaller, Fossey and Harcourt-the ones
that leave their neo-natal groups and hang about in the vicinity of
a band, sometimes in the company of another 'outcast' male.
Djoum on the other hand appears to have the making of a natural
patriarch. His females trust him and seem more relaxed in his
company than those of Kisoro. His temperament is so stable that
his two keepers and I play with him each week in the presence of
his family. When one of the females is in oestrus we do not enter
his enclosure as that would distract him from more important
work. Also, when a female is cycling he takes no notice of us and
is disinterested in play. If ever he does get too rough and we show
signs of discomfort, Mushi and Founa rush to our aid. Lomie
stays off because we have only known her for 3 years and cannot
call on her loyalty. The great question was when Djoum reached
full silver-backed adulthood and became a father, would he still
remain gentle with us? The question has been answered in full.
He is gentler and more playful now than he ever was. This in our
submission, is a really remarkable ape worthy to take his place
with other gorilla immortals like Gargantua, Bushman and
Bobby of the Berlin Zoo.
I t might be worth mentioning here that our observations
mnfirm that gorilla patriarchs are extremely intolerant of young
that they do not associate with any of the females of the bandthis makes the introduction of orphaned hand-reared babies
difficult to effect successfully. Harcourt and Fossey report that
dominant m l e s sometimes kill young that are not their own,
particularly when a new female joins his group carrying a very
small infant. There are certain obvious advantages to him in this
22
1
i
i
course of action. The new female will cycle quiokly and be more
submissivewithout the baby. The patriarch thus ensures that his
own genes will be advantaged. Fortunately at Howletts we have
never had a gorilla kill another but this is because we have
become attuned to the problems that concern us in the keeping of
so many animals together. Male gorillas have developed a
wonderful restraint which they employ when wishing to punish or
demonstrate their authority. We have called it 'mouthing'. A
large male will sometimes rush an infant which will then adopt
the submissive posture p r e s e n w ita back to the male who will
go though the motions of a severe bite but will in effect put no
pressure on at all. The infant usually screams with terror when
this happens and any available fernale will rush to its aid.
However on subsequent examinations only onca have we found
toothmarks where the outer skin has been broken.
We have experimented in the past in putt' two adult males
together, Mumbah and Djoum-but found t t they were so
taken up with each other that they were ignoring their positive
role within the group and allowed the females to quarrel quite
violently without any attempts at peace keeping. We have now
discontinued this practice.
There i8 no marked change of attitude of the male towards the
pregnant female. A gravid mother rests away from the group and
avoids the hwly-burly of family life. On the whole the nearer s b
is to giving birth the more inactive she becomes. Her status
23
%
within the group is unchanged except in so far as she avoids any
competitive situations. Once she has the baby all is changed and
her ranking in the group takes several steps upwards. The
patriarch in particular will then treat her with great respect and
restraint. The presence of a small baby on the back or breast of a
female inhibits the male from any offensive or punitive action.
This bare fact is common knowledge to other females and if they
are being chastised or chased by the dominant male they try and
snatch up a small baby and carry it on their backs-knowing full
well that this gives them some immunity. Even here though the
baby has to be really small to be effective-after two yeais of age
the ruse does now work. Young females also make use of young
male infants as 'sex toys'. We have seen this in the case of young
Kibobo, from the age of one year upwards his three elder half-sisters, Kishka, Killa K i and Kaja manipulated him by sitting him
on their laps and jogging him up and down until he gets an
erection of his penis, They then get very excited and during these
rhythmic motions give vent to excited gurgling after the manner
of mating adults. The little male will be placed in different
positions for this proto-sexual play behaviour but it is never tried .
with his elder brother Kibabu, probably because the latter is
simply too large for the females to manoeuvre into the required
positions.
Three of our breeding mothers have been seen to
e-.
masturbatory movements on their new born young-a practice - ' :
which usually ceases shortly after birth-JuJu, Lomie and
Mushie all reacted this way-rubbing their genital regions to and
fro across the backs of their babies. Of the fathers, only Djoum ' + has occasionally been observed attempting to use Jomie and M
Juma to rouse himself sexually. Unlike the three females, two of + 9
which belong to him, Lomie and Mushie, he has persisted in this
.,
behaviour up to the present time.
I t seems from our studies that the young males in particular
imitate the behaviour of the overlord. Quite an unattractive
instance of this was when Kisoro, frustrated by the presence of
Djoum and Mumbah in the next enclosure, attacked Killa Killa, ' .
his daughter, biting her severely in the eye. Kijo and Kibabu, two
of his sons of 8 and 5 years of age respectively, followed suit and
bullied KilJa Killa in their turn. We believe that the skills and
responses of fatherhood are largely passed on visually by a father
to his sons in the same way that daughters pick up information
from their mothers-by example and emulation. In the wild of
course a band has a vast cultural experience to transmit from one
generation to the next. The corpus of topographical and botanical
knowledge that must be passed on is great indeed. The endless
subtleties of intra familial responses are almost incalculable and
24
;.-1
*
the acceptable v-tion
within the norms almost without
number. A cumulative knowledge of all this must be gathered
and bequeathed to the next generation.
In captivity, sad to say, life can become boringly simple for
these great apes. Deprived of aa environment which is probably
the most varied on earth-the tropical rain forest-he is usually
put in a concrete enclosure-flora-less and fauna-less-a bie
logical desert. On top of this he or she is usually placed on display
with two or three of their kind-often themselves desocialised,
alienaq and deculturised orphans. In many zoos gorillas
become morose and inactive. In the wild they eat three or four
hundred types of food-nearly all of them seasonal. In captivity
they are lucky to get 30 types of food per year-in other words,
prison fare. This is, to be blunt, quite inexcusable and shows a
weird lack of imagination on the part of some zoo managements.
The effects of this malnutrition can be seen in the teeth of captive
gorillas (see the work of Kurt Benirschke, Glick Swart and Woolf,
and Don Cousins in International Zoo News). We have never
found any dental disease whatsoever in a gorilla at Howletts. .
This we put down to the fact that we give them 130 types of feed
a year. We still feel guilty that we do not provide them with an
even greater choice of food. Essential is the provi~ionof roughage
in the form of abundant supplies of bark, leaves and pith.
According to the latest studies in the Gabon, 50 per cent of lowland gorilla fare is composed of fruit-a far higher proportion
than in the mountain gorilla.
To sum up, in our view the prerequisites for successful gorilla
husbandry and breeding in captivity are as follows:1) Provisions of housing and outdoor play-foraging areas large
enough to accommodate a whole family of 10-20 apes.
2) Cover the above in 1Wt. of wheat straw and top it up each
week with 20 bales of fresh straw.
3) Furnish the outdoor playground with numerous play contraptions.
4) See that the playground area is roofed in a manner that
enables the apes to brachiate,
6) Ensure that the apes have at least 100 types of food a year,
much of it roughage, in the form of bark and leaves.
If the above five suggestions are accepted, a zoo will have an
excellent chance of succeeding with the formation of a proper
gorilla band. The standard of keeping and veterinary care will
have to be of the very highest and the requirements of the public
must not be allowed to hake precedence over the needs of the ape. .
In the coeompilin,qof this paper mueh informatim has been supplied to me by our m direetor and mident
wterhmy surgeon. Tom Begg. who has known the Howletts gorillas for the last ten years. by Peter
Halliday, the hend gorilla keeper ~t Howlette, who has kept copiousnotes d h g the eight years he has bean
with ua, and from Ian W
i the second keeper on the &OR
who has provided me with information
throughpersonal comment which I have found most useful.
25
e
1
REMINISCENCES OF LIVE
ANIMAL COLLECTING IN
ZAIRE
BY CHARLES CORDIER
From the end of 1947 to July 1949 and again in April 1966 a m m
panied by my wife I collected for the New York Zoo1ogical
Society, in what was then Belgian Congo, forest animals for a
documentary film financed by Belgian industrialists under the
sponsorship of King Leopold 111. The Belgian film-crew turned
out to be inadequate and was replaced by a German one under th
directorship of Heinz Sielmann. The film for Cinemascope had at
that time a speed of ASA 10 and this, more than all other
difficulties accounted for the protracted time it took to realize the
project: almost 2 years.
From natives I heard that, in the area of heavy forest, ths
Bongo antelope regularly frequented large grassy open sections
of "idambos" (swamps). I recruited a team of men to fence one in
with three horizontal poles about two feet apart, the first the
same distance from the water. Openings were left for the
constructionof traps with falling doors. This was a labour of savera1 months. After completing the constmction, we discovered
that the wary Bongos circulated continuously along the outside
of the fence, never entering an opening. Then I had an inspiration,
ordering the construction of traps, first without falling doors on
the outer perimeter. The system worked, one adult male getting
trapped. Leafy branches were then hung outside the contraption
and in an astonishingly short time the antelope settled down and
took its favourite food. During the latter stages of those happenings I was elsewhere collecting Afropavos, leaving my reliable
foreman in charge. On my return, on reaching the entrance to the
forwt-trail a native emerged carrying on his back a basket of
meat. In a flash I realised this to be the end of the bongo-venture.
