UNDERSTANDING CAPTIVE BREEDING IN INDIA

As the winds of climate change blow across the world, there has been a steady decline in several species that has prompted captive breeding efforts.

October 16^th, 2024 is going to be a date that will always be remembered at the Sudasari Great Indian Bustard Breeding Centre in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. In fact, this date will also not be forgotten by wildlife lovers as this day saw a historic first when a baby chick of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) was born via artificial insemination.

CHEERING FOR THE GIB CHICK
India has several different captive breeding programs running across the country for the conservation of several endangered species. The hatching of the GIB has specifically brought in cheer as the species is critically endangered with just about 128 of them alive in the wild. This captive breeding program is a tripartite project between MoEFCC (GoI), Raj. FD (Rajasthan Government) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun. All team members/biologists involved in the project are employed from the WII side as project staff. Sumit Dookia, Wildlife Biologist and Faculty at GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi, says, “as per the documents available with Raj. FD/WII, this project is going to produce GIBs through captive breeding and third generation born out of captive bred birds will be released into the wild. The project started in 2019 and release year probably in 2042-2043. I am working exclusively outside the boundary or jurisdiction of Desert National Park (Protected Area). My working area is a community owned landscape where GIBs are freely roaming.”

ONE OF ITS KIND
This project is completely unique, as so far there has been no experience of producing captive GIB anywhere. The expertise came from the Houbara Bustard Breeding Centre from Middle East Asia, especially Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The project team visited those centres for months to get trained with the Houbara Breeding Team. “Initially two expert scientists from Abu Dhabi Centre also stayed in Jaisalmer for training and starting the centre. Wild laid eggs were being picked with care and taken into captive incubation machines, each egg in a single incubator. These chicks were reared in hand by caretakers, human imprints were purposefully done so that these chicks can be handled like pet birds. These birds became part of the founder population and now a second generation is being produced from these birds. These second generation chicks will be trained to become wild now and this is a real challenge. Only the future will tell the success of this project. Rewilding is a real challenge for any wildlife, as how to face the real life danger in the wild is not possible to teach in captivity,” adds Dookia.

ZOOS FOR CONSERVATION
Under the central zoo authority there are certain species that have been identified that are endangered and are of special interest. Different zoos have been assigned for taking up their conservation via a captive breeding program. It creates a backup population that can be used for research, release, and other studies. Dr Basavaraj S Holeyachi, Director, Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park (PNZP) says, “Darjeeling Zoo has the highest mandate of these including snow leopard, red panda, thar, blue sheep and pheasants and Himalayan Salamander. The snow leopard and red panda breeding have been very successful and we have 11 individuals of snow leopards now.

Red panda is also successful as we have now taken up an augmentation program that would lead to releasing them into the wild. We have released nine red pandas of which seven have acclimatized to the wild, with five births also recorded.”

FLYING HIGH
India has also achieved some success with releasing vultures through a conservation breeding program at four Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres (VCBC) across the country in partnership with the Governments of Haryana in Pinjore (2001), West Bengal in Rajabhatkhawa (2005), Assam in Rani, Guwahati (2007), and MP in Bhopal (2011). The population of Gyps species – white-rumped vulture (Oriental white-backed vulture), Indian vulture (long-billed vulture), and slender-billed vulture crashed during the mid-1990s throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Kishor Rithe, Director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), says, “there are several advantages I see as when there are species that are at the threshold of extinction, we must ensure that we do something for its conservation and captive breeding is a strategy to bring that population back. Vultures is one of the species as is the green munia as well as other bird species. We have released about 57 vultures to the wild. Success of conservation breeding can be measured only based on how many birds were released that is proportionate to those in captivity and how many of them have been able to survive living in the wild.”