BREEDING

Breeding wolf X domestic dog hybrids Canis lujusx Canis familiaris

at Coucy-les-Eppes Zoo C L A U D E T E K Director, Zoo de Coucy-les-Eppes, France

Coucy-les-Eppes Zoo has been carrying out an experimental programme involving the cross- breeding of domestic dogs with wolves. This re- search was to verify the possibility of the wolf being an ancestor of the dog, because a number of French zoologists have doubted that fertile off- spring would be obtained.

EXPERIMENT I

On 5 March 1967 we put together a Q wolf and a $ dog. The dog chosen was a six year-old German sheep dog, and the wolf was a very old animal which subsequently died. A pair bond was formed very quickly and on 12 June 1967 the she-wolf produced three young (I$ and 2.9) one female of which died at birth.

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EXPERIMENT 2

The following year a reverse cross was tried with the same success. A male wolf about four years old was paired with a German sheep-dog bitch of the same age. The pair produced seven young of which two females and two males were kept for the continuation of the experiment.

EXPERIMENT 3 The young of experiment 2 formed a pack and were isolated in an enclosed space. On I March 1970 one of the females, then aged two years, gave birth to one male and three female offspring which are still alive.

Breeding Fennec foxes Fennecus zerda

at Strasbourg Zoo

L. G A N G L O F F Consultant Veterinarian, Zoo de 1' Orangerie, +Strasbourg, France

During the winter our collection of Fennec foxes Fennecus zerda, consisting of four males and two females, were kept in an indoor cage together with a female Sand fox Vulpes ruejjellii. On 4 April 1970 they were all transferred to an outdoor cage measuringqx 3 . 3 ~ 1.8 m (13x 11 x 6 ft), inwhich were placed nesting boxes. Sand was available for the animals to burrow.

The foxes were fed on commercial pelleted dog food given ad lib, one-day-old chicks, mice, and heads and gizzards of broiler fowls. Fresh water was always available.

On g April mating was observed, and when the female involved appeared to be pregnant she was

isolated in an indoor cage measuring 1 . 8 x o . g ~ 0.9 m (6 x 3 x 3 ft) which was provided with a nest box. This cage was at a considerable distance from the outdoor cage containing the other fennecs. On 10 June, 62 days after mating, she gave birth to two cubs. She was very nervous and aggressive and continuously carried the cubs around the cage by their heads or middles. The cubs died when two days old.

On 16 April the second female was observed mating. In due course she was removed to a cage measuring zx 3.3 x 1.8 m ( 6 4 ~ 11 x 6 ft) but this time the cage was separated from the communal one only by a fence. The isolation cage was