The crate I had had constructed had been taken to the site and
the animal duly transferred .,intoit. Then the recruited three
dozen men started to open a trail and carry the heavy crate. At
..
26
*.?.:
S
.
a certain moment 'tbep was talk of taking the animal out and
pulling it along with ropes tied to its horns and restraining ropes
tied to its hind legs. My foreman protested vigorously and ran to
the all powerful, territorial administrator at Banalia for help but
to no avail. The appeals for helpwere denied on the pretext that
the men, although eager to help, could not be spared as that
would disrupt crop-planting.
During our first stay in the Congo we received many giant
pangolins which at first ate well, but then went off their feed
almost simultaneously.At the time we suspected the animals had
been poisoned but, with hindsight I would say they died of verminosis, the worst bane of the collector. Captured gorillas, young
and adult are particularly prone. Finally we arrived in New York
with six or seven Afropavo males and one female which, as it
turned out later had an atrophied ovary.
On one occasion a native had come in with a basket which he
had dangling at the end of a pole carried over a shoulder, perhaps
for hours under a blazing sun. In it were one female Afropavo and
five, perhaps day-old chicks. Once out of the basket the mother
died promptly of presumed sun-stroke. I immediately skinned
her, nailed her skin to a board that fitted into a cardboard box,
and fastened at an inclined plane it served sucegssfully as a backwarmer. The chicks soon ate termitelarvae. On the return trip to
camp, having got onto the ferry that crossed the river at Ikela,
the crew forgot to tie the ferry to the opposite bank. The
headman gave me a sign to move off. As the front-wheels touched
ground the ferry backed off, and down went the front of the lorry,
the water rushing in through the open doors. I grabbed my
camera-bag, then having pushed the door open and emerged
treading water, I found the vehicle standing practically on its
head submersed, the load just above water. Getting the larry out
and in working order, took some doing. One of the chicks, aged
about three months, reached New York but did not survive being
kept on loose dry sand.
During that first stay in the Congo, while driving along the potholed road in the remote region of Lubutu I heard a tremendous
i n gmy right from within the forest.
screaming and ~ ~ ~ e e c h on
Some 50 to 60 metres in front, I suddenly saw a gorilla emerge
from the greenery and cross the road. It was erect. Then I knew
mthing about gorillas; later, during our second stay, I actually
saw a large creature whose belly was not voluminous nor was its
arm overlong as in the gorilla.
Our first stay in the Congo ended on a sour note. We started
the return-tripat Kisangani (Stanleyville)and touched down for a
few hours at LeopoldviIle (Kinshasa)to take on one female okapi
and one mountain goriUa-now called e&em gorilla.
27
I then rushed to the bank to withdraw $20,000-to pay for
them. The okapi was presented to me in its crate m ccunningly
camouflaged with greenery I never suspected a trick. I got a male
instead of 3 female-an outright deception practiced by the government Wildlife Service. From a reliable source I heard later
that the lone little female I had purchased was the survivor of
eleven; the result of a government collecthi,, action near
A n g h u , where a great many were killed outright.
Dour second stay in the Congo I had all the government
cooperation I need& and perfected a method of capturing ohpi
without risks and losses.
Some people express a fear that the Congo peacock (Afropavo).
may be on the verge of extinction. The Congo forest is not b e i i
systematically destroyed as is happening to the Amazon-on the
contrary, it may be increasing and undoubtedly Afropavo will
survive. No live ones have been taken since 1962, for lack of dedicated and knowledgeable collectors.
ZOO DESIGN
Three volumes full of original ideas from the
International Symposia on Zoo Design and Construction
held at
Paignton Zoological and Botanical Gardens.
..
ZOO DESIGN (1976)
ZOO DESIGN 2 (1977)
ZOO DESIGN 3 (1982)
Edited by A. P. G. Michelmore
k..
p 7
- in Britain £20 post free
- overseas £23 including air mail
Set of 3 volumes - in Britain E50 post free
- overseas £60 including air mail
-,
Each volume
E:'
$
.
Order, with remittance, t o m Herbert Whitley Trust,
190 -Totnes Road, Paignton, Devon, England.
28
'3
k
L 3-
THE SPECIES
SURVIVAL PLAN (SSP)
OF THE AAZPA
BY THOMAS J. FOOSE
AAZPA Conservation Coordinator
In its World Conservation Strategy IUCN maintains that captive
populations must be an integral part of global programmes to
protect and preserve endangered and rare species of wildlife.
To contribute better to this objective, the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (AAZPA)has committed
itself to a Species Survival Plan (SSP). The SSP is an attempt to
provide a strategic and supportive framework for programmes to
propagate and preserve rare and endangered species in AAZPA
institutions. Although the SSP has been initiated primarily as a
North American programme, the aim is not for it to be
provincial. It has merely seemed more feasible to organize
programmes of the scope proposed by the SSP on a continental
basis before there is the more ambitious attempt to develop a
fully international effort. Hopefully, the SSP will serve as a
component of and as a model for more international programmes
by zoos and aquariums. Eventually, there may be a syshem of
regional programmes, like the SSP, coordinated by the
International Studbook Keeper for various endangered species.
The SSP has two general functions. One is to assist with the
development of scientific and cooperative programmes to manage species as biological populations in captivity. Second, the
SSP will also attempt to provide some coordination for strategic
selection of taxa that will be cared for in the captive programmes.
Unfortunately, even with scientific and coordinated management, the capacity of zoos and aquariums for populations
large enough to be viable is very limited in relation to the great
and growing number of species requiring sanctuary in captivity.
During the last year, the AAZPA has sponsored a "White Paper"
to assess what resources are available for captive propagation in
its constituent institutions. Among other information, this r e
port, which is being further refined and extended, indicates that
AAZPA institutions currently maintain approximately 47,000
mammals, 33,000 birds, 19,000 reptiles, 4.500 amphibians,
159,000 fish and 79,000 invertebrates.
29
. .--
, -
n
..-A a.
--&
Thus selection of species becomes a proces
space and resources available in zoos. For genetic reasons, c a ~ tlve populations should be as large as poisible. But there &e
many species competing for this space. So it seems necessary to
establish a carrying capacity for every species. This carrying cap
acity must be a compromise between maintaining large populations for genetic diversity and demographic stability and providing sanctuary for as many species as possible. Strategic
selection of species would, therefore, require that AAZPA
assesses habitat that is available in zoos; ascertains what species
are in need of sanctuary; allocates the habitat opitimally. The SSP
will attempt to provide guidance for such strategic selection.
Actual expansion of the carrying capacity of zoos and aquariums is being explored in two areas. Territorial expansion may be
possible through cooperative relationships with private facilities
possessing large tracts of land and sincere commitments to conservation. Some of the exotic game ranches in the western United
States seem likely prospects for such programmes. Two pilot projects are already in progress in Texas: one on Grevy's zebra at the
Waterfall Ranch of Tom Mantzel; the other on scimitar-homed
oryx at the David Bamberger Ranch. There is also considerable
interest and activity toward developing a ranch project on
African rhinos, both white and black.
Technological expansion of the captive facilities is also possible
through the employment of cryogenic methods for preservation
of germplasm. Cryogenic storage of germplasm will, undoubtedly, greatly augment the actual populations of animals maintained in zoos and aquariums. Potentially, this technology may
permit systematic and comprehensive preservation of much of
the planet's biota. Zoos and aquariums are very appropriate
bases of operation for such cell banks. Consequently, cryogenics
will be a very important part of the SSP programme.
Species are being selected for the SSP programmes by a comprehensive and coordinated system according to criteria that
reflect the guidelines of the World Conservation Strategy and
objectives of the IUCNNWVF. Thus the selection process is: responsive to status in the wild; representative of taxonomic, zoogeographic and other kinds of biological diversity; it must never
theless be realistic about the feasibility of propagating particular
species captivity. Evaluations of potential candidates depend
greatly upon information provided by the IUCN/WWF through
the Red Data Books, the SSC, the CBSG, the ICBP and other
related agencies. Indeed, the SSP is being developed in very close
consultation with the SSC Captivity Breeding Specialist Group.
