Some animals are not born hot-tempered, but a decade of life
without a sweet spouse might have been enough to turn a cheering
white-cheeked gibbon cranky.
This is what is happening with about 20 endangered animals in
the zoo in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Yakun (left) stands
next to his mate Liya at Jinan Zoo in Shandong Province. Liya was
brought from Beijing Zoo to mate with Yakun in May 2006. The two
finally fell in love in September.
"Altogether, seven endangered animals now have difficulties in
finding a mate, and most of them are male," zoo manager Wu Kongju
said.
They include rhinoceros, black ape, musk deer, elephant, golden
monkey and zebra.
According to Wu, the major reason for their difficulty in mating
lies in the very fact that they are rare and precious.
"If an elephant wants to go on a journey to mate, it is
impossible to find a cage and truck big enough to transport it," Wu
said as an example.
The white-cheeked gibbons are another example. A zoo in
Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province in the south, has female
gibbons who might have been ready for mating, but the plan was
eventually dropped as it would be difficult to take days to
transport the precious primates.
Importing potential mates from foreign countries has also proved
impractical, Wu said.
"There are rigid customs procedures and dozens of papers to be
dealt with for the importing and exporting of endangered animals,"
she said.
Seeing other animal couples living happily together, the lonely
animals tend to become impatient, restless and even violent, Wu
said.
A female white-cheeked gibbon was brought in to Chengdu last
year from Guangzhou for mating, but right now the outlook is not
good. Two males are preferring to keep company together, and
neither one seems interested in the female, Wu said.
"We are even wondering whether the two male gibbons are gay,"
said Wu, laughing.
"Actually, though, they are very cautious in love. It may take
them many years to fall in love."
The Chengdu zoo is not the only one in the country that is
confronting such a problem of mating their animals.
According to Chinese newspapers, about 5,000 endangered animals
in about 400 species across the country are living single
lives.
(China Daily January 19, 2007)
