Raise or not?

Gallery: Man & FaunaPosted May 22, 2014239 views2 comments

Captive breeding facilities such as a zoo, work to maintain a certain population level for endangered species they have. Occasionally they are faced with the dilemma of having a mother reject her new born offspring. The question then is to hand raise or not. There is no right or wrong answer. Each situation needs to be address at the time. This snow leopard cub will be hand raised after it's mother failed to care for it.

Canon PS SX50
1/200 @ F-5 ISO 125
Canon 4.3-215 @ 17mm
Flash @ 2/3 power

Comments

2 comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on May 22, 2014 at 8:35 PM

Hi John, an interesting question, which I would answer with another question. Why in the world would they not support the off spring? If it was the facilities, zoo or captive environment, intent or allowed & wanted the pregnancy to take place I would think they'd do everything in their power to support the arrival of the offspring. Maybe I'm missing something unless it was an unwanted event and a severe gene pool catastrophe with resulting unsurvivable deformities.

Anyway, I do applaud your taking time to post the photo and alerting us to the apparent dilemma facing these facilities for which I was unaware of.

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Carl Battreall on May 24, 2014 at 1:01 PM

I can't imagine not trying to raise the little kitten. They have been trying to get the two snow leopards to mate here at our zoo (Alaska) without success. I only wish that more effort was put into getting them back into the wild. Hate the idea that so many of our great predators will some day only live in zoos, which will be very sad.

Registered on August 29, 2007, 24 Posts, 222 Comments