Breeding

animals, but the resulting showpiece would certainly be unusually attractive to the public. However, no zoo or private animal keeper should undertake to keep these animals unless prepared to provide the conditions under which alone they can be kept well and in good health.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We should like to express our sincere gratitude to the late Dr Thienemann, Mr Lindemann and Dr Heinz Heck for their unselfish co-operation.

BREEDING O F THE EUROPEAN LYNX Felis lynx

AT MAGDEBURG ZOO by Manfred Burger

Director, Zoologischer Garten Magde- burg, Germany

I N 1956 Magdeburg Zoo acquired a half- grown female European lynx, F e h fynx, from the Soviet Union. In order to make up a pair, a second animal was purchased in 1959, like- wise from the Soviet Union. As this new animal also turned out to be a female we ex- changed it in September 1960 for a mature male lynx from Frankfurt Zoo and this we put in with our first female, ‘Anna’. The animals were given a spacious outside cage with strong fine-mesh wire netting, 5 by 10 m, which has a rockery and a living tree (horse chestnut), and z dark dens (breedmg cages, each I.75X 1.75 m), and two reversed cages (each 2.70 by 1.75 m), separated by barred grating. A female born in Magdeburg Zoo in 1961, ‘Cora’, had a differ- ent cage and was only put in with the old pair during the mating period. After they had been kept in the reversed cages with the barred grating for 20 days the three animals were introduced to each other without complica- tions. In 1963 ‘Cora’, then two years old, was shut in for the first time and mated, though unsuccessfully.

The animals were fed three to four times a week on freshly-killed small animals (chick- ens, hens, rabbits, guinea-pigs, etc.) and on the other days they were given horsemeat or, less often, beef.

After the male had lived with the female ’Anna’ for six months, acts of copulation were observed on 6.3.61. During the mating period (about 8 to 10 days) both partners were very restless and at night called very loudly and continuously, whereas in the ordinary way there was hardly a sound from them. During copulation the female received a bite in the nape of the neck which in March deteriorated into a badly festering wound. Fortunately, the animal was cured by Dr Kuntze in a 14-day course of treatment at East Berlin Zoo. After a gestation period of about 70 days two male and one female lynxes were born on 16.5.61. The male was separated well beforehand in case he should disturb the female and he was not allowed back with the family till 29 August. They were reunited without difii- culty. For the same reason there was no dis- turbing interference or observations in the dark breeding box. After about a month (on 20.6.61) the young gradually began to leave the breeding den and explore the surrounding area. At the age of exactly ten weeks they were given a prophylactic injection of ‘Felisan’ against cat distemper. On 19 November a young malecat suffered from an abscess on the tooth, probably due to ‘teething’; on 21 November it burst outwards. The animal then quickly recovered. We observed the saiiic kind of difficulty with teething in various cases in later litters also. On 24, 26, and 27 Novem- ber the three kittens, one after the other, con- tracted distemper. In spite oftreatment the two males died.(Here, as in the othercases, there is a detailed description of the disease in the Report of the VIIth International Symposium on the diseases qf zoo animals in Zurich and Basel, 7 9 April 1965 under the heading: ‘Treatment of feline enteritis in young Marsh Lynxes and European Lynxes in the Magdeburg Zoo’, pp. 3 8-46, published by the undersigned.) The dissection report of the Institut fur Veterinar- Pathologie of the Deutsche Akadeniie der Wissenschaften in Berlin reported a ‘medium grade gastroenteritis catarrhalis = feline dis- temper; the mucous membrane of the smaller intestine and the lymph nodes are swollen and there is a degeneration of the liver and spleen.’ Only the female, which was the last to fall sick, recovered after treatment with strepto- mycin. On 3 0 November she accepted food

I 82

Breeding

once more and made continuous progress. This animal, ‘Cora’, was later included in the breeding. (See also Table I.)

One year later, in the period I to 8 March 1962, there were strong indications of readi- ness to mate and on 16 May 1962, three male lynxes were born. They received no prophy- lactic injections. The male which had been removed well before-hand was replaced on 3 August 1962. On both az August and 13 September a kitten showed indications of an

the neck caused by the mating bite of the male cat was visible. About 10 days later the young female was isolated once more. The mating period lasted with each until about 9 March. About the middle of April it was possible to tell from the increasing size of both females that fertilisation had been successful in each case. On 8 May 1964 ‘Cora’ gave birth to one male and one female lynxes and on 15 May, after a gestation period of 68-70 days, one male and two female young were born to

Table I . Breeding records of European lynxes, Felis lynx, at Magdeburg Zoo.

Auimal

‘Anna’ ‘Anna’ ‘Anna’ ‘Cora’ ‘Anna’ ‘Cora’

Date of mating

6.3.61 1-8.3.62

3.63 3.63

3.3.64 6.3.64

Date of birth

16.5.61 16.5.62 - -

15.5.64 8.5.64

Gestation S i z e of period litter

No of surviving Young

abscess on the tooth, which on each occasion burst and healed three days later. While with the first litter in 1961 the animal that suffered from this was six months old, on this occasion the ages of the cubs affected were three and four months. Distemper was also contracted earlier on this occasion, at an age of 19 weeks (as opposed to 27 weeks with the first litter). In spite of treatment the animals died within six days.

During the mating season of 1963 the female born here in 1961, ‘Cora’, was put together with the old pair. Probably this new situation masked signs of readiness to mate, which were anyway very slight, for neither of the females became pregnant. 1964 was a most fruitful year. The young female ‘Cora’, by then three years old, was already in the ‘viewing cage’ by the old pair and on 4 February she was put in with them. Scratches in the coats of both females showed that thcre had been mild combats, at least during the night. The loud reciprocal calls, particularly at night, had already started by 20 February. On 3 March ‘Cora’ was in oestrus, and on 6 March so was the older fcmale, ‘Anna’. Each was probably mated on those dates, because the mark on the nape of

‘Anna’. During the first two to three days after having ‘ven birth the mother animals would eat no tkg , would not leave the breed- ing room and became extremely aggressive. The young were observed outside the breed- ing room for the first time at the age of one month. At the age of 12 weeks the young were treated with 2 ccm each of ‘Piavetrin’ (I ccni per kg of body weight) against ascarid infest- ation. At this age there were already really violent combats over food, although they were also still suckling. The mothers frequent- ly tried to rid themselves of the young for a whde. A hierarchical order was already quite well developed among the young animals. The prophylactic inoculation against dis- temper was not carried out. At the age of 18 and 19 weeks both groups of young fell ill with the well-known symptoms of distemper and were immediately treated with strcpto- mycin sulphate (0.5 g per kg of body weight), All the animals recovered fully after a short time. At the beginning of January 1965 the breeding male died of an acute enteritis, so that the programme of breed- ing, begun so successfully, had to be brokcn off. Another male has now been acquired.