Snowleopard's Mammals: A Lifetime List of Species Mammalian and Non-Mammalian

Pacas are around in reasonable numbers in Europe, and I've seen them on a few occassions. Most recently last april in Karlsruhe, where they share an enclosure with squirrel monkeys.

I've seen woodchucks in 2 European zoos, Berlin Zoo and Prague Zoo. Both do no longer keep them, but the enclosures still exist. In Berlin, the woodchucks lived in one of the alpine marmot enclosures, in Prague they lived together with tree porcupines.

These days, the marmot enclosure in Berlin should house bobak marmots. I might go back there in april, so I am hoping to see the species (if they're awake yet!)
 
ralph said:
Pacas are around in reasonable numbers in Europe, and I've seen them on a few occassions. Most recently last april in Karlsruhe, where they share an enclosure with squirrel monkeys.

I've seen woodchucks in 2 European zoos, Berlin Zoo and Prague Zoo. Both do no longer keep them, but the enclosures still exist. In Berlin, the woodchucks lived in one of the alpine marmot enclosures, in Prague they lived together with tree porcupines.

These days, the marmot enclosure in Berlin should house bobak marmots. I might go back there in april, so I am hoping to see the species (if they're awake yet!)
Click to expand...
They house bobac marmots? The ones that contributed to the spread of the bubonic plague?

I've only seen a groundhog officially housed in a zoo a couple times but I've seen wild groundhogs more often like one in the flamingo enclosure at Roger Williams Park zoo. I don't believe I've ever seen a paca yet
 
snowleopard said:
That was an interesting discussion about Prairie Dogs (116 zoos) yesterday, which makes me think that there's a small possibility that I perhaps once saw a species other than Black-tailed. But who really knows...

I will analyze TWO species today.

Lowland Pacas have been a very rare species for me, with 8 out of my 11 sightings coming between 2017 and 2019. They seem to pop up in haphazard locations, whether it's a couple of obscure American zoos, or in a brand-new exhibit in a German zoo, or even twice in Southeast Asia. There's no rhyme or reason to their appearances, the AZA in North America pretty much abandoned the species ages ago, and yet there's around 50 zoos in the world with Lowland Pacas so they aren't as rare as I would have guessed.

Almost unheard of in European collections, my Woodchuck sightings have been almost entirely on 3 road trips (2014, 2015 and 2018) when I was mostly focused on cold-weather, northern USA zoos. I saw a whopping ELEVEN zoos with Woodchucks in the space of a couple of weeks in the summer of 2018, because if you visit zoos in Michigan and Wisconsin like I did then you will see Woodchucks at least once or twice a day. People living there must see them occasionally in the wild, by the side of highways or even in a backyard. It's very much a geographical quirk though, because outside of that part of the world this species is very rare in captivity and there's only around 30 zoos with Woodchucks in the world.

I've seen Lowland Pacas at 11 zoos:

1- San Diego Zoo Safari Park (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2011
2- Los Angeles Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2017
3- Wildlife Learning Center (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2017
4- Toledo Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
5- Washington Park Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
6- Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
7- Zoo Neuwied (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
8- Duisburg Zoo (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
9- Berlin Tierpark (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
10- Monsters Aquarium (Thailand) – Lowland Paca – 2024
11- Chiang Mai Zoo (Thailand) – Lowland Paca – 2024

AND...

I've seen Woodchucks at 18 zoos:

2018 = 11 zoos

1- Toronto Zoo (Canada) – Woodchuck – 2008
2- Wildwood Wildlife Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
3- DeYoung Family Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
4- Clay Center Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
5- Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2015
6- West Coast Game Park Safari (USA) – Woodchuck – 2015
7- Wilderness Walk Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
8- GarLyn Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
9- Wilderness Trails Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
10- Howell Nature Center: Wild Wonders Wildlife Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
11- Willowbrook Wildlife Center (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
12- Animal Gardens Petting Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
13- Bear Den Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
14- Shalom Wildlife Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
15- Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
16- Special Memories Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
17- Zollman Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
18- Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2023

San Diego Zoo Safari Park (USA) had Lowland Pacas at least between 2010-2012 and perhaps longer, in two different locations within the park. There was an exhibit for the species in the Condor Ridge area, as well as an exhibit next to the Wings of the World aviary near the zoo's entrance. I don't think there's been Lowland Pacas there for many years now.

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@Otter Lord

Black Howler Monkey/Lowland Paca exhibit at Los Angeles Zoo (USA), in the Rainforest of the Americas zone.

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@Coelacanth18

I then saw a couple of Lowland Pacas at the Wildlife Learning Center (USA) in California (my photo of the exhibit is in the gallery) and Toledo Zoo (USA) kept the species with Emperor Tamarins in the historic, 1930s-era Aviary building.

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@Moebelle

Washington Park Zoo (USA) is a neat little place with a whole bunch of 1930s-era architecture and this small Indiana zoo had Lowland Pacas when I was there in 2018.

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Inside the slightly industrial, yet still excellent, South America House at Neuwied Zoo (Germany) can be found a Lowland Paca/Tamandua exhibit and it was wonderful to see those species together when I toured the zoo in 2019.

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The species has left Duisburg Zoo (Germany) now, but when I visited in 2019 the Rio Negros house not only had an Amazon River Dolphin but also a Lowland Paca.

