Zootierliste America

[Mr Gharial]

Zootierliste is a European website that keeps track of all the (vertebrate) species held in European zoos. Recently (as in: today) they expanded their range to worldwide.

ZTL already included a few non-European countries, most notably New Zealand and Singapore, but now also has America and Canada (and Australia, Mexico, etc). So I want to encourage you all to collect species lists for the zoos of North America.

Now, I'm not an official spokeperson of Zootierliste, but I have helped them with species lists before. So here's a quick guide of how you can help:

Send an email to mail@zootierliste.de, including the name and city of the zoo (Montreal Biodome in Montreal, Central Park Zoo in New York, etc), as well as the date of your visit. And of course, the species list for the zoo (preferably including Latin names as well). I'd suggest sending separate mails for separate zoos, to avoid confusion.

Just a species list is already helpful, but including additional information would be even better!
Here's some examples of additional information (and examples of the examples using my home zoo):
- Species amounts (Example: Burgers' Zoo currently has 1.1 Aardvarks and 0.0.50+ Redhead cichlids)
- Recent births (0.2 West Indian manatees were born in Burgers' Zoo in 2023) (unrecent births are also welcome of course)
- Separate group holdings (Burgers' Zoo has a breeding group of Blue-backed grassquits in Burgers' Bush and a male bachelor group in Burgers' Mangrove)
- Mixed species enclosures (The Black-tailed prairiedogs in Burgers' Desert are held with North American tree porcupines and Collared peccaries)
- Specific regions (The Javan bantengs are held in "Burgers' Rimba")
- Whether of not the species are signed or seen (0.0.1 Nile tilapia is held in Burgers' Bush (Seen, but not signed))
- Where the zoo has received the animals from (Burgers' Zoo received Baringo yellowfish from Wageninger University)
- In some cases, ZTL also likes to include names for certain large animals, but this is usually only in the case of animals like Elephants or Gorillas. I personally don't include them but you can if you want to

Here's how I usually format my emails to ZTL:


But again, any info is appreciated!

Hopefully we can all help expand Zootierliste to North American zoos in 2024! For now, happy zoo-ing!

 

[snowleopard]

Zootierliste going worldwide is a major announcement and hopefully this amazing news opens the floodgates to a surge of participation from zoo nerds across the globe. It has always seemed like such a daunting task to catalogue every species at every single zoological institution, but there's now a massive network of zoo nerds everywhere these days and so perhaps it can be done!

 

[Mr Gharial]

Hopefully this amazing news opens the floodgates to a surge of participation from zoo nerds across the globe.

I'm already seeing full species lists being implemented for Seoul, Johannesburg, San Diego, Bronx and Ueno zoo, among others. I'm also seeing that a few specific animals, such as the Japanese fox and Japanese giant salamander, have gotten lists of every zoo (in Japan) that holds them. Essentially the opposite approach, but still very helpful.

And that's just half a day after my call to arms, imagine how many additions there will be after a month or two!

 

[TinoPup]

I'm already seeing full species lists being implemented for Seoul, Johannesburg, San Diego, Bronx and Ueno zoo, among others. I'm also seeing that a few specific animals, such as the Japanese fox and Japanese giant salamander, have gotten lists of every zoo (in Japan) that holds them. Essentially the opposite approach, but still very helpful.

And that's just half a day after my call to arms, imagine how many additions there will be after a month or two!

There's definitely stuff wrong on the Bronx list, though.

 

[JVM]

Thank you so much. I saw the thread about the good news but since I hardly have used ZTL before I had no idea how to contribute.

Here's an important follow-up question -- is a PARTIAL species list worth sending or is it best to let someone else do that work with a more complete version later?

I've only done one full, intentional species list to date worth contribution which I hope to send later today!

 

[Mr Gharial]

Thank you so much. I saw the thread about the good news but since I hardly have used ZTL before I had no idea how to contribute.

Here's an important follow-up question -- is a PARTIAL species list worth sending or is it best to let someone else do that work with a more complete version later?

I've only done one full, intentional species list to date worth contribution which I hope to send later today!

A partial species list is absolutely worth sending as well! Currently the ZTL team is still setting up and trying to find info where-ever they can. For example, they've completed the list of the zoos that currently have W. L. Gorillas, but don't have a full (or partial) species list for those zoos. Meaning there's currently a lot of zoos with only one or two species listed.

So half a species list is perfectly acceptable, better than having a zoo that looks like it only has a single holding. Even if someone has to complete it later anyway, temporary information is still information. And this way, the next person with a species list might only have to make additions, rather than having to start from scratch

 

[biggest_dreamer]

This is incredibly exciting news to start off 2024. The species lists on this forum are invaluable tools and I have nothing but appreciation and respect for those who have compiled and maintain them, but the species-based ones (as opposed to the zoo-based ones) can be a bit difficult to navigate at times. Zootierliste isn’t without its own navigational issues, of course (I really wish you didn’t have to go through every individual subspecies to get a good grasp on the population when you’re only interested at the species level) but it’ll be great to have another resource. I just hope they’re going to be able to keep reasonably on top of the added workload.

I feel compelled to submit the few lists I have myself, but the only lists I have that are reasonably close to complete are all minor facilities that I’d hate to clog up the queue and delay more important additions.

 

[15399]

About how long does it take for updates sent to be added to Zootierliste? I obviously know it won't be instantaneous, but would like to know to ensure the updates I just sent are actually added. I sent two species lists already, and am planning to send more too.

