Valentine's Day - Zoo Romance - video Dailymotion

National Zoo & Aquarium celebrating loved-up animals. Lions, otters, giraffes, and zebras who’ve participated in breeding programs

Transcript

00:00 [Music plays]

00:09 So this Valentine's Day we are using today to talk about relationships here at the Zoo

00:13 and the role that National Zoo plays in the regional breeding program.

00:16 So we're part of many regional breeding programs that includes non-active breeding

00:21 as well as active breeding or breeding in the past.

00:24 So most of those species are managed as a communal population

00:28 between Australia and New Zealand and that means that we wait for recommendations

00:32 to breed certain animals at certain times just to make sure that we're maximising genetic diversity

00:36 and that we're not breeding too many animals or not enough animals.

00:39 So some of our current breeding programs at the moment include our Plane Zebra.

00:46 We've also had some really good breeding success with our Giraffes as well.

00:51 We have some recommendations underway so hopeful pregnancies in the future that includes Lions.

00:57 We've been trying to breed our Rough Lemurs for the last little while.

01:01 They have been very successful in the past but have had a breeding break

01:05 and our Otters have bred in the past as well.

01:07 So sometimes we're not a breeding institution but we're part of the program.

01:10 So it's really important that we're holding those animals that aren't yet ready for breeding

01:13 or have potentially already bred and are now retired from breeding.

01:18 So it's really important that everyone has those roles to play

01:21 because if everyone was trying to breed at the same time we'd just end up with too many animals

01:24 and not maximising the genetic pairing that we need to.

01:27 Probably our Giraffes have been a huge highlight.

01:30 They take quite a long time to breed.

01:32 It's a 14-month pregnancy so you're waiting quite a long time to get those calves on the ground

01:37 and our Giraffe pair have bred five offsprings so far

01:41 and done a really good job at getting their genetics out into the rest of the population

01:45 with some daughters in other zoos now that are hopefully going to be breeding

01:48 in the next couple of years as well.

01:51 So yeah that's a really great one for Canberrans to come and see.

01:54 You know every time we have a Giraffe calf we really encourage people to come and see them

01:57 when they're little because they grow really quickly

02:00 and they're quite active and playful to watch when they're little as well.

02:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]