Online Dating for Endangered Species

Plenty of people have found their true loves on sites like Match.com and e-Harmony - but now, even animals are getting in on the act.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on September 09 2008

These days, online dating is so common that there’s no need to use that old “we met through mutual friends” excuse. Plenty of people have found their true loves on sites like Match.com and e-Harmony - but now, even animals are getting in on the act.

Using something called a “studbook” (yes, kind of like Facebook, except… you know), zoo officials can list the profiles of endangered species in captivity online, in hopes of finding a mate for the rare animal to breed with. The animals’ profiles aren’t likely to boast information about their favorite bands and TV shows, but instead feature details on age and weight, which will help zoo officials to match up each animal with a suitable partner from a distant zoo.

“Studbooks are the key to our long-term breeding plans,” John Lehnhardt, animal operations director at Disney’s Animal Kingdom told ABC News. “We want to ensure that these endangered species are here for the future and that’s really what the studbooks are all about. What we’re trying to do is maintain a savings account in species.”

But studbooks, much like the animals listed in them, are often finicky and hard to read. They often don’t contain all the necessary information about an animal’s habits and temperament that could help zoo officials determine whether a pair would make a good match.

To change that, about 150 zoos and aquariums have banded together to create the Zoological Information Management Systems, a huge database containing in-depth information about species available for breeding. The ZIMS database isn’t available to all zoos yet, though about 20 are trying out the new software, and are impressed with its matchmaking skills.

As far as animals are concerned, the studbooks aren’t merely a way to find some fun - in many cases, it could be a matter of life or death for an entire species. Luckily, the studbooks seem to be doing a great job setting up couples, such as a pair of elephants who’ve been placed together in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The female elephant “is now cohabitating with a very handsome young male,” Lehnhardt said. “We have put these two together in the hopes that we’ll have some success.”

Here’s to matches made in (cyber-)heaven.

Filed under: Animals and Pets, General Interest,

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