Initial selections have concentrated on species that can be
employed as models for the entire programme and hence repre30
-,"*.I
t
sent both a di~er&~;of
organisms and a variety of problems. To
date, about 30 species have been designated, including: Siberian
tiger, Asian lion, snow leopard, black rhino, Indian rhino, Asian
two-horned (Sumatran) rhino,,,Asian wild (Przewalski) horse,
Grevy's zebra, barasingha, okapi, gaur, scimitar-horned oryx,
Arabian oryx, Asian small-clawed okter, ruffed lemur, black
lemur, golden lion tamarin, lion-tailed macaque, gorilla, orang
utan, R o t M ' s (Bali)mynah, whitenaped crane, Humboldt's
penguin, Chinese alligator.
Each SSP programme is organized around a Species Coordinator who will be assisted by a management conunitteeknown as a
Propagation Group elected from and by participating institutions. .Further, to facilitate development and operation of these
programmes, the AAZPA has created a position of Conservation
Coordinator, who is located in the ISIS offices.
The Propagation Group s h d include a Regional Studbook
Keeper. Indeed, in maby cases, the Regional Studbook Keeper
and Species Coorhtor will be t b m e peason. Where there is
an Internati~nalStudbook Keeper wtsMe the AAZPA, helshe is
being invited and encouraged to serve on the Group. A representative from the SSP Sub-conuniW and the AAZPA Conservation Coordinator are also to serve in an ex officio capacity on the
Propagation Group for each species.
Other i n e m k s on the Propagation Group are elected by and
from the participating institutions. The size of the Propagation
Group is limited to a workable number of 10 persons.
The Feal substance of an SSP programme is the Populational
Masterplan. Collections of species in captivity can be preserved
viably for long periods of time only if they are managed as
bio1ogical populations. Thus, the SSP pmgrammes are being
predicated on multigenerational wstarphm br gernetic and
demagraphic mmagment f o d t e d with data curd analyses
provided by the International species Inumtory System (ISIS).
An SSP progrmwmmust m m e W the hwic &ta (individual
indentification, sex, parentage, birthdate and deathdab) requisite for populational analysis and management is compiled. This
objective will normally require that data be entered and improved in the International Species Inventory System (ISIS)and
that a studbook is being maintained. With the principal support
of AAZPA, ISIS has been developed to compile and analyze, in a
centralid and computerized manner, the information necessary
for populational management of captive species. The SSP and
ISIS are thus very interrelated and both will continue to develop
tQgether.
The masterplans themselves will present demographic and
genetic analyses and will provide recommendations for both
general and specific tactics for management, i.e.:
31
what the size and structure of the population is presently,
potentially and optimally in terms of numbers, ages and
sexes;
(2) how many institutions should be accommodating the
population;
which animals should repsodUce, how often and with
13)
whom;
which animals should be maintained in or removed from
14)
the population;
(5) what basic standards of husbandry and considerations of
sociobiology should be emphasized.
More technically, the populational masterplans must:
(1) Determine an optimal carrying capacity for the captive
population so as to maximize its genetically effective size
under the constraint that m y other species must be provided sanctuary by the limited space and resources of zoos
and aquariums. (Normallj, there would have to be very
cogent arguments and exceptional circumstances for this
carrying capacity size to be more than 500 animals). Also
recommended should be the number of habitats or
institutions over which the populations should be distributed:
(2) Analyze each species demographically to determine patterns and potential of survivorships and fertilities, and.
hence, of change.
(3) Provide for the population's rapid expansion to and stabilization at the carrying capacity with an age and sex structure that will optimize geneticallyeffective size and demographic stability. This will normally entail both removal of
animals from certain age and sex classes as well as regulation of reproduction.
Analyze each species genetically through genealogical as
(4)
well as electrophoretic and karyotypic studies to asass
the diversity and distribution of the gene pool.
(5) Maximise preservation of genetic diversity in the species b y
a. ensuring that there are an adequate number of 'founders,
where available, for the captive population;
b. attempting to perpetuate equal representation of these
founders in the population through time.
c. retardipg genetic drift by optimizing effective population
size through regulation of family sizes, sex ratios, and age
structure;
d. minimizing or a t least managing consanguineous
reproduction by rearrangements of animals to separate
.
related specimens;
e. avoiding most artificial selection;
32
(1)
,:
f. optWng
,
%$h,,
'the number of demes (subpopulations or
groups) into whith the population is divided.
(6) In addition to maintenance of populations of animals, direct
collection and preservation of as much germplasm as
possible.
Examples of preliminary masterplans and further information
about SSP programmes are available from Tom Foose, AAZPA
Conservation Coordinator (ISIS Office, Minnesota Zoological
Garden, Apple Valley, MN 55124) andlor Ed Schmitt, Chairman
of the AAZPA Wildlife Conservation and Management Committee (Denver Zoo,City Park, Denver, CO 80205).
Note:
The.following species are designated for the AAZPA Species
Survival Plan (SSP).
Chineee alligator,
radiated tortoise,
Fiji Island iguana,
Aruba Island ratifeanake,
Indian python,
Bali mynah,
whitenaped crane,
Andean condor.
Humboldt's pe*
Ruffed lemur,
black lemur,
golden lion tamarin,
lion-tailed macawe,
orang utan,
Aaian smallclawed ottm.
I
I
Siberian tiger,
Aaian lion,
snow leopard.
Indian rhino,
black rhino,
Sumatran rhino,
white rhino,
Asiatic wild horae,
Grevy's zebra,
baraaingha,
okapi,
gm,
habian oayx,
scimitar-hornedoryx.
Rare and protected endangered Parma Wallaby
only from us. N.Z. Govt. permit. Before they all get
destroyed as a noxious animal in their small 5000
acre island here. Save these by ordering from us...
NOW. Illustrated list of other wallabies also
available.
D.E. Hopkins Ltd., Wallaby Farm, Box 135,
Warkworth, New Zealand.
MEMBERS' NEWS:
September.December 1982
BELFAST ZOO
Notable Hatchings: 2 crested cariama, 2
New Buildings: Work continues on the white-cheeked turaco.
main entrance block and the new res- Notable Arrivals: 1.1 brown lemur, 0.1
taurant building, both of which should zebra, 0.1 puma, 1 crab-eating macaque,
2 peccary, 1 Indian python, 1.3 Chilean
be completed by Easter 1983.
Notable Births: 1.0 sitatunga (DNS), 2 flamingo, 4.2 Carolina duck, 4.2 mancommon marmoset, 0.1 mona monkey darin duck, 1.1 falcated teal, 1.1 Amer(DNS), 1 colobus monkey, 2.0 blackbuck ican wigeon, 2.2 red-crestedpochard, 1.1
(DNS), 1.0 white-fronted capuchin, 0.1 European eider, 1.1 garganey, 1.1
red-necked wallaby, 3.3 white-throated chestnut teal, 1.0 black-neckedswan, 1.1
wallaby, 1.0 Irish moiled cow, 0.1 spider red-billed hornbill, 2 purple gallinule, 1.1
pale-mandibled aracari.
monkey.
Notable Arrivals: 0.2 polar bear cubs Notable Departures: 0.1 small-toothed
from Winnipeg Zoo, Canada, 8 Cuban palm civet, 0.1 polar bear, 1.0 raccoon,
flamingo from Ravensden, 1.1 Diana 0.1 zebra, 1.0 Chilean flamingo.
monkey on deposit from London Zoo, 1.2 Staff Changes: Sean Lord has been apaxis deer and 2.0 blackbuck from How- pointed primate keeper, and Paul Slater
lett's Zoo, 0.3 red kangaroo from has been engaged as a trainee bird
keeper.
Taronga Zoo, Australia.
Notable Departures: 2.2 hairy armadillo
on deposit to London Zoo, 1.0 gemsbok DRUSILLAS ZOO PARK
Notable Births: 1 douroucouli, 2
on breeding loan to Whipsnade Zoo.
chinchilla, 2 common marmoset (DNS).
BLACKPOOL MUNICIPAL ZOOLOGICAL Notable Arrivals: 1.0 ring-tailed lemur on
loan from London Zoo, 1.2 squirrel
GARDENS
Notable Births: 2 Western euro, 6 red- monkey.
necked wallaby, 1 Bruijn's pademelon, 1
DUDLEY & WEST MIDLANDS
red kangaroo.
Notable Hatchings: 4 red-billed blue ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
New Buildings: The second phase of the
magpie.
Notable Arrivals: 3 maribou stork, 6 new Primate Complex is now open.
African spoonbill, 4 African wood ibis, 1 Designed for lemurs and marmosets, the
Matschie's tree kangaroo. 5 gentoo pen- indoor enclosures feature heated sleepguin from EdinburghZoo in exchange for ing platforms, easy to clean nest boxes
and climbing frames. The spacious outa male giraffe.
door enclosures are well landscaped
with trees, shrubs, grass and rocks and
CHESSINGTON ZOO
New Buildlng: Work has begun on a new the House has its own self-contained
Reptile House which is scheduled for modern kitchen. The Invertebrate House,
which will eventually contain some thirty
completion by the spring of 1983.
