Species we have lost over the last quarter of a century

[TeaLovingDave]

Pel's Fishing-owl (Scotopelia peli) - the last known individual of this taxon in a European collection was at Paris Menagerie until 1999; however no mention of this taxon nor individual, or photographs of the taxon, are present on Zoochat.

Rufous Fishing-owl (Scotopelia ussheri) - the only holdings of this taxon in Europe were at London until 1990, and Chester until 1994; the individuals in question have been discussed on Zoochat on a few occasions but no photographs of the taxon have ever been posted to the site.

Doing a bit of random rooting-around in the galleries, I was pretty surprised to find that not only is there a photograph of the latter taxon in the gallery - mislabelled as the former taxon - but that I had already commented on the photograph some years ago!

As such, here is a photograph of Rufous Fishing-owl at ZSL London Zoo in 1990:

As I know several other Zoochatters photographed this individual, this post also serves as a reminder to those Zoochatters

By the by, elsewhere on the forum recently there was discussion of the various lemur species which were once held by Paris Vincennes - and seen there by @Tim May and @Dassie rat . As such, I would be interested to hear whether or not either of them photographed the Pel's Fishing-owl at Paris Menagerie of which I speak in the quoted post, and which was present from 1966 until 1999!

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Thought I would do a little update to this thread regarding a few of the most notable species lost in the last year or two belonging to groups already discussed, and which I therefore failed to highlight previously; this will include taxa I mentioned in prior updates, for completion's sake, but to preserve my own sanity there are a few speciose groups which I won't be comprehensively checking right now, such as parrots and pigeons

After finishing this post, I will highlight any species already discussed which have returned to European collections - I am reasonably sure there are a few.

Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) - last held in c.2015 at Vogelpark de Lorkeershoeve. The only photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in North America.

Pallid Scops-owl (Otus brucei) - last held in 2016 at Scottish Owl Centre. There are a small number of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph of the last individual in Europe.



White-chinned Sapphire (Hylocharis cyanus) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Avifauna. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Fork-tailed Woodnymph (Thalurania furcata) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Avifauna. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Indian Grey Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) - last held in 2016 at Zoo Heidelberg, one of a number of European collections to hold the species since 1990. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Spotted Fanaloka (Fossa fossana) - last held in 2015 at RSCC. There are a handful of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph:



Little Grison (Galictis cuja) - last held in 2016 at Dierenpark de Paay. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in South America.

Saharan Striped Weasel (Ictonyx libycus) - last held in 2016 at Plzen. There are numerous photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



White-eared Opposum (Didelphis albiventris) - although ostensibly still held at Olomouc, according to ZTL, given the short lifespan of the species and how seldom said collection is visited, it is likely the species ceased to be kept at the collection sometime in 2015 or 2016. The last individuals at Copenhagen passed away during roughly the same timespan; along with several photographs from the New World there is a single image of this taxon taken at the latter collection:



Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) - last held in 2015 at Apenheul, one of a handful of collections to hold the taxon since 1990. There are numerous photographs of this species within the Zoochat gallery, including this photograph of one of the final individuals at the aforementioned collection:



Javan Surili (Presbytis comata) - last held in 2015 at Howletts. There are a handful of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph:



Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium cottoni) - last held in 2015 at Dvur Kralove. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph of the final individual in Europe months before her death:



Arabian Mountain Gazelle (Gazella cora) - last held in 2015 at Blackpool. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last individual in Europe:



Red-flanked Duiker (Cephalophus rufilatus) - last held in 2015 at Valencia Bioparc. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last individual in Europe:



Long-tailed Ground Roller (Uratelornis chimaera) - last held in 2015 at Walsrode. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Wattled Brush-turkey (Aepypodius arfakianus) - last held in 2015 at Walsrode, with many other European collections holding one or both subspecies since 1990. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last Misool Wattled Brush-turkey at Walsrode, which was also the last member of the species in Europe:



Brown Tinamou (Crypturellus obsoletus) - last held in 2016 at Walsrode. There are a small number of photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Niendorf. There are many photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last two individuals in Europe:

 

[Paradoxurus]

Pel's Fishing-owl (Scotopelia peli) - the last known individual of this taxon in a European collection was at Paris Menagerie until 1999; however no mention of this taxon nor individual, or photographs of the taxon, are present on Zoochat.

