Dave Oehler, curator of birds at the Cincinnati Zoo, plays with a white-naped crane, one of the zoo's breeding successes.
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BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Twenty-three years after Newsweek proclaimed it the nation's ''sexiest zoo,'' the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden shows no signs of relinquishing the title.
The zoo breeds animals ranging from gorillas to exotic ants, and several of its programs have garnered national and international attention. Consider that Cincinnati:
- Holds U.S. records for gorilla births (No. 44 was born in February, and No. 45 in March) and for black rhino births, with 17.
- Is one of only five zoos in the world - two in the United States - to breed the fierce Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard.
- Claims other noteworthy achievements, including the first banded linsang born in captivity in this country (1989) and the world's first ''test tube'' gorilla birth (1995).
The annual public display of such breeding success, Tide Zoo Babies, runs Saturday through July 6. Less obvious is the fact that captive-breeding programs have changed greatly since Cincinnati earned its ''sexiest zoo'' label.
''Zoos have an almost awesome responsibility,'' Cincinnati Zoo executive director Ed Maruska says, ''and it's not only to display animals to the public for their amusement and enlightenment, but . . . to play a greater role in the field of conservation.''
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A list of a few of the animals the zoo has bred or attempted to breed.
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A glance into some of the breeding programs at the zoo.
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That philosophy grew out of the days when zoo populations were unmanaged. A flurry of births might be followed by long periods of breeding inactivity. Populations aged and eventually crashed. Then zoos simply got more animals from the wild.
But by the 1970s, with the list of endangered species growing rapidly, it became ethically and sometimes legally difficult for zoos to replenish animals that way.
No gorilla, for example, has been legally imported into the United States in more than a quarter century. ''So what is in captivity has to last us,'' says Mike Dulaney, the zoo's general curator. ''It's putting the pressure on us to be producers.''
Indeed, in Cincinnati and throughout North America, about 90 percent of mammals in zoos were bred in captivity.
Cincinnati Zoo breeding firsts:
1963: First caracal (a wildcat) born in the Western Hemisphere.
1964: First crowned guenon monkey born in captivity.
1969: First sand cat birth in captivity.
1970: First yellow-headed vulture hatched in captivity.
1974: First captive breeding of pampas cat.
1977: First captive breeding of royal goliath beetles.
1978: First successful hatching of smooth-fronted caimans in captivity.
1980: First aardvark twin birth in captivity.
1982: World's first non-surgical embryo transfer resulted in birth of an eland antelope.
1983: World's first successful artificial insemination of a Persian leopard.
1984: World's first successful birth of a bongo calf to a surrogate eland mother.
1986: First captive birth of rusty spotted cats in North America.
1988: First brown-hooded kingfisher hatched in captivity.
1989: First banded linsang (small, catlike carnivore) born in captivity in United States.
1994: Eighteen Komodo dragon eggs hatch, most ever at one time in captivity.
1995: World's first birth of domestic kittens resulting from intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
- John Johnston
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The method of producing animals also had to change. In 1979, researchers reported problems with the common zoo practice of mating close relatives. Highly inbred animals, experts said, are more susceptible to disease, have higher rates of infant mortality and are more likely to have developmental abnormalities.
To maintain a genetically diverse and demographically stable population of, say, gorillas, would require several hundred animals. No single zoo could house them. So in 1981, the Species Survival Plan (SSP) was established to manage the breeding of certain species. It is administered by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), whose membership of 175 accredited institutions includes the Cincinnati Zoo.
The number of programs has steadily increased. Today, 82 SSPs cover 134 species. The Cincinnati Zoo participates in 42 SSPs.
Zoos in the voluntary program are partners who are obligated to move animals from zoo to zoo, as needed, to diversify the gene pool. A species coordinator and management team consult a ''studbook'' - a breakdown of a population's vital records, including lineage - before deciding which animals to breed, and where.
''Often, the recommendations are to not reproduce,'' says Dr. Michael Hutchins, the Bethesda, Md.-based AZA's director of conservation and science. ''If reproductions overshot available space, where would those animals go?''
Richard Farinato, director of captive wildlife protection programs for the Humane Society of the United States, says zoos already produce more animals than they need. For animals not part of an SSP, there is little control over breeding, he says.
He points to an AZA publication, the Animal Exchange, which each month lists up to 2,000 surplus animals that North American zoos are seeking to trade or sell.
Animals that zoos can't trade to other zoos typically are sold to dealers who take them to auctions or sell them to private individuals, Mr. Farinato says. Sometimes animals end up as breeding stock on Texas ranches.
He contends that the animals' welfare often takes a turn for the worse when they leave zoos.
''I have a sensitivity to living things,'' counters Mr. Maruska. ''That doesn't leave when animals leave my zoo.''
The number of surplus animals at the zoo varies from year to year, ''anywhere from six to several dozen,'' he says. ''It's mostly the larger hooved animals, and occasionally, if we're lucky enough to have litters of cats born, we can only keep so many.''
Some zoos have been criticized for selling animals to dealers who in turn sell them to hunting ranches. Cincinnati Zoo policy forbids disposing of animals that way. Nor does the zoo sell to the pet industry or research institutions that practice invasive research, Mr. Maruska says.
In cases where the zoo can't trade surplus animals with other AZA organizations, he says, ''We're very selective on where (animals) go. We have to have a lot of background information on private individuals before we deal with them.''
Officials also must be selective when deciding which animals are covered by SSPs.
It was Cincinnati Zoo keeper Johnny Arnett's job to get the Komodo dragons to breed.
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''We can't save everything,'' Mr. Dulaney says, citing limited zoo space. The acreage of all professionally run zoos and aquariums in North America would fit in an area the size of Manhattan, the AZA says.
Most SSP animals are endangered, though not all. Some SSP animals, such as the gorilla, are ''flagship species'' - beloved by the public and likely to arouse interest in habitat protection.
Returning captive-bred animals to their native habitats once was a goal of most SSPs. But that emphasis has changed in recent years, Dr. Hutchins says.
It's often difficult and expensive to return animals to the wild, he notes. In addition, many experts say it's impractical to establish captive populations for all endangered wildlife, given rapid increases in the number of such species and limited zoo space.
Zoos, therefore, should focus more on protecting animals still in the wild, Dr. Hutchins says.
To that end, the Cincinnati Zoo is a partner with organizations that work to protect habitats and wildlife in Indonesia, Gabon, Suriname, Trinidad and Namibia.
That's not to say captive breeding isn't essential, experts say. Such programs ''help preserve options for future generations,'' Mr. Maruska says.
And captive breeding contributes to conservation through public education, scientific research, technology development and fund-raising to support field work, Dr. Hutchins says.
Educating the public ''is probably the strongest role we can play in an urban zoo,'' Mr. Maruska says.
And no zoo can do that without animals.
