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| Rhino Resource Center: Rhino Forums > Rhinos in Captivity > Zoos > Housing bulls |
| Posted by: nyukitx Jul 13 2007, 07:49 PM |
| Does anyone house two breeding pairs of black rhino in the same building? If so, have there been any problems or concerns with stress levels in the boys? |
| Posted by: adam Jul 14 2007, 02:48 PM |
| Try to keep them as far apart as possible, and no visual contact if possible. If there is really no way to keep them far apart try giving the males their own territory and don't run them into each others areas(if possible). |
| Posted by: nyukitx Jul 14 2007, 11:01 PM |
| You sound like you have experience with this, Adam. We obviously plan to minimize the contact and stimulus from each other as much as possible but the olfactory stimulus is impossible to eliminate. We have an old, proven breeder bull and a young bull just going through puberty at the moment. Until the past month or so we have seen no problems with them in the same barn. Recently the young guy has started alot of horn rubbing and more aggressive play with his boomer ball while our breeding bull has been doing 'foot scratches' on the way out to his yard. They will be in seperate yards and hopefully out of sight from each other but I am concerned there might be some reluctance to breed concidering how important olfactory cues are to the species. We have housed several bulls in the past (3.1.1-it was a male but only months old) but never two breeding pairs to my knowledge. I know Fossil Rim and White Oak have several breeding bulls, do you know of anyone else with a more conventional barn set-up? |
| Posted by: adam Jul 15 2007, 08:01 PM |
| Your situation sounds similar to ours. Our young bull is 5 and last year is when he seemed to be a little more aware of our older bull. And our older bull also seemed to do more foot scratches, and was a little more aggressive. However, even with all this the older male did successfully mount and breed our female, so it did not have a negative affect. Also, our younger male seems less agitated when we keep him in the same area for most of time. In other words not moving him into the older males area. |
| Posted by: nyukitx Jul 15 2007, 11:07 PM |
| Thanks for writting back, it's good to hear someone else has the same housing issues.- I agree with all you said. Unfortunately our bulls swap out in the same yard at the moment but, again, so far no problem. (And we're working to change it) The issue is that we are getting a second female for our young bull to breed with and I am concerned, with what I've heard about whites, that he will not perform well while the older bull is housed so close. Does your little guy have access to females? Does he attempt to breed? |
| Posted by: adam Jul 16 2007, 01:45 PM |
| He does not have access to females. It will be interesting to hear if your young guy will perform, because I would think that being the younger and probably the less dominant(probably) he may not. Keep us posted. |
| Posted by: Rhinoman Sep 2 2007, 08:16 AM |
| The Western plains zoo at Dubbo in Australia has about 12 Black rhinos, a few are bulls which are housed in their own yards this is a good set up and can house up to 40 rhinos |
| Posted by: nyukitx Sep 3 2007, 10:18 PM |
| Rhinoman, Do you have more than one bull with access to females and if so, how many are proven breeders at Dubbo? Also, how close are your bulls' enclosures and what kind of stimulus do they get from each other (i.e., visual or olfactory or any audible contact...) We have successfully bred our female before with a newly introduced bull while the old breeding bull was still housed in the same barn at night. My concern is that our current second bull is very young and just coming into maturity. Any advice? |
| Posted by: Rhinoman Sep 4 2007, 09:45 AM |
| the breeding complex can house from what I am told up to 40 rhinos, there are a number of bulls I think its about 4 or 5, some yards are very close and others are just a few feet apart, I would say that you should try contacting the rhino team at the Western plains zoo they should be ok to ask avice from, I think they are working with a German team into AI with the Black rhinos. try emailing them and see how you go, let me know if you have any luck with that The Western plains zoo is in Dubbo New South Wales |