ZSL London Zoo Marine Iguanas and Mouse Deer at London Zoo in 1996?

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ZooNut23

Well-Known Member
I've said I saw a mouse deer and signs for Galapagos Marine Iguana at London Zoo in 1996, the latter with an enclosure boarded up because they were breeding and people have responded on here claiming "the records show" neither species were at the zoo at this time.

Does anyone else remember either being there? I don't feel like Internet or zoo records could be 100% correct at that time as it was pretty much during the time folk tales could become gospel
 
ZooNut23 said:
Galapagos Marine Iguana at London Zoo in 1996, the latter with an enclosure boarded up because they were breeding and people have responded on here claiming "the records show" neither species were at the zoo at this time.
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The fact that there is no record of this being the case is entirely secondary to the more pertinent fact that by the 1990s, all exports from the Galapagos were long-since illegal, with the only native Galapagos taxa present in zoological collections being those animals which were long-lived enough to predate the ban (giant tortoise) or dwindling highly-inbred populations doomed by lack of new blood (Galapagos dove).

Your claims would rely on London Zoo a) having obtained illegally-smuggled stock b) openly admitting to this fact and attempting to breed them and c) simultaneously keeping this fact so secret that no one but yourself was ever aware of it.

Given the fact that in 1996 the zoo had only just survived the closure crisis by the skin of their teeth a few years beforehand, the suggestion that their own record-keeping would be inaccurate and as reliable as "folk tales" - in direct contravention of zoo licencing requirements - is also highly suspect.
 
I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm sure the zoo kept accurate records and were doing everything by the book, it's just there's less information available from back then as we didn't have the internet to the extent we have now. When I said "zoo records" I didn't mean those belonging to the zoo itself. More online records and sites like this.

I was ten years old at the time, I just had it in my head for the last 27 years that's what they had then someone told me it wasn't the case. So I'm trying to solve a mystery.

What was in that exhibit at the time? Like I say it was the biggest tank at the very far end. Whatever was there was their star reptile attraction. If not marine iguanas it must have been another iguana type out of the ordinary.
 
ZooNut23 said:
I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm sure the zoo kept accurate records and were doing everything by the book, it's just there's less information available from back then as we didn't have the internet to the extent we have now. When I said "zoo records" I didn't mean those belonging to the zoo itself. More online records and sites like this.

I was ten years old at the time, I just had it in my head for the last 27 years that's what they had then someone told me it wasn't the case. So I'm trying to solve a mystery.

What was in that exhibit at the time? Like I say it was the biggest tank at the very far end. Whatever was there was their star reptile attraction. If not marine iguanas it must have been another iguana type out of the ordinary.
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They are 100% not marine iguana, you can believe members who have been visiting London Zoo for decades and kept meticulous notes on which species were kept. In addition London Zoo is quite good in keeping tabs on what they had, which is (even if it would contain errors) a much more reliable source than the memory of any 10 year old. Marine iguanas haven't been legally kept outside the Galapagos for many decades. So would be impossible anyway.

The species you might be thinking of could be rhinoceros iguana...
 
lintworm said:
They are 100% not marine iguana, you can believe members who have been visiting London Zoo for decades and kept meticulous notes on which species were kept. In addition London Zoo is quite good in keeping tabs on what they had, which is (even if it would contain errors) a much more reliable source than the memory of any 10 year old. Marine iguanas haven't been legally kept outside the Galapagos for many decades. So would be impossible anyway.

The species you might be thinking of could be rhinoceros iguana...
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Thanks. Doesn't seem quite as spectacular as what I thought was in there. From my memory there were hordes of people trying to get a look over or around the boards. I guess I probably took a basic memory and maybe my mind embellished it a bit over the years.

As for the mouse deer my brother who was 8 at the time also has a recollection of that. It was pacing around in circles in a small tank in the Clore. I understand they weren't kept that year. If not a mouse deer what could that have been?
 
ZooNut23 said:
What was in that exhibit at the time? Like I say it was the biggest tank at the very far end. Whatever was there was their star reptile attraction. If not marine iguanas it must have been another iguana type out of the ordinary.
Click to expand...
lintworm said:
The species you might be thinking of could be rhinoceros iguana...
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As I said previously, I don't believe London Zoo had marine iguana since 1934, so I think confusion with rhinoceros iguana is the most plausible explanation.

London Zoo had eight rhinoceros iguanas in 1996 and they were housed at the far end of the Reptile House (although not in the biggest exhibit as that was used for crocodilians).
 
Thanks both. Pretty sure about the rhinoceros iguana now. Less sure about the agouti...didn't seem to have the right build and like I say it was one individual.
 
Mark Kent said:
Just a thought - perhaps the animals you thought were mouse deer were either the agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) or acouchi (Myoprocta acouchy) then kept. The 1996 Annual Report records as of end of 1996 7 specimens of the former and 8 of the latter.
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ZooNut23 said:
Thanks both. Pretty sure about the rhinoceros iguana now. Less sure about the agouti...didn't seem to have the right build and like I say it was one individual.
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I agree that the agouti / acouchi explanation for the chevrotain is less convincing than the rhinoceros iguana explanation for the marine iguana.

Nevertheless, of all the many small mammals housed in the Clore Pavilion in 1996, these rodents seem the most likely candidate....
 
Tim May said:
I agree that the agouti / acouchi explanation for the chevrotain is less convincing than the rhinoceros iguana explanation for the marine iguana.

Nevertheless, of all the many small mammals housed in the Clore Pavilion in 1996, these rodents seem the most likely candidate....
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Agouti were also housed in the ditch surrounding the Casson during this period if I recall
 
Panthera1981 said:
Agouti were also housed in the ditch surrounding the Casson during this period if I recall
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Yes - I remember being convinced they were hyraxes when I was a kid in the 90s (due to the elephant-hyrax relationship), but found out they were agoutis long after the fact. Not actually sure how - maybe their mention in The Buildings of London Zoo? If so, I didn't find out until this year!
 
ralphthestick said:
Yes - I remember being convinced they were hyraxes when I was a kid in the 90s (due to the elephant-hyrax relationship), but found out they were agoutis long after the fact. Not actually sure how - maybe their mention in The Buildings of London Zoo? If so, I didn't find out until this year!
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How funny, I always thought they were hyraxes too when I was little, for the same reason!
 
Indeed they were “Orange-Rumped” Agoutis and arrived about 1987, about the same time as at least a pair of Rhinoceros Iguanas, which I think they may have bred a few, also about that time Chinese Alligator's arrived and also bred once. They seem to have a habit of breeding large reptiles once and then they slowly die out, just like the Philippines Crocs and Komodo Dragons, although they were by the immaculate conception (partheno-what’s it called)!
 
I recall I had a similar memory regarding London Zoo in 2021... but of a different way around.
Namely that I had memories from a few years ago from browsing Zootierliste, seeing that London had a Chinese Giant Salamander in the recent past, but not anymore. And so I had this registered in my memory that London had the species but not anymore... and so it was not a species that I expected to see.
But I will say - that I was pleasantly surprised to find the salamander in the reptile house after all that year!
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