Source : Today Online, Singapore, 25 Jan '07
By : Lin Yanqin
  

More than 180 animals were born in the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari last year under the parks' captive breeding programme. And of these, 14 per cent are endangered in the wild.

Doing spectacularly well last year were the primates, who saw three proboscis monkeys, two douc langurs, one Bornean orang utan, one lion-tailed macaque and four cottoned-top tamarins join their tribe last year — all of which are on the endangered list of the World Conservation Union.

Other animals born last year include three Nubian Ibexes — also endangered — and a Malayan Tapir, two Jackass penguins, and a pygmy hippo — all animals considered vulnerable to endangerment.

The zoo is also the only zoological institution to successfully breed the douc langur outside its home range countries of Vietnam and Laos.

"As we have been very successful in the breeding of primates, we will continue to focus our efforts on this group of animals," said the zoo's assistant director of zoology Mr Biswajit Guha. "We will continue to focus on threatened species such as Komodo dragons, and also on tropical rainforest animals, in line with evolving into a rainforest zoo."

The parks' executive director Ms Fanny Lai attributed the success of the breeding programme to "sound husbandry practices, expertise, and dedication of our zoologists and vets".

Every aspect of the animals' lives is monitored carefully to ensure that the animals breed successfully — their temperatures are monitored every day, their diet is carefully designed to provide maximum nutrition, and minerals and vitamins are given as supplements.

The zoo also tries to stimulate the animals mentally and physically by simulating as free and natural an environment as possible.

For example, the orang utans have a free-ranging area where they can move about, explore, and behave as their counterparts would in the wild.

Last year, the zoo also set up the Wildlife Healthcare and Research Centre, with a new ultrasound machine to better detect pregnancies and internal ailments.

But even with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, some things are just beyond human control.

Said Mr Guha: "Even if we have both male and female species in the same habitat, it may be a case of not having 'chemistry', much like the way it is with humans." .

The captive breeding programme, in place since the zoo's inception in 1973, was set up to contribute to the population of threatened species by breeding them in captivity.

Notable successes of the programme include Inuka, the first polar bear to be bred in the tropics, in 1990, and a giant flying squirrel, believed to be the first to be born in a zoo in Asia, in 2004.

The well-loved Inuka has been hogging media headlines recently following the zoo's announcement that he will move to a zoo in a temperate climate once his mother, Sheba, dies.

That may not be too far off, as the 29-year-old mother is now already too old to move, having passed the average life- span of 25 years for captive polar bears.