34
species of invertebrates, is c~urfehtly
~nderconstruction.
Yotable Births: 0.1 red kangaroo, 0.2
,lack leopard.
Notable Hatchings: 4 Bartlett's bleeding?cart pigeon.
HAREWOOD BIRD GARDENS
Notable Births: 1 common marmoset, 1
potoroo.
Notable Hatchings: 6 lafayette jungle
fowl, 2 blacksmith's plover (1 DNS), 2
nanday conure.
NotableArrivals: 3 hoopoe, 3 black-billed
roller, 12 black racquet-tailed treepie, 2
racquet-tailed drongo, 1 1 gbldencrested
mynah. 16 glossy starling (deposited by
H.M. Customs following seizure at
London airport).
JERSEY WILDLIFE PRESERVATION
TRUST
Notable Births: 3 Rodrigues fruit bat, 1
silvery marmoset, 2 Goeldi's monkey, 1
celebes black ape, 1 Sumatran orang
utan, 3 Jamaican hutia.
Notable Hatchings: 2 Rothschild's
mynah, 7 red-eared terrapin, 1 European
pond terrapin, 4 Round lsland gecko, 11
plumed basilisk, l rhinoceros iguana, 1
Round lsland skink, 1 Cuban boa.
Notable Arrlvals: 2.0 ringtalled lemur,
1.1 pink plgeon, 3.0 Round Island boa,
1.1 collared lizard, 2 European pond
terrapin.
Notable Departures: 1.0 mongoose
lemur on loan to Bristol Zoo, 2.0 ruffed
lemur and 0.1 ring-tailed lemur to the
West Country Wildlife Park, 1 .l Goeldi's
monkey and 1.1 Jamaican boa on loan to
Marwell Zoo, 1.0 red-handed tamarin to
Mulhouse Zoo, France, 1.1 silvery marmoset to Banharn Zoo, 1.1 silvery marmoset to Kllverstone Wildlife Park, 0.1
golden lion tamarin on loan to Apenheul,
Netherlands, 2.2 Meller's duck to
Coombe Abbey Bird Gardens, 1.0 Palawan peacock pheasant on loan to the
World Pheasant Association, 4 Round
Island sklnk on loan to J.E. Cooper,
Royal College of Surgeons, 1.2 plumed
Wilisk to the Cotswold Wildlife Park,
2.4 plumed .basllisk (on loan),
Staff Changes: Mrs Lynne Arnold B Sc
(Hons), AIMLS, who has been the Trust's
biologist since 1977 left the staff in
September and was replaced by Mrs
Penny Gillespie, who recently qualified
as a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicineand
Surgery at Glasgow University Veterinary School. As biologist, Mrs Gillespie's
responstblities will relate chlefly to
pathology.
Other News: The J.W.P.T. Annual Report
(24pp) and the Dodo Journal 18 (128pp)
were published in October.
KILVERSTONE WILDLIFE PARK
New BuildingslExhibits: Miniature Horse
stables, Marmoset House, new Coati
House, first phase of enlargement of
Monkey House complex, new engine
sheds for miniature rallway.
WotabB Births: 2 black jaguar.
Notable Arrivals: 1 howler monkey, 2 silvery marmoset.
MARWELL ZOOLOGICAL PARK
Notable Births: 1 Western grey
kangaroo, 0.1 axis deer, 1.1 gemsbok, 0.2
greater kudu, 1.0 leopard, 1.0 mara, 1.0
Reeve's muntjac, 1.0 scimitar-horned
oryx, 1.0 roan antelope, 3 red-mantled
tamarin, 1.0 Hartmann's mountain zebra,
0.1 Chapman's zebra, 0.1 grevy zebra.
Notable Arrivals: 2.0 cassowary, 1.0
giraffe, 1.0 red panda, 1 .l roan antelope.
Notable De~epsrrures:1.1 etand, 0.3 mara,
1.0Przewalskib horse, 0.1 snow leopard,
1.2 grevy zebra.
NORTH OF ENQLAND ZOOLOGICAL
SOCIETY
Notable BJrths: 1 guanaco, 1 blackbuck,
2 red lechwe, 0.1 South American tapir, l
patas monkey, 2 caracal lynx, 1 whitebearded gnu.
Notable Hatchings: 10 Chilean tinamow,
4 yellow-faced parrotlet, 2 red-masked
conure, 4 black-footed penguin, 1
Humboldt's penguln, 1 tockay gecko, 2
prehensile-tailed skink.
Notable Arrivals: 1 black-faced spider
monkey, 1.1 lion-tailed macaqwe, 1.0
Bactrlan camel, 6 orange-rumpedagouti.
3 rhinoceros viper, 1.1 canttl snake, 1.1
Indian cobra, 1.0 spurred tortoise, 0.1
35
m-A775m:L-4 L W ' = - . '
.
3,:
Fi-
-'-:R'
? v ?
'Wlfll
;
*,.l").T',,,-<~P
I
#&
beaded' b d , 3 horned frog, 2 bluetongued skink, 1 green rock rattlesnake,
2 king snake, 1 puff adder, 1 lancehead
snake, l black-tailed rattlesnake, 12
White's tree frog, 1 Nile monitor. 5 whitebreasted rail, 1.0Andean condor, 2 white
woodpecker, 0.1 stone curlew, 1 toco
toucan, 1 sun bittern, 1 white-headed
vulture.
Notable Departures: 1.0 Arabian gazelle,
1.0 grey kangaroo (breeding loan), 2.0
ring-tailed lemur (exchange), 1.0 kudu
(Joint Management), 0.1 orang utan
(breeding loan), 1.0 Przewalski horse
(Joint Management), 1.1 pig-tailed
macaque (breeding loan).
from Blackpool Municipal Zoo. 2.2
from Birdworld, 1.0kea on breeding loan
from the London Parks, 2.0 sulphur.crested cockatoo on breeding loan from
Bristol ZOO,2.2 yellow-naped macaw, 5
common stork, 0.2rockhopper penguin,
1.1 rhinoceros iguana, 4 leopard gecko
and 2 blue-tongued skink from Chester
Zoo, 1.1 ameiva lizard, 1.0 blue-tailed
skink, 3 copper-tailed skink and 2
banded basilisk from Regent's Park Zoo,
2.4 plumed basilisk on breeding loan
from Jersey.
Notable Deaths: 0.2 polar bear, 0.1
Maxwell's duiker, 0.2zebra, 0.1 red dever.
Notable Departures: 0.1 cassowary to
Birdworld, 1.0 kanaaroo to Blackwol
Municipal Zoo, gintoo penguins to
PAIGNTON ZOOLOGICAL &
Lincoln Park, Bremerhaven, France and
BOTANICAL GARDENS
Blackpool. 4 leopard gecko and 2 blue
New Buildings: New food preparation tongued skink to Chester Zoo, 1.0
room for birds.
banded basilisk and 1.0 blue-tailedskink
Notable Births: 1 red-necked wallaby, 2 to London Zoo, 5 snowy owl and 1 eagle
Hamadryas baboon, 1 lar gibbon, 2 owl.
golden agouti, 2 red lechwe, 1 eland.
Other News: The pygmy marmosets,
Notable Hatchings: 1 barred cuckoo black-mantled tamarins and acouchi,
dove, 2 speckled pigeon, 2 crested quail confiscated from Gatwick Airport in
dove, 3 rainbow lory. 6 mangrove snake. May, have come out of quarantine. Three
Notable Arrivals: 1.0 Arabian camel. 1 .l acouchi have settled in well in a cage
false cobra.
with common marmosets.
THE ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
OF SCOTLAND
New BuildingslExhibits: Our breeding
group of red lechwe were moved to a
larger, improved enclos~rein September. Work started in September on a new
exhlbit for medium sized monkeys.
Funds for materials have been provided
by the St Andrew's Animal Fund in conjunction with the International Primate
Protection League. Work has started on
phase 1 of the re-development of the
rock den area for cats (felids).
Notable Births: 2.0 squirrel monkey
(DNS), 1.0 white rhino, 0.2 red lechwe
(1 DNS), 1.1 zebra (l DNS), 1.1 guanaco,
1.0muntjac (DNS), 3 Scottish wildcat, 1.1
Maxwell's duiker (l DNS), 1.0 South
America tapir (DNS).
Notable Hatchings: 2 tockay gecko.
