These places always make me surprised about some species they keep. Would like to know more about them indeed.
Species formerly kept in Brazil
Many breeding facilities keep animals (specially birds) that most (if not all) zoos in the country don't have. Some examples include the chukar partridge and the Himalayan monal.
Have we already mentioned here about the wisents? I think I fastly mentioned them in a previous post in this thread, but I think it would be interesting to discuss a little more about them and share our knowledges about the individuals and zoos that kept the species, as they are considerably rare, and a considerable amount of zoos in the country kept them, and they simply disappeared.
Last edited:
I have them on my list, they were kept in a fair amount of locations: São Paulo (Safari Park included), São Paulo Safari Park (I probably saw one at the São Paulo zoo as well) and Curitiba.
They were also kept in BH in the beggining of the 2000's, and also in Brasilia until a few years ago. Actually, the oldest individual of the species in the world was a female that lived in our federal capital.
Ah, yes. Brasília, I forgot to mention it. Also, did Belo Horizonte actually have wisent? I didn't know that. Where were they kept?
There's a gray wolf (Canis lupus, from the European subspecies) in Brazil. It's a female and she lives in the house of the millionaire Eduardo Foz, along with more than a 100 other animals. According to Zoofoz's (his zoo is called Zoofoz and I believe it's open to the general public) Instagram account, she was donated by a breeding facility, so there might be other specimens in the country. Therefore, gray wolves (Canis lupus, could be from any subspecies) are out of the list.
Last edited:
São Paulo zoo kept cheetahs too, in the exhibit in this picture from my last visit (it's the present maned wolf enclosure, beside the warthog exhibit).
Attachments
Ah, I've heard about this mini zoo. I've seen some posts on their instagram account a few months ago, but didn't know they had wolves. Also wondering from wich facility she came from...
Yeah, my mom filmed the wisents at BH in the year 2000. They probably lived in the hoofstock corridor, and three individuals appear on the footage. There's a chance that I saw them once or twice, once I first visited the zoo in 2005, but I was too young to remember details. Gonna look for this footage and post it here.
@Enzo , you were right about the giraffes. The species kept in Brazil are only south african and rotschild ones. The recent lineage of BH's giraffes came from South Africa in 1990. Before this date, there was no giraffe breeding at the zoo. After that, at least three giraffes were born there, being "Ayana" sent to zooparque Itatiba, a male that was sent to Beto Carrero, and the female "Yaza", that is currently living at Brasilia zoo, and was exchanged with the female "Ana Raio", due to genetic aspects (avoid consanguinity, once the only male at the place was her father "Rafiki").
Hook-lipped/black rhinos have been kept at three facilities in the country: the Rio de Janeiro zoo (2 males, 3 females (Cacareco included)), the São Paulo zoo (2 males, 2 females (Cacareco included)) and the Sapucaia do Sul/Porto Alegre zoo (2 males, 2 females (Cacareco included)). Does anyone want to know their names and when they were imported/moved/born?
Last edited:
Here are some pictures of the visit in 2000 to BH zoo that I mentioned. Still looking for the footage, but we can have some ideas. Also found images of other animals that were kept there at the time:
The wisents
A white bactrian camel (nowadays only the regular colored one is living at the institution).
Eland antelopes
The wisents
A white bactrian camel (nowadays only the regular colored one is living at the institution).
Eland antelopes
Attachments
Interesting animals. Will you send the whole video?
Yeah, still looking for the footage. My mom must find it tomorrow in old devices she's got.
Also, I found a picture she took in a visit in 1995/1996, in wich the first giraffe that ever lived at the zoo appears. It may sound weird, but I'm suspecting it was a rotschild one. I asked a person from the zoo's crew, but the subspecies couldn't be identified by her. I'll let it here and at the animal identification gallery to see if someone can help.
Attachments
I tend to think it's just a lighter regular sheep, but who knows...
Also, I'm curious about where it is/was located this jaguar exhibit that appears in the video. Do you know if it's still standing?
Sorry for the late response, but no it's not standing. I believe it was either located in an area that was part of the zoo before the Quinta da Boa Vista got smaller (it shrunk its size a lot since the video was recorded) or in the area between the former feline/primate enclosures and the deer park (now called Aventura Selvagem).