Last Animals at the Zoo by Tudge Colin;

Author:Tudge, Colin; [Tudge, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 6531113
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2013-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Problems – space

Lastly, overshadowing and complicating all captive breeding endeavours is the perennial problem of space. Species coordinators know, as a generalisation, that the total zoo population of their particular protégé can never exceed a particular number, because all the zoos that they deal with between them can allocate only that number of spaces. One of their first tasks as species coordinators is to ascertain what that ‘particular number’ is. Organising breeding to maximise genetic diversity is only half of the problem. The other half is to ensure that that diversity is maintained within the population that can, in reality, be kept. Sometimes the figures do not add up. Sometimes there are too few spaces for the task in hand.

This problem is of course exacerbated if the species is divided into subspecies; and a case in point is the red panda. This is one of the showcase animals, which demonstrates the efficacy of captive breeding. The first international studbook for the red panda, published in 1978, registered only 128 animals (though the true figure in captivity was probably 143); while, as noted above, there were 305 on 1 January 1990. The red panda’s studbook keeper, Angela Glatson of Rotterdam Zoo, Netherlands, notes in the International Zoo News of September 19908 that more than 100 have been brought in from the wild in that time, so the expansion is not quite as impressive as it may seem; though she also notes that whereas only a third of the captive animals of 1978 had been born in captivity, almost 100 per cent of the nominate subspecies, Ailurus fulgens fulgens, were born in captivity.

But herein lies the real snag. As noted in chapter 4, there are two subspecies of red panda: A.f.fulgens, and the Chinese or Styan’s red panda A.f. styani. They are genetically and phenotypically distinct, and they should be raised separately. The present 300 or so captive red pandas comprise about 120 Styans and 180 nominates. The present fulgens population effectively has 26 founders; the generation length is five years; and the kind of calculations outlined in chapter 4 suggest, therefore, that the population required to maintain 90 per cent of present genetic variation for 200 years would be 500, which is well over twice the present figure. There should also be 500 Styan’s. So the total should reach 1,000, as quickly as possible, and preferably by 2000 AD. But the world’s zoos may not muster so many places between them. Australia (which has a coordinated breeding plan) apparently has already reached capacity. What a pity if the two subspecies were effectively thrown into competition with each other, and thus produced two populations that were both inadequate!

Increasingly it will be necessary to make more spaces for the most endangered animals by getting rid of (which will often mean culling) animals that are safe in the wild and do not require captive breeding, or are being bred elsewhere, or are hybrids. On the very day I am writing this, members of the

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