Der Zoologische Garten最新文献

A few specimens of two extinct emu forms formerly distributed on King Island and Kangaroo Island both south of Australian mainland were brought to France by the Baudin expedition in the beginning of 19^th century. Two individuals lived in Paris until 1822. Partly different information and opinions about number and identity of the emus loaded on board by the expedition on the named islands and about the whereabouts of the remains of these birds in European museums have been published in both historical and modern literature. This paper contains description, comparison, analysis, and assessment of the different stances and gives an overview about the current scientific knowledge about the subject.

An attempt is made to provide a survey of the African Forest Elephants kept in various zoological gardens between 1882 and the present. Due to the very mixed quality and reliability of sources, and the difficult question which elephants from the northern part of their range may have been hybrids, I do not offer the data as a table. The two main areas of origin were today‘s Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, specifically the elephant training stations at Api and Gangala-na-Bodio or Wando and Aru. In the elephant training centers, four calves were born in 1930, of which three survived. From Gangala-na-Bodio, Forest Elephants, Savannah Elephants and hybrids between both have been exported. There are also exports for which data are available, but not on their final destination.

I also discuss the possible existence of Pigmy Elephants, coming to the conclusion that there is no proof. Growth tables and photographs of Forest Elephants in zoological gardens offer too little support for the thesis. Studies of the anatomy and the genome and observations of free-living Forest Elephants suggest that Pigmy Elephants do not exist as a taxonomic unit.

In many cases, the health of Forest Elephants kept in zoological gardens was poor. This was largely due to insufficient housing and management, preventing breeding in Europe and in America. This would have been only theoretically possible in a few cases anyway. Most Forest Elephants were kept as single individuals, either alone or together with African Savanna or Asian Elephants. Unlike those kept in the elephant training centers in what was then the Belgian Congo, most Forest Elephants in zoos were short-lived. With the current knowledge of elephant management, a new start in keeping and breeding Forest Elephants could be made outside their native home. They are critically endangered due to loss of habitat and severe poaching.

Woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha) are impressive characteristic species of Southern America. Thus, their keeping and breeding at Dortmund Zoo between 1960-1974 and 1979-1988 should be contemplated in a retrospective and concluding way. Seven births plus one putative abort occurred. Births were distributed over the year as follows: February (1), May (2), June (1), November (2), and December (1). Two woolly monkeys reached a remarkable age assumed between 16 and 19 years for a female and between 18 and 21 years for a male. Gravidity lasts only about five months. The data presented here are of historic interest but unfortunately the set is too small to provide meaningful statistical results.

In Osnabrück zoo, the opening of a new Sumatran tiger enclosure, an extension to the former tiger facility, took place in March 2014. Installed in the new enclosure were two young tigers and they were observed in the first weeks after their arrival. The focus was on the use of the enclosure and the tigers approach to each other. In addition, their general behaviour was recorded and examined to see whether they developed any stereotypical behaviour types.

Data collection took place from 25th March to 11th July 2014 (in total 120 hours of observation, 60 hours per tiger). The animals were observed by focus animal sampling. The central focus of the observations was laid on stress indicating behaviour and approaches to each other.

At the beginning, the female tiger (Diana) showed some stereotypic behaviour (pacing), but this was not established and vanished after a few weeks.

Following introduction into the outdoor enclosure, the tigers interacted mostly in friendly ways. There is no indication that one tiger was overly active in approaching the other, as expressed by approach-leave-coefficient.

To gain an overview of crocodile species held in zoos, the number of individuals kept, and the number of keeping institutions, we analyzed collection information from the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) database. Our analysis performed from June to July 2016 revealed that there were 24 species of crocodiles kept globally in 451 zoos, with 22 species kept in 185 European zoos. Two globally-kept species were lacking in European zoo holdings according to ZIMS. Of the 27 currently recognized species of crocodiles, one (Mecistops sp.) is not held in zoos at present. In addition we have opposed ZIMS data with information available from European studbooks and, based on literature evaluation, analyzed the development of crocodile collections in Europe during the last 40 years. Although ZIMS data is not complete, there is a trend discernible that only a few species are widely kept by the zoo community, whereas most species are represented in smaller numbers. We further discuss the importance of “Regional Collection Plans”, viz. long-term crocodile collection planning, and provide recommendations for population management such as considering a shift from very commonly kept species towards species that are in greater need of conservation support through zoo husbandry efforts.