Notable Arrivals: 2.0 chimpanzee, 5
prairie dog and 1.1 jungle cat from
Chester Zoo, 1.1 cotton-headed tamarin
from Aberystwyth University, 1.0 giraffe
36
THRIOBY HALL WILDLIFE GARDENS
New Exhibits: 2 pheasant aviaries with
attached heated shelters.
Notable Births: 2.3 oriental smallclawed
otter.
NotabEe Arrlvals: 1.1 Himalayan monal
pheasant, 1.0 Bornean crested fireback
pheasant.
THE WELSH MOUNTAIN ZOO
Notable Hatchings: 2 Humboldt's
penguin (hand-reared).
Notable Arrivals: 1.1 Humboldt's penguin from the Cotswold Wildlife park.
Notable Departures: 1.1 capybara to the
Cotswold Wildlife Park.
.
THE WILDFOWL TRUST, ARUNDEL
New Buildings: New hide overlooking
the reed bed.
THE WILDFOWL TRUST, MARTIN MERE
New Buildings: The new Miller's Bridge
hide, overlooking a 300 acre refuge, was
officially opened in October. ThPt reconstruction of this hide has included the
addition of a new wing and also a second
storey on each of the west and south
facing wings. The ground floor has been
made accessible to disabled visitors.
Notable Arrivals: 6 greater flamingos
from Slimbridge.
Other News: Record numbers of wild
wintering birds have been on the refuge
(73 whooper swan, 12,000 pln-tooted
geese, 182 Bewick's swan).
ruddy duck, South American comb duck,
Aleutian Canada geese, New Zealand
brown duck, black brant, bufflehead.
Notable Arrivals: 2.2 hottentot teal, 3.3
black-necked swan.
Other News: We are providing a Nature
Trail for the blind which will include a 3D
map, braille notices and certain alterations to paths and hides.
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
ilASGOW AND THE WEST
OF SCOTLAND
Notable Births: 4 white-throated wallaby.
25 Haitian boa (5DNS). The mother, who
had produced 17 in a previous litter, died
3 days after giving birth. On post mortern, a further 8 young, including a very
large one, apparently stuck, were found.
Notable Arrivals: 1.2 rhea.
THE WILDFOWL TRUST, SLIMBRIDGE
New Buildings: The 'South Finger' dev'e.
lopment, a major new complex of hides,
has been opened. As a result, most of
the Trust's sanctuary area is now within
the range of vision of bird-watchers. The
three hides in the complex have seating
space for 60 visitors, plus facilities for
wheelchair users.
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
Notable Hatchings: We have been hand LONDON. REGENT'S PARK
A life-size (1W
rearing a Chilean flamingo which is now New Bui~djngsl~xhlbits:
3 months old. It is the first time a bird of
times) sculpture of the Gorilla "Guy", by
this species has been thus reared. An William Timym, was unveiled on 10 NovAfrican jacana is sitting again in the ember. It is sited near the Sobell PaviTropical House.
lions for apes and monkeys. A new incinNofable Arrivals: 2.2 Recherche Island erator has been installed to deal with anicereopsis (a newly described race of mal and toxic wastes.
cereopsis) have been imported. Falkland Notable Blrths: 2 mara, lJamaican hutia,
kelp geese, imported as eggs, are doing 2 roan antelone. 6 white-toothed shrew. 3
well in quarantine. The Bewick swan, rock cavy, 1 white-faced saki monkey; l
'Lancelot', has returned to Slimbridge squirrel monkey, 1 Goeldi's marmoset, 1
for the twentieth winter season in suc- silvery marmoset, 2 leopard cubs.
Notable Hatchings: 5 banded basilisk, 1
cession.
Notable Departures: 2 New Zealand shel- flying gecko, 2 California king snake.
duck, 4 greater Brazilian teal, 4 marbled Notable Arrivals: 4 Honduras king snake,
teal, 2 laysan teal and 4 New Zealand 1 Texas indigo snake. 4 roan antelope
$caup have been sent to the Pointe-a- from Mr Tim Walker's private collection,
Pierre Wildfowl Trust, Trinidad. The birds 1.0 okapi "Kibali" from Bristol on breedwere flown free of charge by British ing loan, 1 red panda (after quarantine,
West Indian Airways. 'Mrs Noah', the from Cotswold Wildlife Park), 1 Harteldest recorded Bewick's swan, which mann's mountain zebra from Rotterdam,
has been in the Slimbridge collection for 0.1 Sumatran tiger from Hanover, 1 gila
monster from Chester, 4 hairy armadillo
. 92 years, died. 'Mrs Noah' was at least 34
)rears old, having come to Slimbridge as from Belfast.
h. an adult in 1950, after being found Notable Departures: 1 greater kudu to
Rotterdam, 1 roan antelope to Beekse
tnjured in Holland.
.GtaJf Changes: The following new Bergen, Holland.
-wardens have been appointed: Jane Notable Deaths: A greater sulphur-crested cockatoo "Cocky", over 80 years old,
Robertson, David Price, Keith Zealand.
having been at London since 1925. 1
f HE WILDFOWL TRUST, WASHINGTON anoa, aged 30,which had been in thezoo
MoMble Hatchings: North American since 1954.
B
37
Other News: The BBC filmed at the zoo
in September and October for the feature film "The Old Men at the Zoo".
THE ZOOLOQiCAL SOCIETY OF
LONDON. WHIPSNADE PARK
Notable Births: 1 Pere David's deer, 1
sitatunga, hog deer, 2 Siberian tiger, 1
black rhino, 2 white rhino (l DNS), 2 axis
deer, 2 cheetah (DNS), 1 European bison,
1 Cape buffalo (dwarf).
Notable Arrivals: 3 Grevy's zebra from
Marwell, 1 white-naped crane, 2 lesser
sandhill crane.
Notable Departures: 2 Przewalski's wild
horse to join a male herd at Woburn Park,
2 common zebra to Colombo Zoo.
Notable Deaths: pygmy hippo "Joe" the
father of 7 Whlpsnade-born young, 1
onager which had been at Whipsnadefor
over 21 years.
Other News: The Animal Sponsorship
and Adoption Scheme was launched at
Whipsnade on 6 November, with Eric
Morecombe as the personality of
honour. A sponsored walk for the World
Wildlife Fund Rain Forest Campaign was
held at Whipsnade on 10 October; approximately 640 walkers took part.
ZOO PARK (TWYCROSS) LTD
New Buildings: Conversion work has
begun on the Rural House so as to adapt
it into an Educationllnterpretation
Centre.
Notable Births: 1 douroucouli, 1 dwarf
zebu, 0.1 chimpanzee, 2 white-throated
wallaby.
Notable Arrival: 1 black spider monkey
(on deposit).
Other News: The symposium on the Conservation of Primates and their Habitats,
organised by Twycross in conjunction
with Leicester University in September,
was a resounding success with over 100
delegates attending. It is expected that
the proceedings will be available early in
1983 and further details will be issued
prior to publication. All enquiries to:
Malcolm Whitehead, Education Officer,
Twycross Zoo.
Readers Letter'.'
.
Dear Sir,
.
._,
I just happen to find out the notice about
Bushy-tailed cloud rats from the Philippines which has been published in No
164 (January-February 1980). That is
already quite a time ago. Nevertheless I
write this letter to you because Ipossess
and breed a group of Philippine cloud
rats here at the Museum. I went myself
to Luzon to catch them and they are
doing quite finely in Switzerland.
Should you know zoos and institutions interested in exchange of information andlor animals for breeding, please
let me know about.
Awaiting the favour of your news, I am,
yours faithfully,
Dr Paul Schauenberg
Museum d'Histoire naturelle
Case postalEe 284
CH-1211 GENEVE 6
Swiizerland.
SURPLUS
Br WANTED STOCK
Surplus
There are surplus collections of sumatran tigers captured from the wild, most
of them are still young (total 10 females
and males) at Pematangsiantar Zoo,
Bukitinggi Zoo, Medan Zoo and Ragunan
Zoo at Jakarta. Save these by ordering
from The Indonesian Association of Zoological Parks, Jalan Minangkabau 1, Jakarta.
All correspondence to be addressed
to: Mr Chuck L. Darsono, Consultant in
Wildlife, Harco Bldg., 4th FI. Blok D15,
JI.Hayam Wuruk (Glodok), Jakarta,
Indonesia.
CONSERVATION
'ranee Declares Cama ue
ntemational Ptotected rea
The Union issued a Harp and Hooded
Seal Statement which also emphasized
that quotas for harp seals should be set
nild white horses and pink flamingos in more conservatively than previously
he Rhone delta, will be protected under until such a time as the status and
trends in the population can be more
t global nature conservation treaty. This
Nas announced by France's Ambassa-- firmly established.
