Animals ZooChatters Have Seen Living Before Extinction

[Smaggledagle]

I've seen the "Animals that few ZooChatters have seen" thread, but I decided to branch off from that into this. Basically, if you saw it living before the entire species went extinct, then it counts. What doesn't count are taxidermied/dead/skeletal remains of certain extinct creatures.

Also, I will just keep a list from the other thread of which ZooChatters have seen before they went extinct so far.

1. Pinta Island tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii) seen by - Giant Eland
2. Rabbs' fringed-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) seen by - jayjds2 "supposedly"

I'm curious as to if anyone has seen an extinct animal before.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Really interesting thread topic, I'm intrigued to read some of the answers people will give.

Fortunately I have never seen a species before it went extinct.

 

[Yoshistar888]

I’m pretty sure @TeaLovingDave has seen some extinct Partula snails.

 

[Tetzoo Quizzer]

2 to my knowledge; Lonesome George on the Galapagos, and Slender-billed Curlew which I twitched in Morocco in the 1990s. Probably soon to be three; old enough to have seen Nortern White Rhino in London Zoo.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

2 to my knowledge; Lonesome George on the Galapagos, and Slender-billed Curlew which I twitched in Morocco in the 1990s. Probably soon to be three; old enough to have seen Nortern White Rhino in London Zoo.

The slender-billed curlew is believed to be extant though, right ?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

The slender-billed curlew is believed to be extant though, right ?

The reverse - it's believed to be extinct, but has not been officially designated so as yet.

 

[Tetzoo Quizzer]

I think it is Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) officially, but I don’t think anyone really thinks it is still extant except for a couple of optimistic “stringers”; birders who see more rare birds than common ones. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong, naturally!

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The reverse - it's believed to be extinct, but has not been officially designated so as yet.

I see...very sad indeed

I think it is Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) officially, but I don’t think anyone really thinks it is still extant except for a couple of optimistic “stringers”; birders who see more rare birds than common ones. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong, naturally!

Very lucky to have seen this Tetzoo Quizzer!

 

[Yoshistar888]

I think it is Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) officially, but I don’t think anyone really thinks it is still extant except for a couple of optimistic “stringers”; birders who see more rare birds than common ones. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong, naturally!

Personally I think there’s a chance of there being a few individuals out there.

But in most cases the IUCN is way too slow to declare a species formally extinct, there still species that haven’t been sighted since the late 1800s and early 1900s on there.

 

[Maguari]

It's a disputed taxon these days but I (and I'd imagine quite a few other Zoochatters) saw Cape Verde Kite (Milvus (milvus) fasciicauda) at Newent back in the day. There is ongoing dispute over whether this was a species, a subspecies or just a slightly weird island form of Red Kite. It was finished off by hybridisation with Black Kites. I'd have to check records but I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one now-extinct Partula as well (and Northern White Rhino on a few occasions, though they're not quite all gone of course). No others leap to mind.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I'd have to check records but I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one now-extinct Partula as well

Would this have been at ZSL ?

 

[Maguari]

Would this have been at ZSL ?

It would have been one of the UK holders that had them on show around 10-15 years ago if I recall - I'd need to go through notes to confirm but I'll try to check later.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

It would have been one of the UK holders that had them on show around 10-15 years ago if I recall - I'd need to go through notes to confirm but I'll try to check later.

Ah I see, I thought that for many partula snail species the only holder was ZSL.

 

[Tetzoo Quizzer]

From memory, Bristol, Chester and I think Jersey, as well as Nottingham University were also holders, but I may be wrong, and would not be surprised if there were others as well.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

From memory, Bristol, Chester and I think Jersey, as well as Nottingham University were also holders, but I may be wrong, and would not be surprised if there were others as well.

For animals that are so easy to keep I wouldn't be suprised either, but I do remember hearing that there was one (or perhaps a couple of) species that were only found ex-situ at ZSL / nowhere else in the world.

I really can't remember the name of these species though.

 

[Fallax]

Was it ZSL or Bristol where the incident occured which caused a bunch of Partula to die?

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Was it ZSL or Bristol where the incident occured which caused a bunch of Partula to die?

I think this would have been at ZSL.

 

[Maguari]

From memory, Bristol, Chester and I think Jersey, as well as Nottingham University were also holders, but I may be wrong, and would not be surprised if there were others as well.

Edinburgh and Marwell at the very least, if I recall.

 

[CheeseChameleon1945]

What about the Baji? There was one kept at an aquarium before its extinction was there not?

 

[birdsandbats]

When I was a toddler I was at SDZWAP when they had a Northern White Rhino. I probably saw it but I was too young to remember it now.