Pluháček Jan, Steck Beatrice L, Sinha Satya P, von Houwald Friederike
Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Přátelství 815, 104 00 Praha - Uhříněves, Czech Republic.
Ostrava Zoo, Michálkovická 197, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Curr Zool. 2017 Jun;63(3):229-235. doi: 10.1093/cz/zow036. Epub 2016 Mar 28.
Rhinoceroses are among the most endangered mammals in the world. Despite a recent increase in numbers in most wild populations, poaching or political instability may exterminate large populations very quickly. Therefore, captive or rhinoceros populations can play an important role in their conservation. Previous studies identified infant mortality and interbirth intervals among the main parameters affecting the viability and survival of rhinoceros populations. In our study, we tested the recently suggested prediction that in captive Indian rhinoceros , longer interbirth intervals may result in higher infant mortality. We also examined the factors that are the main predictors of infant mortality and interbith intervals using the studbook data on Indian rhinoceros born in zoos worldwide as well as data from Dudhwa National Park, India, where rhinoceroses were successfully reintroduced. We found no association between interbirth intervals and infant mortality. In both populations, the main predictor of infant mortality was mother's parity, with higher mortality in calves born to primiparous mothers. In addition, we found that the interbirth intervals were shorter in zoos than in Dudhwa and that they increased with increase in age of the mother, which was the only factor affecting interbirth interval in both populations. Our results show that the same factors affect both parameters in both populations and thus illustrate that the reproduction and infant survival of Indian rhinoceros in zoos reflect the natural pattern. Furthermore, we suggest that in captivity, the interbirth intervals could be slightly prolonged to approach the situation in the wild.
犀牛是世界上最濒危的哺乳动物之一。尽管最近大多数野生种群数量有所增加，但偷猎或政治动荡可能会使大量种群迅速灭绝。因此，圈养犀牛种群在其保护中可以发挥重要作用。先前的研究确定婴儿死亡率和产犊间隔是影响犀牛种群生存能力和存活的主要参数。在我们的研究中，我们测试了最近提出的预测，即在圈养的印度犀牛中，较长的产犊间隔可能导致较高的婴儿死亡率。我们还使用了全球动物园出生的印度犀牛的种畜登记簿数据以及印度杜德瓦国家公园（犀牛在此成功重新引入）的数据，研究了作为婴儿死亡率和产犊间隔主要预测因素的因素。我们发现产犊间隔与婴儿死亡率之间没有关联。在这两个种群中，婴儿死亡率的主要预测因素是母亲的胎次，初产母亲所生的幼崽死亡率更高。此外，我们发现动物园中的产犊间隔比杜德瓦的短，并且随着母亲年龄的增加而增加，这是影响这两个种群产犊间隔的唯一因素。我们的结果表明，相同的因素影响这两个种群中的这两个参数，从而说明圈养印度犀牛的繁殖和婴儿存活反映了自然模式。此外，我们建议在圈养环境中，可以稍微延长产犊间隔以接近野生环境中的情况。