IUCN notes that a 20 per cent reducfor to Unesco, Mrs. Jacqueline Baudrier
n what observers consider as a major tion in hooded seal catch quotas pronove by the Mitterand Government in posed by the Canadian Government canthe field of international environmental not be considered an adequate response
to the Union's recommendations nor to
JO~~CY.
The announcement on 3 December the inadequate knowledge of hooded
s
by the ICES
1982 came at the close of a two-day con- seal ~ o ~ u l a t i o nconfirmed
ference in Paris, after France obtained
squal status for the French text of the
1971 Convention on Wetiands of Inter- Brazil: Primates in Peril
national Importance especially as Water- Eastern Brazil's forests are falling prey
fowl Habitat (known as the "Ramsar to rapid economic development. It is
Convention"), which previously was estimated that only about one to five per
cent of the original forest cover remains
authentic in English only.
The treaty now covers 264 nature re- in eastern Brazilian states and that prlserves in 33 countries, ranging from Aus- mary forest relatively untouched by man
tralia to the USSR, and representing a accounts for well under one per cent.
Since the Atlantic region forests are
total area of 175,000 square kilometres.
It is adminlstered by the International the habitat for a number of endemic and
Union for Conservation of Nature and endangered species, their destructlon
Natural Resources (IUCN), which organ- makes the species' struggle for survival
ized the Paris Conference, with Unesco ail the more acute.
In the next decade, the muriqui, South
serving as the Depositary body for the
America's largest monkey, may disapConvention.
pear forever. The muriqui is the most endangered monkey of southeastern Brazil
Tighter Conservation Measures and probably the most endangered in
Called for in Harp Seal Hunt
South America. Once so plentiful that
The International Union forconservation explorers lived off its meat, today priof Nature and Natural Resources called mate surveys only report about 100
for a significantly reduced quota or a individuals in four widely separated for"cessation of the annual Canadian est areas. The muriqui, which has never
hooded seal hunt" due to uncertainties bred in captivity, is dependent on high
about the current population status of forest habitat, little of which remain in
eastern Brazil.
this species.
1
The Camargue, swamp-land paradise of
39
.TIY5
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n r n r
,
-4
=-
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.
Fazenda Montes Claros in the state of
Minas Gerais, a privately owned coffee
plantation, is perhaps the most important area left for the muriqui. The plantation includes an 880 ha. tract of forest
that has been protected for more than 40
years by its owner, Sr. Feliciano Mlguel
Abdala. Fazenda Montes Claros contains
about 40 muriquis-perhaps the only
large intact social group of the animals
left in the world. A conservation education programme is currently being conducted in Brazil in an effort to save this
valuable endemic species.
Like the murlqui, the golden lion
tamarin is unique to the Atlantic forest
area and highly endangered. The golden
lion tamarin has always been restricted
to the coastal lowlands of Rio de
Janeiro. In the past decade, a new
highway and a major bridge have opened
its range to development and forest exploitation has been such that little of its
habitat now remains. Primate surveys
have shown that the remnant populations of this species now exist in only
two small forest areas. One of these is
privately owned by a development company and is being turned into beachfront
housing projects. The other is the 5000
hectare Poco d'Anta Biological Reserve,
which was established in 1974 particularly to protect this species.
Unfortunately, Poco d'Anta is far from
adequate to ensure for the survival of the
golden lion tarnarin. Only about 30 per
cent of the area is suitable habitat. It has
been estimated that only about 75
golden lion tamarins still remain In Poco
d'Anta. This represents the last hope for
the species in the wild. A major effort is
needed to improve the existing forest
habitat there and to make a far larger
portion available as lion tamarin habitat.
A habitat improvement programme is
currently being planned as a joint project
of the Rio de Janeiro Primate Centre the
Brazilian Forestry Development Institute, which administers the reserve the
National Zoo in Washington, DC and the
World Wildlife Fund.
Reintroduction of captive lion tamarins in unoccupied forest patches within
the reserve is also a possibility. Unlike
the muriqui, the golden lion tamarin is
40
well-represented in capt!vity, with more
than 300 animals, most of them captive
bred, living In colonies in the US, Europe
and Brazil. However, primate reintroduction is a tricky business and must be
carried out with great care and in conjunction with efforts to improve existing
habitat.
Rapid action and a large scale cooperative international effort are needed over
the next five years to ensure that the
remaining Atlantic forests and the
unique species living in them will still be
with us by the year 2000. If such action is
not taken, species like the muriqui and
the golden lion tamarin will disappear
forever.
Russell A. Mittermeier, Director of the
WWF-US Primate Programme and
Chairman of the IUCNISSC Primate
Specialist Group.
Adelmar F. Coimbra-Filho, Director of
the Rio de Janeiro Primate Center in
Brazil.
CeNo Valle, Department of Zoology,
Federal University of Minas Gerais in
Brazil.
JERSEY WILDLIFE PRESER.
VATION TRUST
BREEDING AND
CONSERVATION OF
ENDANGERED SPECIES
13 AUGUST TO 3 SEPTEMBER 1983
'
Intended fw
staff or studants
who
to fluther their in-b
~
~
of the 1982
summer 8ehool,
-,
~
yau,s
CO-
bhh .ad rsp
tila. me
is intandye and
leetureeldiscuesiorrs,
tid hetraction with
.nd
the
pmp.ntion and
,,tation of
-t
fadlitia for behaviod
vation, research
veterinary and
investigation,
record
reference
W& coven,
Residential couree fees
incl*
dve.
Further details from: Training
officer J - ~
p-tion
'~,,i,,it~, Jersey, CI,
Ieles.
.
London Zoo Aid boosted
to ei.sm
The Government has decided to increase
its grant to the owners of London Zoo by
U00,000this year.
That wiii increase the total state subsidy to the Zoological Society of London
to E1.9m in the financial year that ends
this month compared with only Elm in
the previous financial year.
The increase in grant has not been
publicised and came to light only in an
examination of department officials by
the Commons Select Committee on the
Environment. Officials of the society
said yesterday that they did not know of
the increased grant, which is intended to
cover a growing gap between admissions at zoos and the costs of keeping
I
V
The society is governed by a royal
charter whlch requlres it to "introduce
new and curious subjects of the animal
kingdom". It is the focus of a large
research and educational complex whlch
includes the zoos at Regent's Park in
London and at Whipsnade, near Dunstable, in Bedfordshke.
Admissions to Regent's Park zoo
dropped by 2 per cent between 1981and
1982, and are thought to have fallen
rther since. Costs of wages and feed
ave increased, with elephants now
ing more than E3,000 a year each to
and rhtnoceroses more than f1,000
Ministers and the society are now considering a report about options for costcutting by the society. The grants were
meant to tide it over until the review was
finished, but the Department of the
Environment expects to pay a further
grant in the coming financial year.
Ministers will want the society to cut
costs during the year so that state
grants will no longer be necessary. Cost
options have not yet been decided, but
cuts In the number of expensive animals
have not been ruled out.
Regent's Park Zoo, whlch charges an
admission fee, has suffered from competition by rival attractions such as
museums and galleries which receive
government subsidies large enough for
them to offer free admission.
The Times (15.3.83)
Eight New Studbooks Approved
Eight new international studbooks were
approved by lUCN and IUDZG. The studbooks cover the following specles:
Chinese alligator, Alligator simnsis,
by John Behler, New York Zoological
Park; White-naped crane, Grus wipio, by
Chris Sheppard, New York Zoologicai
Park; Pen-tailed bettong, Bettongia
penicillata, by Dan Wharton, New York
Zoological Park; Asian Ilon, Panthera leo
persica, by Guy Smith, Knoxville
Zooiogical Park; Black lemur, Lemur
macaco macaco, by Robert Frueh, St.
Louis Zoological Park; Slender-horned
gazelle, Gazella leptoceros, by Carmine
41
Penny, San Diego Zoo; Red Wolf, Canus
rufus, by Gene Leo, Port Defiance Zoo
and Aquarium, Tacoma, WA; Pacarana,
Dinomys branicki, by Fundacao
Zoobotanlcade Rio Grande do Sul, Porto
Alegre, Brazil.
All owners of these species are urged
to fully cooperate with the studbook
keeper.
IUCN and Ro a1 Swedish
Academy of ciences to
Produce Environmental Journal
I
In January, 1983, IUCN joined the Royal
Swedlsh Academy of Sciences in the
production of AMBIO, the international
Journal of the Human Environment
which has been published by the Stockholm based Academy for over a decade.
AMBIO, currently published in
English, six times a year, is devoted to
subjects In the broad fields of environment, energy and development and has a
network of 80 environmental corresoondents around the world.
