Animal News

Hugo98

H
Cynogale bennettii II said:
Very recently, Hannover Zoo in Germany have opened their new 'Amphibium', a house dedicated to amphibians. It includes all sorts of interesting exhibit types for these animals - not only some very large tanks, but some that are at least partly open-topped, a view into the breeding tanks and, perhaps most interesting, a large walk-in greenhouse for tropical frogs. I'd love to have enough pieces to make something like this in the game.

A video about the construction of the house can be seen here:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eiDEtigtrk
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It's such a great house, I definitely have to visit Hannover this year, it's been ages since I was there. The pictures and videos are so exciting.
Amphibians are still very underrepresented in zoos which is a pity as they are the most endangered class of vertebrates and we desperatley need more breeding programmes due to the chytrid fungus. Luckily there have been some progress regarding amphibian breeding programs in the last couple of years with more and more zoos participating. Still, we need way more exhibitions dedicated to amphibians in zoos, so I hope Hannover's Amphibium can be a role model for other zoos.
 

Hugo98

H
Just read through the annual report of 2023 of both Berlin zoos and there is one very, very interesting information about future developments that I want to share here.
I heard rumours before - or let's call it half offical information - but now it's official (and still a little unbelievable for me): Tierpark Berlin is going to build a gigantic new breeding complex for white rhinos but not for the Southern ones, they'll do it for the Northern ones!
Seems weird because the subspecies is functionally extinct (only two infertile females left) but for a few decades now the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (which site is located just next to the Tierpark) is working on bringing back this subspecies with the help of embryo transfer using Southern white rhino cows as surrogate mothers. The embyros are "produced" in the laboratory with sperm and egg cells they got from Nothern white rhinos when there were more specimens left, those were deep frozen for a time the technique is better (and this time apparently is now).
Last year or so they had a kind of success when successfully transplanting a first embryo into a female Southern white rhino cow in a Belgian zoo. Unfortunately there was an abort a few weeks or months into the pregnancy but the transfer itself worked and they apparently are very, very close to a complete breakthrough.
So, this new planned enclosure hopefully means we won't have to wait that long to see a new generation of Northern white rhinos on this planet.:love:
I guess they'll get some Southern white rhinos at first and those will be used as the surrogate mothers for the new Nothern white rhinos and then those will be the founders for a new Nothern white rhino population.
All in all very exciting news, I guess!
 

Hugo98

H
Here are some more information about the first successful embryo transfer: https://www.izw-berlin.de/en/press-...he-northern-white-rhinos-from-extinction.html
(I was a little bit wrong though, the white rhino cow used for the embryo transfer is one living in Kenya but the eggs came from a Belgian rhino and there was no abort but the female died being pregnant).
So, this first embryo transfer was done with a Southern white rhino embryo but the next step is attempting an embryo transfer with a Northern white rhino embryo.
This sentence by Prof Dr Hildebrand: "It comes just in time to achieve a pregnancy for northern white rhinos: we want the offspring to live together with Najin and Fatu for years to learn the social behaviour of its kind. Although embryos can be stored in liquid nitrogen for a very long time, we are in a rush to bring a northern white rhino baby to the ground – with this proof of concept it can become a reality in two to three years." :love:
That's so exciting!
 
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Firestar97

Firestar97
Hugo98 said:
Just read through the annual report of 2023 of both Berlin zoos and there is one very, very interesting information about future developments that I want to share here.
I heard rumours before - or let's call it half offical information - but now it's official (and still a little unbelievable for me): Tierpark Berlin is going to build a gigantic new breeding complex for white rhinos but not for the Southern ones, they'll do it for the Northern ones!
Seems weird because the subspecies is functionally extinct (only two infertile females left) but for a few decades now the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (which site is located just next to the Tierpark) is working on bringing back this subspecies with the help of embryo transfer using Southern white rhino cows as surrogate mothers. The embyros are "produced" in the laboratory with sperm and egg cells they got from Nothern white rhinos when there were more specimens left, those were deep frozen for a time the technique is better (and this time apparently is now).
Last year or so they had a kind of success when successfully transplanting a first embryo into a female Southern white rhino cow in a Belgian zoo. Unfortunately there was an abort a few weeks or months into the pregnancy but the transfer itself worked and they apparently are very, very close to a complete breakthrough.
So, this new planned enclosure hopefully means we won't have to wait that long to see a new generation of Northern white rhinos on this planet.:love:
I guess they'll get some Southern white rhinos at first and those will be used as the surrogate mothers for the new Nothern white rhinos and then those will be the founders for a new Nothern white rhino population.
All in all very exciting news, I guess!
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😍 That's absolutely amazing. I hope this will work. So nice to see so much Stuff about bringing back extinct Animals recently (well, actually only that one and Colossal Bio Sciences, but before that, everything was only Text that you could read about past Experiments : Pyrenean Ibex, Gastric Brooding Frog. But this might work, not only because those Animals are closer to their Surrogates but also because there is probably new important Knowledge and technical Improvements nowadays)
 

