EXOTICS NEWS

The latest from the world of exotic pet keeping

Rescued Servals

Two servals rescued from the “illegal pet trade” are currently being cared for at the AAP Primadomus exotic `animal holding centre in Spain, prior to being rehoused at The Wildheart Trust (Formerly the Isle of Wight Zoo). The pair, named “Tafkap” and “Xirus”, are to arrive on the island in September where they will begin their new life. Rescued Serval.

Bristol Zoo

For the third year running the zoo have successfully bred the bluespotted tree monitor (Varanus macraei). In 2019 the zoo achieved a UK first zoo breeding with two lizards hatching, this was followed in 2020 with two more being born and now two more have been produced.

Senior Reptile Keeper, Adam Davis, who oversees a European breeding programme for this species, said: “It is always so pleasing to see them hatch and because this is the third year in a row we feel confident that what we do works well.” Adam said curators from other UK zoos have visited to look at how he and his colleagues care for the lizards and their eggs.

The newly-hatched blue-spotted tree monitor lizards are important because the species is classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The first of the tiny blue-spotted lizards broke out of its egg just 48 hours before the second. Both eggs, which were about the length of Cadbury creme eggs, had been kept in an incubator for five months at a constant 30°C. The juveniles weighed just 12.5 grams at hatching and were about 27cm long, but almost two-thirds of that are their tails. When they are fully grown they will measure 1.1 metres (3.5 feet). But it will be sometime until keepers can be certain whether they are males or females. The young lizards can now be seen in the Reptile House.

Adam’s work in breeding bluespotted tree monitors earned him a silver award in the Animal Husbandry Care and Breeding category of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums annual awards recently.

Blue-spotted tree monitors were only discovered in 2001 in tropical forests on the island of Batanta, which is roughly the size of Merseyside, off the coast of Indonesia. But by 2017 they were already listed as Endangered. They are at risk largely because many are taken for the international pet trade. Adam said: “Very little is known about these animals in the wild, but the breeding programme aims to ensure a healthy population in European zoos and help us better understand them.” The captive population currently stands at just 91 animals in Europe, of which just 17 are in the UK.

Over at Bristol`s sister collection the Wild Place Project the fourth oldest okapi in Europe “Lodja” has sadly passed away aged 19 following a sudden deterioration in health.

Paignton Zoo

At the start of July, Paignton Zoo became one of only a few collections in the UK to house Lake Titicaca water frogs. The frogs were kindly donated by the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre.

The frogs have also laid clutches of fertile eggs that have recently started to hatch. This is good news for the fast-declining species, which has reduced in numbers by as much as 80% over the past 15 years. This endangered species were brought into the UK for the first time ever a few years ago. They are an extremely unusual species that have been getting a lot of interest from the visitors.

A total of 20 Lake Titicaca frogs are also now on show at Chester Zoo too.

First Breeding of Raggiana Bird of Paradise in 20 Years.

The Port Moresby Nature Park in Papua New Guinea is proud to announce the successful captive breeding of a Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise. This success comes as part of the ongoing breeding program which has been a focus of the Nature Park to breed this species for a number of years. This is the first time in 20 years that the Raggiana Bird of Paradise has been bred in captivity in Papua New Guinea. This is a significant achievement for Port Moresby Nature Park and Papua New Guinea, as this is the National animal for PNG.

The Port Moresby Nature Park is an international welfare accredited zoo through the Zoo & Aquarium Association of Australasia and is heavily committed to conservation and education, research and most importantly, dedicated to protecting PNG’s wildlife.

Release of Endangered Curlews

In a project led by Natural England, several eggs from the endangered Eurasian curlew were initially collected from Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites –apparently “eggs at MoD sites are usually destroyed as they pose a huge danger to aviation” according to Pensthorpe Natural Park. A total of 147 eggs were taken from eight military and civilian airfields across England. Over 100 eggs were taken to a rearing facility at Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and a further 41 eggs were taken by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust for a project in Dartmoor, where over 80 chicks hatched and were hand-reared. The UK is home to almost a quarter of the global breeding pairs - about 58,500 pairs - but the species has declined significantly since the 1970s, due to loss of habitat and predation.

Dozens of the fully-fledged chicks are now being released at two Norfolk sites - the Sandringham Estate, and Wild Ken Hill, a sustainable farming project bordering The Wash.

“The release on the Sandringham Estate marks a significant milestone for the recovery of this iconic bird,” said Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England. “We hope that the translocation of curlews at this large scale, a method that has never been tried before, will make a real difference to the population in the east of England.”

Prince Charles said he had “always cherished the evocative call of the curlew” and was delighted the Sandringham Estate had been able to assist in the project.

Chrissie Kelly, head of species management at Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, said staff had reared “more than 80 curlew chicks to fledge this year” and described it as a “significant step” to safeguarding the population of the birds in the wild.

The project aims to boost the birds’ population in the east of England.

A Steppe in the Right Direction. The latest aerial census of wild saiga in Kazakhstan has recorded an estimated 842,000 animals, which is over half a million higher than the last recorded number in 2019. So this is very encouraging news, considering the catastrophic collapse in numbers in 2015 when 200,000 saiga antelopes were wiped out by a mystery bacterium. It is remarkable how well this species seems to bounce back, however with the loss of so many animals within a single population, it makes you wonder what the future holds for a species that surely must have an ever-decreasing genetic diversity and/ or concentrated genetic pool, potentially leading to a higher in-breeding coefficient?

Cinerous Vulture Increase

Recently record numbers of cinerous vultures have been spotted in the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park in Bulgaria, outside of their breeding colony in the Eastern Rhodopes, Greece. This is a record-breaking number of this rare species for the entire Balkans. This increase in the population can be credited to the important work carried out by the Vultures Back to LIFE Project, who have been successfully breeding and releasing cinerous vultures in the local area since 2020. The project team released two cinereous vultures in the area in mid-July, bringing a total of 9 birds released in 2021. In addition seven birds released in 2020 have survived and have remained in the area. The species has been considered extinct in the Vrachanski Balkan region for the past 70 years.

Ice Age Lion Cubs Found

In a paper published in early August, researchers confirmed the identity of two very-well preserved mummified cave lion cubs. The first cub, a male named “Boris” was actually found in 2017 along the Semyuelyakh River in Yakutia, Siberia by local resident and licensed mammoth-tusk collector Boris Berezhnev and was named after him. This male cub was thought to be an incredible 43, 448 years old. Then, a year later, a female cub was found 15 metres away from the other cub. She was named “Sparta” and was thought to be around 27, 962 years old. She was probably the best preserved ice age specimen ever found, even the colour of their fur is likely to be the same as when they were alive. Both cubs were found at a depth of 10 to 12 metres deep and were about the size of an adult domestic cat. It is thought they were only between one and two months old when they were mummified, possibly after being buried under the ice by a landslide? Both cubs have