As part of the newly established cooperation between the two organlsations, IUCN will assist in marketing
AMBIO as a joint publication and AMBIO
will be made available to members of
IUCN at a special rate. The editorial
board of AM610 will be expanded to include representation nominated by IUCN
and approved by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. IUCN's specialists
will increasingly serve as AMBIO advisors, authors and referees of scientific
papers.
For further information, contact: Raisa
Scriabine, Director of Public Affairs,
IUCN, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland.
Sir Peter Scott to present
f 10,000 cheque
The sponsors of the Julian Huxley
Memorial Fund are pleased to announce
that Balliol College Oxford has now invited applications for the first 'Julian
Huxley Junior Research Fellowship'. It
will be tenable for three years from October 1983, by a man or woman from any
country pursuing a project of high prdmise in biological sciences (fields rela-
42
ted to evolution and genetics). On subsequent occasions other subjects may
be specified but all will be within the biological or human sciences especially the
fields in which Julian Huxley was himself interested, such as evolution, gene
tics, population, ethology and ecology.
As Julian Huxley was the prime mover
in the creation of both the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources and the World Wildlife Fund it gives pleasure to the sponsors to acknowledge the combined gift
from their world family of E10,000, which
they hope will stimulate the training of
future scientific leaders internationally.
Sir Peter Scott will present a cheque for
this amount to Lady Huxley at the Royal
Society on 16th February. WWF's President, the Duke of Edinburgh, has made a
personal contribution as well.
Further substantial support has come
from the Trustees of the Edward Penley
Abraham Research Fund and the EPA
Cephalosporin Fund who have contributed E10,000 each. Added to earlier
contributions from the Huxley family
and other donors this leaves only a further £40,000 to be raised to complete the
required long-term endowment of at
least £100,000. It is hoped that further
donors will be eficouraged to find the
outstanding sums, in the knowledge that
Batliol College and the Royal Society are
now going forward with the appointment
of the first Fellow in the confidence that
he or she will have a long line of dlstinguished successors.
For further Information contact Mrs.
C. Phillips, (tel.: 045 389 333), The Julian
Huxley Memorial Fund, The New
Grounds, Sllmbridge, Glos., UK.
The Dark Continent, Busch
Gardens, Tampa, Florida, USA
With the recent aquisition of three white
Bengal tigers, The Dark Continent,
Busch Gardens, becomes one of only six
zoos in the United States, and the only
one in the Southeast, to own, display
and breed this rare and beautiful animal.
The three cats - two full-blooded
white and one cross-bred yellow tiger
with recessive white genes
were
recently obtained from The Cincinnati
Zoo, home of the world's largest
breeding colony of these tigers. With
only 50 members of the eye-catching
species existing in zoos throughout the
world, they are counted among the most
precious and captivating members of the
worldwide zoo inventory.
The deep brown or charcoal ~0l0ured
stripes on their milky coats and their
piercing blue eyes tell us white tigers are
not truly albinos, but a genetic variation
of the more familiar yellow tiger. All of
the white Bengals living today are direct
descendants of Mohan, a young male of
the species captured In 1951 in Rewa, an
Indian province the animals inhabit In
the wild.
Mohan was mated with a wild-born
yellow female, Begum, and produced 10
yellow-coloured cubs with recessive
white genes. Later paired with one of
these hybrid offspring, Mohan sired 14
cubs, 11 of which were white. When
finally mated with one of his white
grandchildren, all six of the resulthg
cubs were of the prized white variety.
In the late 1950s the ruler of Mohan's
-
s to the collection in January
Mammals born: 1.0 colobus
-1 aardvark, 1-0 Chapman's
Nile lechwe (0-1 DNS), 0-1
1 scimitar-horned oryx (2-0
Grant's gazelle (0-1 DNS). Birds
. 2 Eyton's treeduck, 2 diamnd
peach-faced lovebird, l greenmacaw, 2 sun conure.
isitions: Mammals: 1-5 dama
. Birds: 1 common loon (DNS), 1
pelican, 1 cattle egret, 1 blacklory. Reptiles: 1 Rio Grande
Aquarium: 2 cowry, 2 feather
worm, 2 hermit crab, 2 starfish, 1
barb, 2 clown loach, 4 corydoras, 1
43
White Beauties-surveying their new home.
homeland, the Maharaja of Rewa, began
to donate some of Mohan's many young
to a few prominent zoos across the
world. Included among these donations
was Mohini, a white female presented in
1960 to the National Zoo in Washington,
D.C., as a glft to President Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
A female descendant of Mohini and a
male white Bengal of unknown ancestry
(believed to be part of Mohan's
bloodllne) eventually made a home a1
The Cincinnati Zoo, founding the largest
dynasty of white tlgers in the world
elght males and five females.
One of these males and one female
are on display at The Dark Continent,
where they will establish a breeding
dynasty of their own. The two are litter
mates, born September 5, 1981, to
mother Sumita and father Bhim, both
white In colour.
They are joined on ClaC Island by a
hybrid, or heterogeneous, yellow female
born July 6, 1981, to Bhim and Kamala,
another hybrid yellow tiger. Genetic laws
say when this female mates with the,
white male, half of their offspring will be '
white and half will be yellow with the
-
44
recessive white trait. When the two
white cats breed, all of their cubs will be
white.
The yellow-coloured female provides
an important means of preventing inbreeding in The Dark Continent's colony
of these rare animals. Because all of the
world's captive white tigers are related
by blood, their constant mating with
direct relatives eventually could result
in a weakening of bioodllnes, with
genetic defects or chronic health
disorders B possibility.
The hybrid female's addition of
unrelated yellow genes will make the
group's qene pool. stronger and more
viable. Also, the two females will produce
two separate lines of young, which later
can be cross-mated for a healthier
colony.
The Dark Continent's three new
additions are still adolescent and wili
not begin breeding until they have
reached the age of 18 to 24 months. After
a gestation of about threeand-a-half
months, cubs wili be born in litters of
three or four, though some litters
contain as many as six young.
t
Diego Wild Animal Park,
I San
"SA
marmoset, 1 pygmy chimpanzee, 5 Australian water rat, 5 bushy-tailed jlrd, 1
A rare, 11/2-day-old baby okapi made his desert dormouse, 2 Indian crested
debut today (Feb. 16) at the San Diepo porcupine, 2 mara, 2 amur leopard, 2
Wild Animal Park. The male okapi, babirusa, 1 sable antelope, 1 wisent.
New arrivals for the same period were:
named Chipili, was born at the wildlife
2
Northern
green-winged teal, 4 Palawan
preserve Feb. 5, and has been secluded
in an off-exhibit area with his mother peacock pheasant, 6 black-crested
btrtbtll, 4 rufous-bellied euphonia, 2 blue
since birth.
Chipili, named after a town in Zaire, naped chlorophonia, 1 lesser mouse
lnd his mother, Kengi, have been obser- lemur (loan), 5 pale-headed saki, 1
ved round-the-clock by keeper staff and lowland gorilla (loan), 1 giant anteater
both are dolng very well. Due to cold and (loan), 9 desert dormouse, 1 bongo.
rainy weather, the calf and mother were
not allowed outside their barn until The Jerusalem Biblical
Zoological GardsA, Israel
today.
Okapis are rare in captivity, with only Births and hatchings during September
61 animals in zoos around the world. to November 1982 were: 2 baboons, l
Only three zoos in the United Stateswallaby kangaroo, 2 gazelles.
Dallas, Brookfield (Chicago) and the San
There is an exciting new addition to
Diego Wild Anlmal Park-have breeding the zoo which no one, including our
pairs of okapis.
keepers has yet seen. Our wallaby kan1
This is the first offspring for Kengi, a garoo, native to Australia, has been
seven-year-old from the Brookfield Zoo. carrying a baby in her pouch for at least a
month.
, Kengi has been at the Wild Animal Park
on a breeding loan for two years.
A number of avians (birds) have been
Chipiliis father, Mokola, was born at the laying eggs, including the black swans,
'
cockatiels, emus, and parakeets. The
San Diego Zoo in 1973.
Wild Animal Park keepers are not sure swan's eggs are being incubated by the
of Chipili1s exact gestation, but they male who begins to ruffle his feathers at
speculate Kengi carried the baby for the slightest movement in his direction.
) slightly longer than the okapi average of The female swan pays little attention to
, 440 days. The velvety-red baby weighed a the eggs, having already made her biohefty 54 pounds (24 kgs.) at birth and logical contribution by laying them.
stands approximately 33 inches (85 cm.)
Last spring, a ban on bringing new animals into the zoo was imposed as a
at the withers.
