‘We’ve just had the right environment and have been very, very lucky’ : A Look at the Zoo’s Prolific Parents

Topper the giraffe has never met Otis the orangutan. Neither has ever met Antar the oryx. None of the three has ever made the acquaintance of Missy the Grand Eclectus parrot. And the perch of Leadbeater’s cockatoo No. 220-01748 would be news to all of them.

Yet all five animals have something very much in common: they each rank high in the book of Marvin Jones, registrar of births for the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. In their own way, all stand out as prolific breeders among their almost 2,000 colleagues.

Antar has fathered 93 oryxes during a six-year stretch at the Wild Animal Park. Topper’s 21st offspring in 23 years is due from his longtime girlfriend Checkers next month. Otis watches with seeming bemusement as his eighth child within a decade, Karla, scampers around the orangutan exhibit.

Leadbeater’s 220-01748 has seen 18 baby cockatoos hatch since he began mating five years ago after more than 30 years of unexplained celibacy. And Missy--the one female who made the list for reasons special to her species--has been a veritable nest-sitter, with 39 offspring in 10 years before deciding to take a breather last year.

All of them follow in the footsteps of the late renowned Mandhla, the southern white rhino who produced 59 baby rhinos in 15 years from his 20 female charges at the Wild Animal Park, a remarkable record so far unmatched by any other captive white rhino.

Their ability to produce large numbers of offspring bodes well for zoos worldwide to establish captive breeding colonies and reduce the number of animals that are taken from the wild.

Otis, a 300-pounder whose golden-brown hair resembles dreadnoughts, is one of the primate keepers’ favorites, says handler Gale Foland.

“Plus, he’s really good with (orangutan) females,” Foland said. “Most of the males are semi-abusive to the females, but he is almost too tolerant.”

In fact, one female orangutan, Bubbles, never responded to the enticements of previous males put into the exhibit with her. But Foland said that Otis has been able to make Bubbles an offer she has been unable to refuse. “In fact, she has had four (kids) with him.”

Otis’ other female companion is Jane, who is far more dominant than Bubbles, Foland said, even to the point of sometimes harassing Otis. Once, when Otis was mating with Jane, Bubbles took the opportunity to get back at her by poking Jane repeatedly with a stick.

The 17-year old Otis, a Sumatran orangutan, came to San Diego from the Fresno Zoo when he was 2 years old. Male orangutans can mate at age 7, even before they are fully mature physically, Foland said. In zoos, only one male is placed in a cage with females because the male would not tolerate competition, but keepers have no way of knowing whether an orangutan will turn out to be a good breeder. “Otis has been busy,” Foland said.

Otis’ offspring with Bubbles include a set of twins, but Bubbles has never shown sufficient skill in nursing her young so they have had to be raised in the zoo nursery. In contrast, Jane has proven a good nurser, especially with her latest youngster, the 3-year-old Karla.

In fact, Bubbles has gradually been learning the do’s and don’ts of raising a child from Jane, and Bubbles now regularly plays with Karla, Foland said.

Otis himself is good with the babies, Foland said. “In the wild, the males will have almost nothing to do with offspring.” But he said the youngsters will frequently climb onto Otis’ back with no ill effects. “I’m sure the babies enjoy it more than Otis does, but still, he’s a good father.”

Sometime next month, the regal-looking 19-foot-tall giraffe Topper will look down on the 21st baby he has sired since coming to the zoo in 1962. The baby will be the 11th by his mate Checkers. He and Checkers, along with a third giraffe named Freckles, were all captured in Africa at the same time and brought to San Diego together. Freckles died last year after having had 10 offspring with Topper.

“Topper has been an excellent father,” keeper Craig W. Racicot said. “Most male giraffes are indifferent, but for whatever reason, he’s not.” Topper also has been good with keepers, becoming unruly only when he senses the females are at the high point of their two-week sexual cycle.

“Giraffes have always been sexually prolific,” Racicot said. “Even though they’ve been hunted repeatedly since at least 2500 B.C., there seems to be no way they can be exterminated, although several of the nine subspecies are close to being endangered now.” Many of Topper’s offspring populate zoos nationwide today and are helping contribute to a self-sustaining zoo population.

