Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
What laughing thrush species do they keep there?
Best collections in zoos
- Thread starter Luke da Zoo nerd
- Start date
What laughing thrush species do they keep there?
So does Tierpark Berlin, although it's shrinking.
That sounds amazing! It is great to see a zoo expand their collection, with so many especially in the US shrinking.
Plzen has greatly expanded its collection over the years.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
I’ll have a look on Zootierliste.
You can do that too
Not too keen on that site as it never appears to be very accurate.
It’s often the best (only!) source available.
Onychorhynchus coronatus
Well-Known Member
Yes, but I've several found inaccuracies on it before so I generally stopped using it in favour of either inside information from people working in zoos in Europe or asking on zoochat.
Would it be more useful for animals in terms of when they were kept? I mean animals that aren't at a zoo anymore. Zoo history.
Milwaukee County Zoo has one of the best collections, in my opinion, at the moment. They have three of the four great apes, basically all big cat species, hyenas, elephants, rhinos, hippos - as well as things like bears, caribou, tapirs, and other larger species. They also have tons of uncommon smaller species, as well as loads of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates.
True, but then again so do many large zoos around the country with the exception of hyena and to some extent caribou. Neighboring Brookfield has a better collection in my opinion with echidna, wombat, pangolins, and many more small mammals and reptiles. While the collection is good, comparatively there are still better, which is why I don't think it quite holds up in as one of the BEST collections in zoos.
That is true. I wouldn't say Milwaukee is terribly far behind. I personally enjoy Milwaukee over Brookfield, but it's just a personal preference over a collection-based one. (Plus, I'd pick seeing the bonobos over visiting Brookfield any day.)
In the end of the day, 'best collection' is definitely a question of preference, so I agree with you on that. A zoo can't really have the best collection if they are not displayed in an enjoyable way or if there are certain species not present.
I actually want to bring up Los Angeles. Instead of losing species like most zoos, they have been expanding their collection making them one of the best reptile and amphibian holders in America with the LAIR. They also gained Bald Ukaris and Mountain Tapirs in their newest South America exhibit. From looking at their master plan it looks like they will be expanding their mammal collection and make some strides in their Bird collection.
The Uakari and Mountain Tapir were both held at LA prior to Rainforest of the Americas opening, and the Tapir exhibit isn't even in ROTA
.As for LAIR, I'd agree that it's one of the best reptile exhibits in North America, but at around 60 species it isn't one of the very largest collections (still really, really nice though).
Ah I see. It can be difficult to know what animals Los Angles zoo has if you're not on ZooChat on account of the very messy overall layout of the zoo.The Uakari and Mountain Tapir were both held at LA prior to Rainforest of the Americas opening, and the Tapir exhibit isn't even in ROTA
imaginarius
Well-Known Member
It does seem that many major zoos across the US have lost, not gained, species in the past 10-20 years as they build better, larger habitats. St. Louis had around 650 taxa and 19,000 animals in 2012, now they have 555 and only 13,000. I have no idea which ones they dropped, but I’m guessing most were invertebrates and/or birds. You can’t just “lose” 6,000 animals, unless they’re bugs
At the moment there are 3 species of orang-utans and 2 species of gorillas, so there are not 4 great apes. Perhaps you should have put 'elephants, elephants, rhinos, hippos' along with the bears etc. Does Milwaukee County Zoo have African forest elephants, never mind Javan and Sumatran rhinos?
imaginarius
Well-Known Member
I think you know what he meant. Very few, if any, zoos keep all three orangutan species, and almost no zoos at all keep eastern gorillas. And in my experience, a zoo will hold a chimpanzee troop or a bonobo one, but not both. So are there any zoos at all that hold all 7 “great” apes, nevermind the “lesser” ones? I very highly doubt it.
Yeah there are no zoos that have all 7 great apes. For a start, there are probably no zoos with Tapanuli Orangutans, Eastern Gorilla are also only held in one facility (Antwerp) which obviously don’t have Tapanuli’s