Many of those reading this forum will be familiar with my prior thread on this subject, focusing on those species lost from European collections since 1990; this thread was intended both to showcase the species which had been lost, and to encourage members of the forum to upload photographs of the species in question to the Zoochat gallery where possible. The latter was a particular priority, as the Great Purge of the gallery several years previously had resulted in the loss of many images showing bygone captive species holdings, and my hope was that anyone who had seen the animals in question would be able to upload/reupload photographs.
In recent years, the thread has become somewhat outdated - both due to further losses and species which have returned to European public collections - and I had been mulling over the logistics of providing an update for some time. However, just before the New Year I was directly asked in-thread about whether an update would be possible, and came to a decision:
I fear that this reimagined thread will be rather less likely to elicit new photographic uploads to the gallery - both because the number of forum members who have been actively visiting zoological collections for multiple decades is less than it had been, and because the original thread managed to prompt a fairly decent number of uploads. However, there is always a chance that newer members may have nabbed photographs of oddities which have been missed thus far!
One note - for the purposes of this thread, only those Russian collections which are indisputably located in Europe will be counted when determining whether a species is eligible for consideration or not. Similarly, if a species solely is listed on ZTL as solely surviving within a Ukrainian collection which is located within regions which have been occupied by Russian forces it will also be cited here as a potential loss.
In recent years, the thread has become somewhat outdated - both due to further losses and species which have returned to European public collections - and I had been mulling over the logistics of providing an update for some time. However, just before the New Year I was directly asked in-thread about whether an update would be possible, and came to a decision:
Funnily enough it's definitely something I've considered of late, although the thread would take a *LOT* of updating - both because of further losses, and some which we have regained!
I may well start afresh with a sequel thread starting from 2000 onwards - this would both avoid rehashing old ground and the need to remove regained species, and prevent the issues which a vague and unfixed point like "the last quarter-of-a-century" would have caused had I not chosen to ignore them and keep this thread fixed to a 1990 starting point even several years in!
I fear that this reimagined thread will be rather less likely to elicit new photographic uploads to the gallery - both because the number of forum members who have been actively visiting zoological collections for multiple decades is less than it had been, and because the original thread managed to prompt a fairly decent number of uploads. However, there is always a chance that newer members may have nabbed photographs of oddities which have been missed thus far!
One note - for the purposes of this thread, only those Russian collections which are indisputably located in Europe will be counted when determining whether a species is eligible for consideration or not. Similarly, if a species solely is listed on ZTL as solely surviving within a Ukrainian collection which is located within regions which have been occupied by Russian forces it will also be cited here as a potential loss.
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