I am surprised you need to ask why it was ridiculous. Just look at the results!! Two invaluable and virtually irreplaceable animals were lost to all conservation efforts because the zoo personnel did not have the knowledge and expertise to breed the species normally and steadfastly refused to turn any of the reproductive sized ones over to someone who did, in spite of being told to do so by the owners of four of the animals.



Also, at the time (and probably still today), AI in tortoises was highly experimental. I am sure if it has become more commonplace, EJ will gladly point that out for me. It had never been successfully accomplished in the US then, and may not have been since. There was only one published article on the subject by someone in Australia at the time as I recall. Subjecting specimens of one of the most critically endangered species in the world to that still seems to me to be careless and irresponsible. It should have been tried first on some much more common species to see what effect it had on the animals before being done to 8 of the 9 yniphora in the country. These are reptiles, not mammals, and the effects and proper techniques are not the same. In my experience with Radiated Tortoise (closest relatives of yniphora), the male tortoises can tell when the females are ready to be bred, and if they aren't, they don't waste their energy trying. I never believed the females were in reproductive condition, and that is why the males were disinterested, and why the AI work was so unsuccessful (1 birth in 10 years). Everyone is entitled to his opinion, of course, and that was and still is mine.



The male who died of his infected penis had been electro-ejaculted so many times that his penis would no longer retract. It just dragged along on the ground behind him until it got infected and he died.

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