Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Can giraffes not be neutered? I mean, he wouldn't have to be celibate, just snipped beforehand.
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Yes, of course they can. Simple to do. Ranchers and wranglers do it to their extra males, all the time. Vets aren't even needed once you know how.
They said they didn't want to neuter Marius because he might fall when sedated, and break his neck. Never heard of a Clydesdale stallion falling when sedated, and breaking their neck, and they weigh a lot more than Marius.
When you sedate an animal that might fall and injure itself, you give it an initial mild dose of sedative - the animal walks around a bit, and lays down. Then you give the rest of the sedative, if needed. A local anesthetic (at most), is all you need for the neutering itself, and it's quick.
The idea I had with the old bulls is NOT to cull one of them, but to anticipate that one of them might die of natural causes/accidents, by the time that Marius was mature.
Jack Hanna didn't understand the Copenhagen Zoo situation completely. They did not breed to get Marius. His mom was already pregnant with him, when the zoo acquired her. He was quite the surprise arrival.
The giraffe breeding program was begun to ensure the survival of this threatened (sub) species of giraffe. It's been very successful. So why not begin returning the "excess" giraffe's to their native habitat in Africa? That is the goal of the program. Marius's gene's would not be a duplicate in the wild.
Killing a product of a breeding program, because the animal is "excess" genetically, shows that they don't understand the goal of a breeding program. They say they want to return them to the wild - so why didn't they return Marius?
Lions and tigers can eat and thrive on a wide variety of raw meat. They shouldn't be fed a threatened (sub) species.
I'm sure most zoo's do a certain amount of culling of their herbivores, to prevent them from over-population, and to provide almost free meat for the carnivores. Disney-like fantasies are not a factor here.