Aramar

Aramar
Excellent news! The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. The population has increased exponentially from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. Today, the total population, including young and mature lynx, is estimated to be more than 2,000.

www.iucn.org

Iberian lynx rebounding thanks to conservation action - IUCN Red List

Gland, Switzerland, 20 June 2024 (IUCN) – The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, continuing its dramatic recovery from near extinction thanks to sustained conservation efforts.
www.iucn.org www.iucn.org
 

Hugo98

H
Aramar said:
Excellent news! The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. The population has increased exponentially from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. Today, the total population, including young and mature lynx, is estimated to be more than 2,000.

www.iucn.org

Iberian lynx rebounding thanks to conservation action - IUCN Red List

Gland, Switzerland, 20 June 2024 (IUCN) – The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, continuing its dramatic recovery from near extinction thanks to sustained conservation efforts.
www.iucn.org www.iucn.org
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Fantastic news! Thanks for sharing. I didn't know the population increased that much.
 

Veah

Veah
Aramar said:
Excellent news! The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. The population has increased exponentially from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. Today, the total population, including young and mature lynx, is estimated to be more than 2,000.

www.iucn.org

Iberian lynx rebounding thanks to conservation action - IUCN Red List

Gland, Switzerland, 20 June 2024 (IUCN) – The Iberian Lynx has improved from Endangered to Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, continuing its dramatic recovery from near extinction thanks to sustained conservation efforts.
www.iucn.org www.iucn.org
Click to expand...
The wonders of a combination of captive breeding + conservation measures in their natural habitat 😺
Some species are still struggling because they are just doing the former and then releasing animals in the wild without enough planning that guarantees their survival, or just doing the latter and the natural population growth is not enough for recovering the species.
 

Firestar97

Firestar97
😍 "new" Thylacine Photos
au.news.yahoo.com

Rare photograph of Tasmanian tiger triggers warning from families connected to its extinction

The man whose grandfather shot the last Tasmanian tiger worries past mistakes have not been learned from. Find out more.
au.news.yahoo.com au.news.yahoo.com
au.news.yahoo.com

Unseen photos of Tasmanian tigers spark 'wonderful' hope more could be discovered

To date, only a small group of people have been aware of the existence of some of these images.
au.news.yahoo.com au.news.yahoo.com
There are also way more Photos and Videos than I thought. I need to look up that Database 😃
 

Firestar97

Firestar97
Marvinb said:
If this turns out a chimp gorilla hybrid that would kinda confirm the nightmarish fact that human-chimp and possibly even human-gorilla hybrids are also possible.
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I'm Kind of confused by it. On the Picture were it is on the Tree, the Nostrils look more like those of a Chimpanzee while it's appearing more Gorilla like on the Close-up. Guess we'll need to wait
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
While not earthshattering, something neat happend.
Goodfellows Treakangaroo Wewak moved into Zoo Duisburg in germany, pretty cool but afaik this means that they broke the records for the most macropod species outside of australia again.
Together with their bennetts wallabys, swamps wallabys, yellow footed rock wallabys, agile wallabys and eastern wallaroos its their 6. macropod species and while not macropods they also got longnosed potoros, Woylies, tasmanian devils, koalas and common wombats regarding marsupials, short beaked echidnas, emus and 2 aviarys of australian birds, not to mention the reptiles, fish and insects in their aquarium and terrarium areas.
Lets just say regarding the whole international australian representation, its really not like theres no zoos that dont have quite a bit deeper cuts in their oceanian animal selection
 

Cynogale bennettii II

Cynogale bennettii II
For the first time ever, an Amazon weasel has been filmed in the wild. Even though it was first discovered over 200 years ago, there is still barely anything known about it. Case in point - as well as being the first living animal filmed, this sighting was also the first time the species had been recorded in the country of Bolivia.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMw5Vb_IgEo


An interesting little fact - when this weasel was first discovered, the specimen was put into a box mislabelled as coming from Africa and to this day its scientific name is Neogale africana, despite it being found only in South America.
 
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