So I know you may not be able to answer, but after your recent post on zoo breeding and genetics, I’ve always been curious – are there ever any interesting “mishaps” or accidents that happen in zoo breeding that the public doesn’t know about?

zookeeperproblems:

This is a really interesting question! When it comes to breeding mishaps, it depends on the individual institution’s policy to tell the public about it or not. Some zoos are pretty open about accidental hybrids, weak young, etc. while others are pretty private. If you’re curious, here’s a little list of what breeding “whoopsies” might look like…

• Aww, these birds are nesting together even though they’re different species, isn’t that swee- WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE EGG IS FERTLE
• why did we put a species that hides their eggs in an exhibit where their nests are already so hard to find????
• Guess what can fit through that fence~
• The primate figured out where the birth control pill was hidden in her food 
• The primate’s buddy groomed out her birth control implant
• We ran out of birth control and it’s taking forever to come in
• Turns out breeding season wasn’t over and we didn’t get the memo
• We have 200+ of these animals in a single area, your guess is as good as mine – a novel written collaboratively by aquarists and keepers of free-range small mammals and birds
• Let’s put a tiny net in the life support system and catch all the floating eggs in this tank. I wonder what – oh okay it hatched out already…
• I did NOT think those two could hybridize
• What do you mean there was a typo in the studbook
• They were together for less than an hour!
• I’m sorry did you just say this one is hermaphroditic?
• Guess what just hatched. Nope, guess again.
• Quarantine just called – looks like she was pregnant when she got here
• We were told she could never have babies again
• We were told he was too old to be fertile anymore
• “So it’s not a male… and it’s pregnant.”
• “So our ‘male’ animal laid eggs this morning…”
• SERIOUSLY WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THESE TWO COULD HYBRIDIZE