Wild wild animals living on the zoo grounds

J

Jurek7

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
An offshoot from the post that wild Coypus live on the ponds of Dvur Kralove zoo.

What wild animals live on the grounds of zoos? Please, don't list all rats and mice, ducks, crows, pigeons, gulls, small songbirds and such. Tell of larger and rarer species, especially ones which count as legitimate zoo animals in other countries.

In the gallery, I found photos of a wild Capybara in Brasilia Zoo and wild Bald Eagles in Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
 
Roger Williams Park Zoo is known for having a lot of wildlife on grounds, but perhaps most interesting has been seeing a wild bald eagle... in a tree next to the bald eagle exhibit. There's a wild eagle known to hang out near the captive eagle exhibit, and it's really interesting to see the interactions/stares of the captive eagles towards the wild one.

At Detroit Zoo, I was really impressed by the amount of wildlife I saw on grounds, especially in the Amphibiville area, including great blue herons and my first ever time seeing green-winged teals.
 
Some of the more interesting ones I've seen:

-Blanding's Turtles can be found on the grounds of Detroit Zoo.

-Black-crowned Night-Herons seem to be common on the grounds of zoos, I've seen them at various facilities - most notably the massive breeding colony at Lincoln Park.

-I saw my lifer Western Cattle Egret at the now closed Glacier Ridge Animal Farm (a very hard bird to find in my part of the country).

-Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary is home to very large groups of American Black Duck.

-I saw my lifer Common Five-lined Skink on the grounds of the Toledo Zoo.

-Cincinnati Zoo is probably the most reliable place in North America for Common Wall Lizard.
 
- I saw a shrew inside of the Uroplatus giganteus exhibit at Zoo Zurich.
- My first ever grey heron in the penguin exhibit in Zoo Zurich.
 
Jurek7 said:
Tell of larger and rarer species, especially ones which count as legitimate zoo animals in other countries.
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In most cases, zoos generally try to exclude or discourage many such species, so I find your specific interest a bit odd. Many zoos here are in a constant battle to keep Red Foxes, Coyotes, Mountain Lions, etc off zoo grounds for the safety of the captive species. National legislation requires sturdy fencing all the way around a facility's perimeter to keep out predatory animals as much as possible, and places can and have been cited for wild animals breaching them. Equally, AZA regulations require designing exhibits to keep out predatory/disease-bearing species as much as possible.

birdsandbats said:
-Black-crowned Night-Herons seem to be common on the grounds of zoos, I've seen them at various facilities - most notably the massive breeding colony at Lincoln Park.
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They certainly seem fond of zoo grounds - I've seen them at multiple facilities as well. Even seen them soliciting handouts from people eating nearby.

Other species that come to mind would be Great Blue Herons, Great and Snowy Egrets, and the Green Heron (multiple facilities all). Turkey Vulture counts I suppose (as do the troublesome Black Vultures that plague some eastern facilities), along with Bald Eagle, and various hawks. Wild Turkey and California Quail as well. I have also seen Striped Skunk on grounds before, and just missed Gray Fox and Bobcat (all not at AZA accredited facilities.)
 
I've seen a wild striped field mouse in Berlin Zoo and red squirrels at the Berlin Tierpark.

I've seen gulls, grey herons, Egyptian geese and an Aesculapian snake at London Zoo.
 
Taronga Western Plains Zoo has a large number of wild animals in the grounds including many kangaroos. I have heard there are also wild wombats, although I have never seen these myself. I have seen a wild Rakali and even an emu once, though.
 
For me the most regular sightings would be Grey herons around waterfowl enclosures (seen this at Birdworld, Tilgate Nature Centre and British Wildlife Centre), Grey Squirrels and Common Moorhens (seen at Chessington Zoo and a few others). Did see a cormorant at Tilgate which was interesting.
 
Additionally.

Accra Zoo - Lesser Spot-Nose Monkey, Long-Tailed Glossy Starling, Green Turaco, Green Wood Hoopoe.

Kumasi Zoo - African Dwarf Crocodile, Straw-Coloured Fruit Bat, Hooded Vulture, Pied Crow, Senegal Coucal, Hamerkop, Woodland Kingfisher, Common Moorhen.
 
In Zoo Negara (Kuala Lumpur) I saw a troop of wild White-thighed langur. I believe Singapore Zoo has colugo living wild in the grounds and there must be many wild reptiles and birds in most South East Asian zoos.
 
How could I have forgotten about the massive colony of Franklin's Ground Squirrels on the grounds of Omaha! That's probably the most accessible and reliable spot on the planet to see this species in the wild.
 
Wisp O' Mist said:
I know ZooTampa occasionally has to relocate wild alligators found on it's grounds.
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Ha, yeah, it's Florida - if there is water there are gators. I removed them from my yard before as well. ZooTampa is close to the Hillsborough River and has other bodies of water on the zoo grounds.

ZooTampa also has wild cattle egrets, great egrets, great blue herons, occasionally nanaday and monk parakeets, yellow-crowned night heron, mix-mallard ducks, Muscovy ducks, and some others. As for reptiles they have wild Florida box turtle, gopher tortoise, various cooters and sliders.
 
Zoo Hannover has a breeding colony of cattle egrets near their boat ride but I don`t know if you can count them as wild since these animals are not found in Germany and therefore had been released their at some point... but they are still free flying without any kind of enclosure/aviary.

When I visited Dusit Zoo (now closed) Asian water monitors where everywhere. For example one was in a tiger enclosure and one was chilling in a water bowl for at the petting zoo.

Recently I also saw a video from Zoo-Erlebnis on Youtube at Safaripark Knuthenborg where apparently Ring-necked phesants are very common. In the video a tiger managed to kill one of the wild pheasents.
 
I would be very interested to learn if anybody has seen a wild hare at Whipsnade recently. During the 1970s and 1980s hares were very common at Whipsnade and I used to see them almost every visit but it's many years since I last saw a hare at Whipsnade.
 
RonBurrgundy said:
Recently I also saw a video from Zoo-Erlebnis on Youtube at Safaripark Knuthenborg where apparently Ring-necked phesants are very common. In the video a tiger managed to kill one of the wild pheasents.
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Yeah, tigers manage to get ahold of birds sometimes. I once saw a Sumatran tiger at ZooTampa catch a wild pigeon and eat it.
 
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