The normal giraffe gestation period is 16 months, Racicot said. The female is normally ready for mating about a month to a month and a half after giving birth. From previous matings, Racicot had estimated that Checkers would give birth early this month, but she appears to be another month away. Racicot surmises that Topper may be getting old because it took him longer to impregnate Checkers this time.

“He may not be able to do what he wants like he used to,” Racicot said.

But even though the record of captive male giraffe’s offspring is 28, at a zoo in Australia, no one is complaining about Topper.

Leadbeater’s cockatoo No. 220-01748 may be a world-beater when it comes to captive mating, but he still doesn’t have a name, keeper John Mitchell said.

“It’s really hard to have intimate contact with them, so they would not respond to a name,” Mitchell said. “Most birds with names at the zoo were donated from private collections whose owners had named them.” The Leadbeater’s species is also known as Major Mitchell’s cockatoo, although keeper Mitchell claims no connection.

Whatever his anonymity, “220” has proven a highly consistent producer of baby cockatoos the past five years among a species that rarely reproduces in zoos. Other zoos have taken note of “220” and his female mate, since the 18 offspring have helped reduce the endangered status of the much sought-after pink-and-white Australian bird. Before “220” began mating in 1981, the San Diego Zoo had gone 26 years without a single Leadbeater’s born in captivity.

But “220” himself is somewhat unusual, Mitchell said, in that after coming to the zoo in 1950, he went 31 years before mating with any female. “But in 1980 we imported a female from Australia and when put with him, they started to breed immediately.”

“Somehow, the chemistry worked. It was love at first sight.” The male’s age is unknown, Mitchell said, but he estimates that the cockatoo could be as old as 40. Cockatoos have been known to live as long as 70 years.

The pair has proven good parents, so keepers allow them to raise their young themselves, Mitchell said. The pair has laid an average of four eggs per year, usually in late February. After a 30-day incubation period, the eggs hatch. Mitchell is preparing for this year’s brood by presenting “220” with a new nesting box this month.

Despite being a female, Missy the Grand Eclectus parrot made the zoo’s list because in her species, the female dominates, telling the male if, when and how they will mate.

“If a female is put in with a male she doesn’t like, there is a high probability she will kill the male,” keeper Wayne Schulenburg said.

Missy, born in 1972 at the zoo, got her name from keepers enthralled with her unusual tameness. She apparently has gotten along famously with the submissive male she has been paired with since 1976, Schulenburg said. “They have had 39 babies and that is marvelous, since the Eclectus is pretty difficult to breed in captivity. Even when the female tolerates the male, she may sit around for years and not breed at all.”

The bird ranges throughout Southeast Asian islands, with the females colored red and blue, or red and purple, and the males a brilliant green.

Why has Missy been so prolific? “We’ve just had the right environment and have been very, very lucky,” Schulenburg said.

In the past year, however, Missy decided to take a rest, Schulenburg said. “For whatever reason, she laid no eggs last year and we thought, ‘Well, we’ll put one of her daughters in the cage instead.’ And believe me, like mother, like daughter. The daughter is very, very aggressive, pushing herself under the male the same way.”

The winner of the breeding numbers game is Antar the oryx, whose 93 offspring between January 1979 and April 1985 have helped repopulate the oryx in the wild, where it had become extinct earlier in this century. A hoofed animal with two horns, the oryx is traditionally thought to be the model for the mythical unicorn.

While oryx can breed well, Antar’s statistics are exceptional, said Richard Massena, animal services manager at the Wild Animal Park where Antar resides. In an oryx herd, one male of breeding age will dominate. While Antar has not exhibited any particular personality to his keepers, Massena said that he has proven very solicitous toward his females. “He covers his females very well,” Massena said.

Of the four males that have bred at the Wild Animal Park, Antar is far and away the champion. An oryx named Frank is second with 22 offspring.

The 300-pound Antar has been temporarily retired from breeding and placed in a holding pen at the park. Because of so many offspring, Antar’s blood line is well-represented among oryxes worldwide and keepers want to avoid problems of in-breeding.

“At some point, we may rotate him back in,” Massena said. “But ideally, we would like to get a new oryx from the Middle East.”