By the by, elsewhere on the forum recently there was discussion of the various lemur species which were once held by Paris Vincennes - and seen there by @Tim May and @Dassie rat . As such, I would be interested to hear whether or not either of them photographed the Pel's Fishing-owl at Paris Menagerie of which I speak in the quoted post, and which was present from 1966 until 1999!

I saw a Pel's fishing owl in a European private collection in 2009. It's probably still there. I've a photo of it somewhere. The Paris one was probably the last known in a public collection.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

I saw a Pel's fishing owl in a European private collection in 2009. It's probably still there. I've a photo of it somewhere. The Paris one was probably the last known in a public collection.

I believe this thread is specific to public collections. There are quite a few species discussed throughout the thread that are gone from public collections but still held privately.

~Thylo

 

[Paradoxurus]

I believe this thread is specific to public collections. ~Thylo

Yes. I rather presumed it was. But I didn't think that this meant to the complete exclusion of any other snippets of information that might be connected to the topic. Apologies.

"The Paris one was probably the last known in a public collection" was a bit of tongue-in-cheek pedantry referring to TLD's statement that "the last known individual of this taxon in a European collection was at Paris Menagerie until 1999" (i.e. not differentiating between public and private collections).

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I saw a Pel's fishing owl in a European private collection in 2009. It's probably still there. I've a photo of it somewhere. The Paris one was probably the last known in a public collection.

Indeed; rather a lot of the owl species I mentioned are still held in private collections in Europe - I know of one particularly speciose collection in Italy it goes without saying I would love to visit that one!

Yes. I rather presumed it was. But I didn't think that this meant to the complete exclusion of any other snippets of information that might be connected to the topic. Apologies.

No apologies needed from my point of view quite apart from anything else, it is always interesting to hear which species are still knocking around in private hands and hence could potentially return to public collections if the interest and money (many private keepers liking to charge a pretty penny for their stock ) was present!

 

[Paradoxurus]

Indeed; rather a lot of the owl species I mentioned are still held in private collections in Europe - I know of one particularly speciose collection in Italy it goes without saying I would love to visit that one!

I know the collection to which you are referring. I saw the Pel's at another stupendous assemblage of strigiformes in the low countries.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

Yes. I rather presumed it was. But I didn't think that this meant to the complete exclusion of any other snippets of information that might be connected to the topic. Apologies.

As TLD said, no apologies necessary. Was just pointing out that this thread is on public collections just in case you were to read back and notice quite a few species still about privately. Personally, I too find it very interesting to know what's still kept before closed doors.

~Thylo

 

[FunkyGibbon]

Kloss Gibbon (Hylobates klossii) - last held in 2006 at Twycross. A single image of this taxon - a photograph of the final individual in Europe - exists on the Zoochat gallery:

It's a bit of a surprise there are no other photos. I have some from the Schmutzer Primate Centre that will be uploaded in due course, and I imagine devilfish and Vision do too.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Indeed; I suspect that rather a lot of the species lost recently which either have no photographs in the European gallery, or very few, were once better represented before the Great Purge of the gallery about five or six years ago - for instance the Giant Mouse Lemur which was held at Marwell until 2009.

 

[drill]

It's a bit of a surprise there are no other photos. I have some from the Schmutzer Primate Centre that will be uploaded in due course, and I imagine devilfish and Vision do too.

Where is the schmutzer primate centre?

 

[drill]

Thought I would do a little update to this thread regarding a few of the most notable species lost in the last year or two belonging to groups already discussed, and which I therefore failed to highlight previously; this will include taxa I mentioned in prior updates, for completion's sake, but to preserve my own sanity there are a few speciose groups which I won't be comprehensively checking right now, such as parrots and pigeons

After finishing this post, I will highlight any species already discussed which have returned to European collections - I am reasonably sure there are a few.

Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) - last held in c.2015 at Vogelpark de Lorkeershoeve. The only photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in North America.

Pallid Scops-owl (Otus brucei) - last held in 2016 at Scottish Owl Centre. There are a small number of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph of the last individual in Europe.