The Wild Animal Park's group of result of the entrance of a rabid fox to
okapis now totals stx-three males and zoo grounds. On October 14 the ban was
three females. Kamina, a female on loan lifted and we once again began to
to the Wild Animal Park from the receive new animals. The first to arrive
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado were a pair of striped hyena which were
Springs, has given birth to a male and a born at the Haifa Educational Zoo. The
female in the last three years and is pair, a one year old male and a six month
expected to deliver a third offspring old female, seem a strange couple when
within a month.
one considers their slzes. Although the
female is six months younger than the
male, she is already much larger. In the
Frankfurt Zoo, West Germany
wild, the large size benefits the female,
The following specimens were born and especially when she needs to obtain
hatched durlng October to December food for herself and her pups.
Two African grey parrots have also
1982: 1 black-signedsalamander, 1 wood
mrtridge, 4 superb starling, 4 red-billed made our zoo their home. One was
ornblll, 9 banded finch, 1 red bishop, 2 received as a gift from Jerry Golden
x i a l weaver, 1 Bennett's wallaby, leaf- while the second was purchased by the
nosed bat (number unknown), 1 pygmy zoo as a mate.
I
'
/
I
I
45
A very special package will soon be
arriving from the Copenhagen Zoo. We
will receive a pair of beautiful black
teopards as a gift. This is a special treat
for Jerusalem as it is the first time the
Biblical Zoo will have a pair of black
leopards.
A year ago the land settlement bureau
gave away 2-3dunams of the zoo's land
to a private contractor, apparently under
the impression that the land was outside
of the zoo's border.
The case was taken to court and the
decision was made that the plot of land
in question would go to the contractor.
In return, the zoo, has recelved 7-8 dunams of land bordering the opposite side
of the park. The homes of the axis deer,
fallow deer, and hog deer were In the
effected area, and they have now been
moved to new enclosures. The zoo has
completed a temporary fence around the
new border which will be replaced by a
permanent ornamental fence to be built
by the munlcipallty.
The plans for the construction of the
monkey house are belng reviewed and
Improved upon. Therefore, construction
was not started this November as
planned. The new plans will make viewing the animals easier as well as making
the enclosures more comfortable for the
animals.
Monkey Sanctuary, one red panda
deposited from the Cotswold Wildlife
Park but belonging to Adelaide Zoo, two
green acouchis from the Bronx Zoo, and
two pig-tailed macaques from Chester
Zoo. A long-nosed potoroo and an agouti
were received in exchange. A black
Welsh mountain sheep, three springhaas
and one orange-rumped agouti were purchased, and a Hartmann's mountain
zebra was received from Rotterdam Zoo
under our Joint Ownership agreement
with Marwell Zoo.
The total number of new arrivals in the
Bird House during the two months was
14, of which 2 were presented, 6 hatched
and 6 were received in exchange.
Three black-footed penguins were
hatched and are all being hand reared
and are doing very well. A pair of turquoisine grass parakeets and a bluewinged grass parakeet were received in
exchange. There are now four species of
these small Australian grass parrakeets
in the Parrot House. Their temperament
and size make them particularly suitable
for the relatively small indoor aviarles. A
female harlequin quail was received to
join the male we already have in the
collection and an Afrlcan grey parrot
'Sally' was presented.
The number of new arrivals In the Reptlle House was 10, of whlch 6 were presented, 2 purchased, 1 born and 1 found
(previously missing).
Presentations included one flatheaded terrapin, one diced water snake
(Central Europe and Asia), and a moorlsh
or wall gecko (Mediterranean area).
Three American rat snakes were hatched
from our eggs, and one flying gecko.
Two ocellated lizards were purchased
(North African sub-speicies of ones
already in the collection).
The Zoological Soclety
of London, UK
The registered additions of mammals,
blrds and reptiles to the Society's collec$ion at Regent's Park during December
and January numbered 71.
47 mammals were acquired, among
whlch 25 were born, 14 deposited, 4 purchased and 2 received In exchange.
The births Included one roan antelooe.
one Goeldi marmoset, one sooty man&
abey, three white-toothed shrews, one
large tree shrew, one lar glbbon (whlch
unfortunately did not survive), two rock
cavies and a blackbuck born by artificial
Insemination.
Two servals, three nlne-banded armadillos and 2 lion-tailed macaques were
deposited by Bristol Zoo, a brown capuchin was deposited by Druslllas Zoo
Park, a squirrel monkey deposited by the
Malayslan Zoological Soclety
The middle of the year Is usually a busy
time for births at our zoo and this year
followed the same sort of pattern of pre
vious years. We have successes and we
have disappointments. Unllke a televlsion animal story we cannot be rescued
by a scriptwriter but we have to learn
from our, and other zoo's, mistakes.
46
h~'
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33
.
,.
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,L.,.,,
.&L
.mpositlon of this has not been
analysed precisely, but is known to contain the pigment canthaxanthln whtch
ves the flamingos t k l r plnk plumage.
is was m@d the ingredient$ of the
c W e diet. The a m ~ c i a highl
e f t q y f d csmpsiian constituted #S
base, and summm a mw egg was
beaten in far @oodmm~tar
The
. mixtwre
was topped up vjPZh vivmlns, and fed to
the chick sewat t l m wery W and
night from a syringe.
With thts the &kk grew repidly from e
tiny bundle of fluff 4 hhae high when
first hatched, to a weat big ugly youth.
He was kept In the Trustv$dwkety where
the rarer wiIdfowl
hand-mtrd.
Fritr Es m three months otd, m d a
baby n.0 longer, thwph k Is ewtainly
hOt a "pfetty ftentlngo" sittrer. He 9tmds:
3 fit 6 In@tall 811.6 wetghs nearly 5 l&,
atmart fully grown, and MSthe long legs
and s w p Wli af ian 8&1$ but hi^ piurn
d
age is drab gwy.
Ha, has mmw basn put outaide with
other fl8tning~s,and evM thwyjh he had
been in e b e contact wnh garbars enly,
kw ,was not In tW ,kuW "bq.wlIntWon
hw Ukd ,wt mad* hImmW human
andhwoWgMPewurlthMnfl~Md
Andean h 4 ~ m%by
s
W - a qu@Wr
diopodtlon and am m m m m tm
FrM's own apecw, the chIp@n fimnq c s , ~ w W y to b B W l Q - , t Ot
d
~~.
Ffi@ RClsc 8Mtled In vew well, and &er
a few anxbus day@when he was not
M n g WEl, 1s now totally inlegratad
into t b ftwk.
l%Ua&lphlr ZooSogi~al
Qrrskn, UGA
bed g @moe outatde in the W h s and kat&fng* a1 the PluiWalphla
JWrwMst ~
~
4 Barbul
1
, zoqionr Qierden @bQembst 1
w
Wiw student
Is P Slfm- wbm: Y brush-tdkd phatanger, 1 0 We
t m lvwW.gW1H~,
4 ~kerQd@m('t DNQ, f
glraxulsln rli-
boa Q DM)i
Acr~ukaltfonr14 Rr(woat*r~squimd
(BQ8 1-2 &van t r w duck, 1-1 Atebpu8
frog, 1-1 W e d l
i
a(BL), 1-0 Cfrl118~
greem tree viper /W92 W splttlngl sdQn
W.
47
Fritz at one month otd.
A Chllean Flamingo hand-raised in the Duckery at
Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust.
Advertising Rates
COPY accompanied by cheques made out to Zoo-Centrum should be sent to:
i Z N. Advertising. Worthyvale Manw Farm, Cameltord, Cornwall PL32 9TT. England.
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25.00
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50.00
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125.00
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12.50
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25.00
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62.50
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- 15p per word. Box Numbers 50p.
For more than 4 insertions deduct 15% from all above rates.
For 8 issues deduct 30°/o from above rates.
6
- Reprinted By Consistent Demand D
THE GIRAFFE: Its Biology, Behavior, and Ecology
by Anne lnnis Dagg & J. Bristol Foster
Orig. Ed. 1976,Reprint 1982 wlupdated &supplementary material
A virtual diary of the giraffe from birth to death.
D
248 PP
$16.50
THE CHEETAH: The Biology, Ecology, and Behavior of an Endangered Species
by Randall L. Eaton
Orig. Ed. 1974,Reprint l982
192 PP
$13.95
The author describes in detail all aspects of cheetah life history, reproduction, ecology, captive management, ethology and conservation.
b
THE WILD CANIDS: Their Systematics, Behavioral Ecology and Evolution
Edited by M. W. Fox
Orig. Ed. 1975,Reprint l983
A unique global survey of the family of wild dogs.
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508 PP
In Prep
AN ATLAS OF PRIMATE GROSS ANATOMY
by Daris R. Swindler &Charles D. Wood
392 PP
$39.50
Orig. Ed. 1973,Reprint l982
Highlights the salient morphological features of regional anatomy and the major differences and
similarities of the baboon, chimpanzee and man.
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