In an interview with the BBC, a spokesman for the EAZA said that Marius had siblings with similar genes who were already in the organisation's breeding programme,(~) which meant that he could not add anything to the programme. In a statement, Copenhagen Zoo explained that:Īs this giraffe's genes are well represented in the breeding programme and as there is no place for the giraffe in the zoo's giraffe herd the European Breeding Programme for Giraffes has agreed that Copenhagen Zoo euthanizes the giraffe. įollowing the recommendations of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) the zoo decided to put down Marius. Shortly after his birth, Copenhagen Zoo informed the coordinator of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for giraffes who, according to the Danish Zoo Federation, along with his committee tried to find a suitable location for Marius but failed. The zoo has a policy of only giving an official name to a few selected animals such as elephants with the prospect of living up to 50 years or more but the keepers informally named the giraffe "Marius". Marius was born on 6 February 2012 at Copenhagen Zoo where he lived all his life. The captive population in Europe stood at 798 giraffes in 2014. Since 2012, two other young giraffe bulls in the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) were also culled in zoos. īetween when records began in the early 1900s and when the animal was killed in February 2014, five giraffes had been killed for similar "conservation management reasons". The event received worldwide media coverage and generated responses from several organisations and individuals, including death threats to staff at the zoo. His body was then dissected and necropsied in a public educational class and then fed to the zoo's lions. Despite several offers to adopt Marius and an online petition to save him, he was killed on 9 February 2014. Though healthy, he was genetically unsuitable for future captive breeding, as his genes were over-represented in the captive population, so the zoo authorities decided to euthanize him. Marius (6 February 2012 – 9 February 2014) was a young (two year-old) male giraffe living at Copenhagen Zoo.
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