Zoo Animals Try Online Dating

Zoo Animals Try Online Dating
Katrina A. Goggins, Associated Press. Columbia.

Just like the digital dating services that pair up people, so-called studbooks are used to match most animals held in captivity. The databases containing information on sex, age and weight -- not so much about favorite comfort foods or long walks on the beach -- are used by more than 200 zoos nationally and some internationally. They're practically taking the place of Mother Nature in the not-so wild world of captive animal breeding.

Now, new software is going to the Web, promising more easily accessible data, faster matches and -- in a page out of the most particular of human dating sites -- details on an animal's personality to ease what can be a testy process. At the very least, though, the software will give zookeepers better access to species-level details currently found only in zoo husbandry manuals that now are mostly e-mailed back and forth, said Bob Wiese, director of collections for the Zoological Society of San Diego.
Around since the 1980s in paperback form, most of today's studbooks are in computerized databases. Basic information such as family tree, medical history, age and weight are entered by studbook keepers, then sent to a central location where the data is analyzed and converted into a "master plan" for breeding. But the databases have their limitations. They aren't updated quickly and don't include the extra information on setting the optimal conditions for an animal's breeding.
"It's really about us gathering the best scientific information we can get to make the best decisions about the long-term viability of our populations," Wiese Said.

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