White-chinned Sapphire (Hylocharis cyanus) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Avifauna. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Fork-tailed Woodnymph (Thalurania furcata) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Avifauna. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Indian Grey Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) - last held in 2016 at Zoo Heidelberg, one of a number of European collections to hold the species since 1990. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Spotted Fanaloka (Fossa fossana) - last held in 2015 at RSCC. There are a handful of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph:



Little Grison (Galictis cuja) - last held in 2016 at Dierenpark de Paay. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in South America.

Saharan Striped Weasel (Ictonyx libycus) - last held in 2016 at Plzen. There are numerous photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



White-eared Opposum (Didelphis albiventris) - although ostensibly still held at Olomouc, according to ZTL, given the short lifespan of the species and how seldom said collection is visited, it is likely the species ceased to be kept at the collection sometime in 2015 or 2016. The last individuals at Copenhagen passed away during roughly the same timespan; along with several photographs from the New World there is a single image of this taxon taken at the latter collection:



Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus) - last held in 2015 at Apenheul, one of a handful of collections to hold the taxon since 1990. There are numerous photographs of this species within the Zoochat gallery, including this photograph of one of the final individuals at the aforementioned collection:



Javan Surili (Presbytis comata) - last held in 2015 at Howletts. There are a handful of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph:



Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium cottoni) - last held in 2015 at Dvur Kralove. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph of the final individual in Europe months before her death:



Arabian Mountain Gazelle (Gazella cora) - last held in 2015 at Blackpool. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last individual in Europe:



Red-flanked Duiker (Cephalophus rufilatus) - last held in 2015 at Valencia Bioparc. There are many images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last individual in Europe:



Long-tailed Ground Roller (Uratelornis chimaera) - last held in 2015 at Walsrode. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Wattled Brush-turkey (Aepypodius arfakianus) - last held in 2015 at Walsrode, with many other European collections holding one or both subspecies since 1990. There are several photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last Misool Wattled Brush-turkey at Walsrode, which was also the last member of the species in Europe:



Brown Tinamou (Crypturellus obsoletus) - last held in 2016 at Walsrode. There are a small number of photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image:



Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) - last held in 2016 at Vogelpark Niendorf. There are many photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last two individuals in Europe:

Ztl lists pallid scops owl at a zoo in rissi8

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Ztl lists pallid scops owl at a zoo in rissi8

I am aware of this, given the fact I added that entry having been tipped off about the collection subsequent to writing the quoted post

That said, other than Moscow and one or two other major collections I haven't been counting Russian listings in this thread - much as I have been disregarding Middle Eastern listings - and as such this is a borderline case anyhow.

 

[drill]

I am aware of this, given the fact I added that entry having been tipped off about the collection subsequent to writing the quoted post

That said, other than Moscow and one or two other major collections I haven't been counting Russian listings in this thread - much as I have been disregarding Middle Eastern listings - and as such this is a borderline case anyhow.

Oh

 

[Chlidonias]

Where is the schmutzer primate centre?

it is in Java (in Indonesia), in the middle of Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo.

 

[drill]

Least Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium minutissimum) - a small handful of individuals were held in European collections until the late 2000's, with some breeding occurring; I believe the last individual in Europe died at Antwerp in 2008. Neither photographs nor mention of this taxon exist on Zoochat at all, until this post.

least pygmy owl is kept at skaerup zoo

 

[TeaLovingDave]

least pygmy owl is kept at skaerup zoo

Allegedly, anyway though I have my doubts. In any case, if they do this is a development subsequent to my quoted post.

 

[drill]

White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) - seemingly held in a number of European collections over the past 25 years, the last holding of the taxon seems to have been at Weyhill Hawk Conservancy sometime prior to 2012. However, there appear to be no photographs of any of the individuals held within Europe on Zoochat - the only images in the gallery are from Asian collections.

white bellied sea eagle is kept at zooparc debeauval

Asian Badger (Meles leucurus) - last held at Kiev in 2007. The only images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of individuals in Asian collections.

Asian badger is held at a zoo in vladivostok.

Marsupial taxa lost over the past 25 years:

Bare-tailed Woolly Opossum (Caluromys philander) - last held at Krefeld in 2006. The only photographs of this taxon on Zoochat are of a captive individual in the USA.

