it's heartbreaking to see stuff like this on the site
Whenever I scroll through manul profiles and see this...
Didn't even get a name, determined sex or anything 😿
I know it's not that rare (considering the mortality rate), but its still sad
I like to call these guys minguls or manguls because they get to live the rest of their life in the greatest paradise for manuls, while they don't get to experience mortal life, they can experience the best paradise of not worrying about time, predators or lack of food.
They get to play with the other minguls in paradise, and eventually... even their grown siblings and/or mother.
Even though there might be no pictures of the minul, I think it's better that we use our imagination, because it can make the mourning beautifully sad.
I wish the best for the minguls, and their mothers!
Comments 7
I have a ready-made answer for this.
Watch my hands. Infant mortality in the early 20th century reached 30%. Roughly speaking, one-third of children did not live to see their first birthday.
Then obstetrics and gynecology were invented. And in the 1940s, antibiotics too.
In 1960, the infant mortality rate was 3.7%. In 1990, it was already 1.7%. And nowadays it is about 1.5%.
Once again. A hundred years ago, every third child, a HUMAN child, did not live to see their first birthday. Now that figure is one in 65.
Yes, manuls even in zoos live in sanitary conditions no better than people did 100 years ago.
I am just shy of 50. My parents are the first generation in human history to live with universal (well, almost) running water, sewerage, and preventive medical care (medical check-ups, check-ups, etc.). With antibiotics and obstetrics and gynecology.
In a short time, we got used to living in a way that no one on our planet had ever lived before the end of the last century.
Yes, one-third of manuls die in their first year. Even in zoos. Our great-grandfathers lived the same way.
Just think about it. Our great-grandfathers died in infancy just as animals in zoos die now. One in three did not survive the first year of life. This is about people. Just a hundred years ago.
We got used to living too well too quickly.
Personally, I think it would be better if zoos did not hide the real statistics. Yes, people will, sorry, freak out when they learn how many animals are actually born in zoos. And how many of them live long enough for the zoos to consider it possible to tell the wonderful story of the birth of a puppy, a kitten, or whoever else it may be.
Yes, this is a sanitary and medical problem. One that needs to be solved. To begin with, it should be acknowledged and brought to light. At the very least so that people will broadly agree that funding for the sanitary and veterinary services of zoos should be increased. That it is necessary to raise the sanitary standards of zoo veterinary services (and that is not cheap). That animals in zoos fall under the utmost version of “we are responsible for those we have tamed.” And, yes, that maxim costs money.
Since we’ve brought up such a sensitive topic, allow me to deliver the final blow.
Let’s turn to one of the deepest tools for understanding and describing the world: language.
We know the terms orphan, widow, widower. Words for people who have lost their parents, husband, wife, and other adult relatives exist in many (if not all) languages of the world.
And how many words/terms do you know for parents who have lost children? Is there a word for mother-who-has-lost-a-child? We all know the word for child-who-has-lost-parents: orphan. But the other way around?
Think about that for at least a minute. Humanity lived not just for centuries, but for tens of thousands of years in conditions where a dead child was so normal that no special word was even needed for it. It’s always been that way, so why invent words?
Pavel Burov, You’re right...
And I sometimes think about how not all of them survive in zoos, and that is sad, but imagine how much higher that grim percentage is in the wild. And we humans pile even more problems on top of that for manuls.
Pavel Burov, I can’t say I agree.
It’s better not to wade into some areas of public debate, because human morality and the laws of nature are not always compatible.
In the wild, females often kill weak cubs so that there will be enough food for the others. Males kill the cubs of other males to protect their own from competition. Cats kill rodents not only for food, but also for fun, and sometimes they kill brutally. Natural selection is like that.
What good will come of it when activists freak out over the fact that cubs, it turns out, often die? Why should that lead to increased state funding for zoos? And what if it leads to their closure? Private zoos will go bankrupt, and state zoos will switch to keeping the “safest” species.
I feel endlessly sorry for Buyan. He died of feline distemper, even though he had been vaccinated. That means vaccines do not work 100%. But do we want propagandists and anti-vaxxers to seize on this case?
I feel endlessly sorry for Dunci, but he is the first manul born in captivity in China. Keepers and veterinarians still have very little experience. Our Russian and Japanese colleagues have decades of experience, and even so it is impossible to completely avoid such situations.
We adore Zelenogorsk endlessly; he lived for 13 years, but we do not know the whole story of his rescue, and what if he had brothers and sisters who did not survive? Perhaps the Zelenogorsk Zoo archives contain such records, but how would making them public help?
If you scare unprepared people with sad cases, manulomania may turn into manulophobia, and zoos will refuse to breed manuls, just in case something happens.
It is tragic to see a life cut short, especially one that had just begun. I wish there was a way to ensure each one of them grows up to be happy and healthy. It is indeed one of the sadder parts of the site.
One thing I find bittersweet is viewing the pages of grown Manuls that have since gone to a better place. To see that many have lived 5, 10, or even 15 years followed by "Pallas's cats rarely live more than 5 years in the wild. In zoos under human care Pallas's cats live longer," makes me glad that we got so much time with them and that in most cases, I would hope and imagine, their quality of life is better.
miljoonasade, By the way, our domestic cats, out on the street in the wild, also rarely live longer than 5 years. But with owners, their lifespan is much longer. This gives me hope that, with proper care and conditions, manuls too will be able to live a little longer and enjoy this world and each day.
I wonder, what is the mortality rate among domestic cat kittens? Perhaps they are similar to manuls here too?