SUCCESSFUL USE OF CONTRACEPTION IN FISH

WORLD FIRST FOR BURGERS’ OCEAN:  SUCCESSFUL USE OF CONTRACEPTION IN FISH 

On Monday 17 December 2018, renowned professional magazine Journal of Fish Biology publishes a scientific article that makes a world first

Arnhem, Monday 17 December 2018 – Biologist Max Janse and veterinarian Henk Luten of Royal Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem have, for the first time in the world, successfully applied contraception to a fish species. On Monday 17 December 2018, the renowned scientific Journal of Fish Biology will publish an article about the remarkable feat that has ground-breaking consequences for the international breeding programmes of fish species.

A unique situation in Arnhem

International breeding programmes for shark and ray species aim to maintain genetically healthy aquarium populations so that no more animals need to be taken from the wild. As far as protected species are concerned, animals may be released into the wild in the future. The zoo in Arnhem had a unique situation with their spotted eagle rays from the Aetobatus ocellatus species, of which Burgers’ Ocean is the largest breeder in the world. The genetic material of two of their hugely successful breeding females threatened to dominate the European population of eagle rays.

Contraception for fish

One of the adult females was successfully moved to another European public aquarium with eagle rays in their collection. The other female had a birth control implant successfully inserted in her left pectoral fin. Scientific literature shows that there has been only one earlier—unsuccessful—attempt to insert a birth control implant in two female river stingrays of the Potamotrygon falkneri. One of the females continues to produce young after the birth control implant was inserted.

Ground-breaking work

In many mammalian species, contraception using birth control implants has been successfully used for many years. In fish species, this is the first time that this method has been successful. This breakthrough has far-reaching consequences for the European breeding programmes of various fish species. With this extra method of population management, the programmes can be managed in an even more targeted way.

Peter Dickinson Independent International Zoo Consultant +971 50 4787 122 | elvinhow@gmail.com | Skype: peter.dickinson48

Orangutans Use Simple Tools to Catch Fish

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steven2005/327761157/

Orangutans Use Simple Tools to Catch Fish

Orangutans swim about as well as they fly, but research on three Indonesian islands shows that these long-limbed apes nonetheless catch and eat fish.

Orangutans living in Borneo scavenge fish that wash up along the shore and scoop catfish out of small ponds for fresh meals, anthropologist Anne Russon of York University in Toronto reported on April 14 at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Over two years, Russon saw several animals on these forested islands learn on their own to jab at catfish with sticks, so that the panicked prey would flop out of ponds and into a red ape’s waiting hands.

“If orangutans can do this, then early hominids could also have practiced tool-assisted fishing,” Russon said.

Although orangutans usually fished alone, Russon observed pairs of apes catching catfish on a few occasions. In one case, an orangutan cringed and pulled away as its companion extracted a fish from a pond. Russon suspects that the onlooker was learning — or at least trying to learn — how to nab aquatic snacks.

Observations of fishing by orangutans raise the likelihood that hominids ate meat, including fish, before the emergence of the Homo genus around 2.5 million years ago (SN: 9/11/10, p. 8), said anthropologist David Braun of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Anthropologists have traditionally held that meat-eating first assumed prominence among early Homo species and fueled brain expansion.

Fish, even more than red meat, contains fatty acids essential for human brain growth. Good archaeological evidence of fish eating goes back no further than about 2 million years ago in members of the Homo genus, which includes modern humans.

Russon and her colleagues monitored daily behavior among orangutans in Borneo from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, the researchers stocked a small pond with catfish and videotaped orangutan visits to the pond over the course of one day.

Seventeen times orangutans scavenged for fish or grabbed fish out of ponds — several times from the prestocked pond — and immediately ate their prey. Apes used sticks to jab at catfish in the prestocked pond and in other ponds, as well.

Fishing isn’t common among primates, but it does occur. Chimpanzees occasionally pluck fish out of ponds, Russon said. Some monkeys that swim well, including certain macaque and baboon species, also catch fish with their hands.

What’s impressive is that orangutans spend most of their time in the trees and have no aptitude for swimming, Russon said. “They



To Read The Full Story Please Click HERE Orangutans Use Simple Tools to Catch Fish Wired Science Wired.com

***

For regular updated Zoo News, Views, Reviews and Vacancies please visit
 Zoo News Digest
on

Please Visit
The Zoo Professionals Book Store
if you are looking for a book. This is an Amazon affiliate and you will get a good deal

also
 you can subscribe to the largest and longest established zoo related ezine
by clicking

HERE

To advertise in Zoo News Digest please see HERE 

Money for Free

If you can write, you can earn. Write about what you like or what you know about. Build up a passive income which will earn you money daily. No catch, no charge. Click on the link below and you could start earning today

Disaster At The National Marine Aquarium

Disaster At The National Marine Aquarium

Only very recently we had the very sad and tragic loss of 26 animals in a fire at the Karlsruhe Zoo in Germany. On Tuesday 200 fish died in the National Aquarium at Pymouth. A storm caused a power failure and back up systems failed resulting in the huge loss of life.

People in general seem to care less about fish, perhaps because they are used to seeing them on the Fishmongers slab at Tesco....and they don't see ponies of donkeys. Fish though are important, especially when we are caring for them.

There is a lesson to be learnt here. Where there is no night staff (and I firmly believe that every zoo should have them) then there should be systems in place to let staff know when something has gone wrong, as soon as it goes wrong. We have the technology today we MUST use it to keep our animals safe, our incubators working, our water flowing.

Lets not have any more of these horrors.

Lets not have to think 'If Only'

My sincere sympathies to the staff of the Plymouth aquarium. I know that some of them will be grieving. They weren't just fish, they were individuals.

***

For Books on Zoo Management and more please visit

The Zoo Professionals Book Store

***

For regular updated Zoo News, Views, Reviews and Vacancies please visit

 Zoo News Digest on

FACEBOOK

Learn More About Zoos and Aquariums by visiting

The Zoo Hubs

and subscribe to the largest and longest established zoo related ezine

by clicking

HERE

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noidentity/2892714365/

 

To advertise on Zoo News Digest please click

HERE