Abnormal behaviours are common in captive environments that not supply the physical and psychological needs of animals. There are animals, like brown bears, more susceptible to develop abnormal behaviours due to their seasonal biology related to food, hibernation or reproduction. The two brown bear Ursus arctos females from Barcelona Zoo, Spain, showed two different patterns of abnormal behaviours. The old ♀ displayed episodes of biting a tree trunk while the young ♀ carried out head-tossing events. The studied period was from March to December 2004 divided into seasonal periods: autumn, spring and summer. A total of 63 hours of observations were recorded using a multi-focal continuous method. The time invested on abnormal behaviour was higher in spring followed by summer and autumn in both females. The other variables related to the abnormal behaviour studied were duration, intensity, occurrence and space use which also showed statistically significant differences among seasonal periods. The old ♀ space use during abnormal behaviour was in the same zone meanwhile the young ♀ showed statistically significant differences among seasonal variations and zones of the enclosure. These results should be taken into account to improve the management of bears in zoological institutions.

Vietnam belongs to the global hotspots of biodiversity, and new vertebrate species have been regularly discovered from this country. Lizards and in particular geckos are among the groups with the highest discovery rates. One of the most beautiful geckos recently discovered from Vietnam is the Psychedelic Rock Gecko (Cnemaspis psychedelica), an endemic species of Hon Khoai Island, a small island with a total area of only 8 km² in Ca Mau Province, southern Vietnam. Although Hon Khoai is protected through the Ca Mau Biosphere Reserve, and collecting and exporting of the wild fauna and flora for commercial purpose is prohibited, the beautiful geckos made their way to the international pet trade. But the species is not only threatened by illegal collecting for the pet trade, but also by macaques introduced on this island. To act against this alarming development, Wildlife at Risk (WAR), the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR) and Cologne Zoo decided to cooperate in building up a gecko house as basis for the establishment of a reserve population, which could become the beginning of a potential conservation breeding program for C. psychedelica. The gecko house was planned in May 2014 and finished in November 2014 in WAR's Hon Me Station in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam. It has a movable rain cover with sunblind and contains ten large terraria consisting of aluminium, metal gauze and glass. Terrarium furniture mainly consists of cemented rock walls, plants, and natural soil with leaves. The gecko house also has a double door system to prevent accidently escaped geckos from breaking out. The exterior of the gecko house is covered by a large water proof poster which points both in English and Vietnamese languages to the threats to the Psychedelic Rock Gecko and the background of the conservation project. First small gecko breeding groups were transferred from Hon Khoai Island to the Hon Me Station in March 2015, with relevant permits provided by the respective authorities. Furthermore we report about our first experiences with the keeping and breeding of C. psychedelica, and document colour pattern change during juvenile development.

The population of the Père David's deer or milu (Elaphurus davidianus), which was discovered in China by Père Armand David in 1866, has grown from five, or even merely three individuals, imported from China to approximately 5000 during a time-span of 140 years. We tried to find out more about the origin of the 18 individuals which formed the original herd of the 11^th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. His breeding-group was the only safeguard for this species between the years 1900 and 1946. Of the 18 individuals three were offspring of Berlin Zoo, three originated from Cologne Zoo and probably all the rest came from the Jardin d‘Acclimatation in Paris. The origin of the breeding herd at the Jardin d‘Acclimatation is not clear. The first individuals either came from Berlin Zoo or were imported directly from China in the years between 1876 and 1886. In Berlin Zoo's breeding records there is a remarkable gap for the years 1879 and 1880. If they came from Berlin Zoo, the imported male and two females would be the sole founders of the herd, and if the Jardin d‘Acclimatation had done an own import, then there would be at least five founders. At Berlin Zoo at least 18 milu calves were born between the years 1878 and 1895. The final destinations of most of these could be traced in literature. Some of them are not quite conclusive yet. We sketched the development of the worldwide zoo-stock of Père David's deer, the return to China and the re-settlement in the original habitat in newly established reserves and finally even outside the reserves. After centuries the milu has again gained the status of a free-living species thanks to the efforts of several zoological gardens, the Dukes of Bedford and the Chinese conservation authorities.

The popularity of jellyfish in Europe at the end of the 19^th century influenced the European Art Nouveau period and jellyfish decoration elements can be found at several buildings. But at that time it was still impossible to keep jellyfish for a longer time alive in an aquarium.

Methods for the husbandry of jellyfish were developed only in the second half of the 20^th century. During the last 20 years the exhibition of jellyfish became more and more popular and is today a standard for all larger aquariums. The development of husbandry is documented on the basis of the husbandry methods for jellyfish in the Berlin Aquarium, which has today one of the leading jellyfish exhibitions in the world.