Also- does Zootierliste have a way to "report" an incorrect holding? Currently Roger Williams Park Zoo is listed as having Connochaetes taurinus taurinus, when their wildebeest are actually C.t.albojubatus.

 

[TinoPup]

A partial species list is absolutely worth sending as well! Currently the ZTL team is still setting up and trying to find info where-ever they can. For example, they've completed the list of the zoos that currently have W. L. Gorillas, but don't have a full (or partial) species list for those zoos. Meaning there's currently a lot of zoos with only one or two species listed.

So half a species list is perfectly acceptable, better than having a zoo that looks like it only has a single holding. Even if someone has to complete it later anyway, temporary information is still information. And this way, the next person with a species list might only have to make additions, rather than having to start from scratch

I'd really like to help, and I have a lot of lists (and a list of facilities...), but it seems like they're letting anyone edit stuff now and a lot of incorrect info is already getting through

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Ooh, yeah, at a glance I immediately see that Ueno has aoudad listed when their last individual passed away recently.

I wonder what the best practice for the age of lists should be. For some facilities, a year-old list might still be almost totally accurate. But at the same time, in this case a list from a month ago is already outdated. I guess it can’t be helped, generally speaking, and hopefully things will even out in time, especially once the novelty wears off.

 

[JVM]

I will be sending two lists tonight for fairly minor US facilities (Henson Robinson, Racine)

I'll withhold on the larger facilities for the moment as I've never made an intentional 'species list' for one of the larger ones... if they remain blank for a while I may provide what I can, but hopefully someone better-informed beats me to the punch.

Ooh, yeah, at a glance I immediately see that Ueno has aoudad listed when their last individual passed away recently.

I wonder what the best practice for the age of lists should be. For some facilities, a year-old list might still be almost totally accurate. But at the same time, in this case a list from a month ago is already outdated. I guess it can’t be helped, generally speaking, and hopefully things will even out in time, especially once the novelty wears off.

I think it will even out! I have been involved in wiki projects before (including as an administrator) which can be even less structured and definitive than something like this, and the logic I applied often was... if you send me a list of 200 animals, and someone sends me a correction that one animal has died, you still helped us with 199 animals... as long as we know Zootierliste will roll with intelligent corrections, which I'm sure all of us on zoochat would be more than happy to help with, we'll get there in no time!

 

[15399]

Is there a way to report a missing zoo? Disney's Animal Kingdom isn't coming up in the zoo list.

 

[TinoPup]

Is there a way to report a missing zoo? Disney's Animal Kingdom isn't coming up in the zoo list.

It hasn't been a day yet, there's going to be missing places

 

[15399]

It hasn't been a day yet, there's going to be missing places

I'm aware, I just was wondering if there was somewhere to report it as missing so those in charge know where to add just trying to be helpful

 

[JVM]

I'm aware, I just was wondering if there was somewhere to report it as missing so those in charge know where to add just trying to be helpful

In the other thread on the subject, it was mentioned:

If you find any errors, want to add more facilities, or need new species, then write to us on the notice board or a mail to mail@zootierliste.de, and we will address the issue.

I went back to make sure it was the same e-mail Mr. Gharial mentioned for sending population lists so I assume it is good for all purposes! Good to include in this thread in case anyone stumbles on one but not the other.

 

[CGSwans]

Even if it likely never quite achieves the same reach as Europe, this is a transformative development. Congratulations to all involved.

 

[lintworm]

I'd really like to help, and I have a lot of lists (and a list of facilities...), but it seems like they're letting anyone edit stuff now and a lot of incorrect info is already getting through

That is always going to be the issue with a tool like Zootierliste. The best way to prevent it, is to create an account yourself and curate what you 100% certain known is wrong.

It is far nicer for the people running Zootierliste if people create accounts themselves and start editing themselves, instead of having 100s of e-mails with lists. The people running Zootierliste are only volunteers with a big pet project.

 

[JVM]

That is always going to be the issue with a tool like Zootierliste. The best way to prevent it, is to create an account yourself and curate what you 100% certain known is wrong.

It is far nicer for the people running Zootierliste if people create accounts themselves and start editing themselves, instead of having 100s of e-mails with lists. The people running Zootierliste are only volunteers with a big pet project.

I did not realize it was open to editing by anyone with an account, that would certainly make things easier than e-mailing every species list! Thank you for clarifying. I've only used Zootierliste once or twice before since I wasn't ready to dive too deep into Europe. (I couldn't handle the envy!)

 

[pachyderm pro]

For those who don’t want to stall the process of getting the larger collections submitted by adding smaller places, simply adding them in yourself would be a good alternative. I’ve already put a sizable dent into Brookfield’s holdings and will definitely do some other local collections when I get the chance. It’ll take some time, but I’m confident we can cover the North American collections just as well as our European counterparts. It’s really amazing that we can now compile so much important info in one space and it’ll be cool to directly compare the number of holders for certain species on both sides of the pond.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

As a general heads-up, I've been methodically going through a comprehensive 1969 mammal stocklist for San Diego Zoo which I was fortunate enough to obtain about a decade ago, adding all of the species and subpecies mentioned within to the former holdings for said collection - naturally, however, some of these taxa will be still present now, or have returned to the collection since the 1960s.

As such, if anyone on here ends up updating the present holdings for San Diego Zoo at some point, make sure you double-check the former holdings for any species you add first in case I already added it to the collection, in which case all you need do is add the present-day information and switch the holding to "current" the last thing we want to do is add more work for the ZTL admins by making them have to mop up duplicate listings for the same collection!