5/8/2023 0 Comments Cute triplets babyThis is where scientists track a species’ hormones by analyzing its feces. Other zoos also have conservation breeding programs, but Chester is regarded as a world leader due in part to its wildlife endocrinology laboratory – the only one of its kind at a zoo in Europe. Other times the aim is to preserve a species that is already extinct in the wild, or on the verge of extinction, while some endangered species are bred to help maintain a viable population that could be released in the wild if threats in their native habitats were eliminated. Some species are temporarily bred in captivity to protect them from imminent threats or to give them a head start before being reintroduced into the wild. “It’s really important that we save species wherever we can.”īrayshaw explains that the breeding program has a range of purposes. “(The world) is losing species at a phenomenal rate,” says Mark Brayshaw, the zoo’s curator of mammals. In 2021, it published a 10-year masterplan laying out its methods for achieving this, including scientific research and education, habitat restoration and its renowned conservation breeding program. Chester Zoo’s central mission is to “prevent extinction,” and those words are emblazoned on staff t-shirts and signs across the site. With the world facing a crisis of biodiversity as extinctions accelerate at an unprecedented rate, zoos could help to provide crucial protection for endangered species. The young joey's claw can be seen poking out of its mother's pouch. All those species are threatened with extinction. Sumatran tiger twins, a western chimpanzee, a Malayan tapir, a greater one-horned rhino and a triplet of fossa pups have also been born. The joey is just one of a series of rare births that Chester Zoo has welcomed in the last eight months. The baby adds to an insurance population of captive animals, and it could provide crucial data on the species and its reproductive process to help inform protection efforts in the wild, he says: “This little, tiny joey can contribute significantly to conservation.” White says the birth is a sign of hope for the endangered species, which is threatened by hunting and habitat loss in its native Papua New Guinea. It’s the first birth of a Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo he’s witnessed, and indeed the first time in Chester Zoo’s 91-year history that it has bred the species. White has formed a close connection with the joey and its mother, visiting and feeding them each day. He has been watching the baby tree kangaroo develop since it was born the size of a jellybean – first tracking its growth with an endoscope camera placed inside the pouch, and now, seeing the 7-month-old emerge. Dave White, a zookeeper at Chester Zoo, in England, points up to the mother perched on a branch and beams with pride. A little joey pokes a front paw and then its head out of its mother’s pouch.
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