Big-eared Opossum (Didelphis aurita) - last held at Kerzers Papiliorama in c.2006. The only photographs of this taxon on Zoochat are of a captive individual in South America.

Common Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) - last held at Halle in 2011. The only photograph relating to this taxon on Zoochat is of a sign announcing the death of the aforementioned individual at Halle.

Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) - although ostensibly still held at Ree Park, as far as I know no-one has seen the taxon there in several years. Given the short lifespan of opossums, it is unlikely the species is still present. The last known holding of Virginia Opossum in Europe was at Jesperhus Feriepark in 2013. A small handful of photographs showing this taxon in European collections have been uploaded to the Zoochat gallery, including the following image from Folly Farm, the penultimate collection in Europe to hold the taxon:



Four-eyed Opossum (Philander opossum) - last held at Plzen in 2012. Images of the final individual in Europe have been uploaded to the Zoochat gallery:



Northern Common Cuscus (Phalanger orientalis) - last held at Lille in 1999. No photographs of this taxon are on Zoochat.

Leadbeater's Possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) - last held at Poznan Nowe in 2000. A single image of one of the large breeding group held at ZSL London throughout the 1990s has been uploaded to the Zoochat gallery:



Mountain Pygmy Possum (Burramys parvus) - last held at Amazon World in 2001; this individual was, I believe, a customs seizure. The only image of this taxon on the Zoochat gallery is of a captive individual in Australia, although I am aware of at least one film photograph of the individual held in Europe in the collection of a Zoochatter.

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) - last held at Rotterdam in 1990. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in North America and Australia.

Rufous Bettong (Aepyprymnus rufescens) - last held at Opel-zoo in the mid-1990s, with a handful of other holdings in the early 1990s. There are no photographs of this taxon on the Zoochat gallery.

Doria's Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus dorianus) - last held at Twycross in 1995; despite once being relatively common in European collections the only image of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a captive group in Papua New Guinea.

Grizzled Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus inustus) - last held at Krefeld in 1992; the only image of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a captive individual in the USA.

Grey Dorcopsis (Dorcopsis luctuosa) - last held at Zoo-Vivarium Darmstadt in the early 1990s. There are no images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery.

Brown Dorcopsis (Dorcopsis muelleri) - a confusing case; Prague received what later transpired to be a combination of Brown and White-striped Dorcopsis in 2010, believing it to be a pure group of Brown Dorcopsis. The collection now holds only the White-striped, but it is unclear when exactly the true Brown Dorcopsis individuals passed away, or how many there were; however it appears at least one individual was still alive in 2011, as the following image which matches the appearance of this taxon is present in the Zoochat gallery:



Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby (Petrogale penicillata) - last held at South Lakes in 2007; despite once being relatively common in European collections the only images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of individuals in Australia.

Quokka (Setonix brachyurus) - last held at Blackpool in the early 1990s. A single photograph of the final individuals in Europe has been posted to the Zoochat gallery:



Red-bellied Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) - last held at Augsburg in 2004. No images of this taxon have been uploaded to the Zoochat gallery.


----

It is apparent, then, that quite a lot of marsupial diversity has been lost over the last 25 years - it is especially striking to note how many representatives of the Didelphidae have been lost, especially when one considers that the remaining taxa are only present in tiny dwindling amounts themselves. Hopefully some Zoochatters have photographs to share of some of these absent marsupials

virginia oppussum held at vogelbush eureka in the Netherlands

 

[TeaLovingDave]

white bellied sea eagle is kept at zooparc debeauval

virginia oppussum held at vogelbush eureka in the Netherlands

Much like the owl, these are recent developments - although a lot of "Virginia Opossum" in the private trade are actually misidentified White-eared Opossum so it is quite possible the arrival at Vogelbush Eureka belongs to this taxon.

Asian badger is held at a zoo in vladivostok.

Conversely, this is one I deliberately omitted - as I have already told you, other than Moscow and one or two other major collections I haven't been counting Russian collections as European for the purposes of this thread.

Given the fact Vladivostok is on the border of North Korea, this applies doubly-so for said collection

 

[ThylacineAlive]

You could just post everything at once instead of spamming the thread

~Thylo