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@Maguari

I have a photo of a sleeping Lowland Paca at Monsters Aquarium (Thailand) in the gallery, as well as a shot of the all-indoor exhibit.

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At Chiang Mai Zoo (Thailand), a couple of Lowland Pacas were kept in an old-fashioned cement 'pit' with some potted plants and rocks. You can see a paca in my photo:

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As for Woodchucks, you can see a couple of them in this tiny cage at Wildwood Wildlife Park (USA). The cage was right near the zoo's entrance, in amongst an area with animals that could be taken out and petted by staff and visitors. Seems sketchy to me!

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It's not difficult to see Woodchucks in many crappy American zoos, as they are often kept in tiny cages such as this one at DeYoung Family Zoo (USA). A Woodchuck is eating from its silver food dish in my photo.

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Another abomination of a cage for a Woodchuck, with the animal hiding in a metal pipe at Clay Center Zoo (USA). There's nowhere to dig...

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This exhibit is a little better, but the rocky outcrop in the middle would be useless for a burrowing animal such as a Woodchuck. I took this photo at Wilderness Walk Zoo (USA):

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GarLyn Zoo (USA) had a small wire cage for a Woodchuck that was full of branches and previously would have held a different species. I noted that the Woodchuck was an albino specimen.

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Wilderness Trails Zoo (USA) had a heavily fortified Woodchuck exhibit in 2018:

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The best Woodchuck exhibit I've ever seen was at the obscure Howell Nature Center: Wild Wonders Wildlife Park (USA). Perhaps at one time there was a trio of wood and wire cages, but when I toured this zoo in 2018 all three enclosures were joined to form one large Woodchuck exhibit. Also, visitors could crawl through that open door and there was an exit 15 feet away, but while inside that tunnel it was possible to get close-up views of the zoo's Woodchucks. It was kind of neat!

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Why is it that SIX of the zoos I've seen Woodchucks at all begin with the letter "W"? A curious statistic! Willowbrook Wildlife Center (USA) is the latest:

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@pachyderm pro

Another small cage, this time with a green kiddie pool, for a Woodchuck at Bear Den Zoo (USA):

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At Shalom Wildlife Zoo (USA), my perception was that the Woodchuck was confined to the tiny metal cage in the center of the rusty circle. And yet there's all that forest as a backdrop...

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A now permanently closed naff little roadside facility, Special Memories Zoo (USA) had a Woodchuck when the place was open.

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You can see a Woodchuck curled up in its all-cement indoor exhibit at Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA):

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Rodents: 6 species so far (and not many more to go!)

Prairie Dog - 116 zoos
North American Beaver - 35 zoos
Nutria - 24 zoos
Woodchuck - 18 zoos
Lowland Paca - 11 zoos
Eurasian Beaver - 6 zoos
Click to expand...
Pacas are widely bred for their meat in Brazil. However, they are surprisingly rare at zoos. The only two places I have seen them since 2021 were Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

At my local zoo, the paca is so good at hiding I have only seen it twice. I have nicknamed it "Schrödinger" because I don't even know if it is still alive (although lowland pacas were signed on my last visit).

The pacas in BH were sleeping, so I did not get any good photos.

Lastly, I was supposed to see pacas at Animália Park, though they were no-shows. Taking my lack of luck with the species, that was quite to be expected.

In regards to woodchucks, I've never been close to seeing one. I guess they are almost (if not) exclusive to North America.

I guess you have never seen a pacarana before. Neither have I, although they have been held at a multitude of Brazilian zoos.
 
What is now the box turtle exhibit in the Maryland Wilderness at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore was designed and opened as a woodchuck exhibit, and looked very attractive as one. Unfortunately, it failed the first duty of being an exhibit - keeping the animals in - and it seems that the exhibit planners grossly underestimated the jumping abilities of woodchucks. There's a photo of the exhibit in Nyhuis's first edition of "The Zoo Book" that shows a visitor in one of the bubbles (very much like what you seen in prairie dog exhibits) looking at a woodchuck. Must've been a photo taken shortly after the exhibit opened.

@Enzo , pacarana were present in the US in small numbers, but the last one died I believe in the early 2010s. I saw the species in San Diego in the early 2000s - one of many species that I wish I'd known I wouldn't be seeing again any time soon. It didn't even occur to me to photograph it. I was hoping to find one in the wild earlier this year, and found paca, but not pacarana.
 
Pacas are not common in Mexican zoos either. I have only seen them at 3 collections. They are shy nocturnal animals that are not considered good exhibit animals by many zoos here.
 
snowleopard said:
That was an interesting discussion about Prairie Dogs (116 zoos) yesterday, which makes me think that there's a small possibility that I perhaps once saw a species other than Black-tailed. But who really knows...

I will analyze TWO species today.

Lowland Pacas have been a very rare species for me, with 8 out of my 11 sightings coming between 2017 and 2019. They seem to pop up in haphazard locations, whether it's a couple of obscure American zoos, or in a brand-new exhibit in a German zoo, or even twice in Southeast Asia. There's no rhyme or reason to their appearances, the AZA in North America pretty much abandoned the species ages ago, and yet there's around 50 zoos in the world with Lowland Pacas so they aren't as rare as I would have guessed.

Almost unheard of in European collections, my Woodchuck sightings have been almost entirely on 3 road trips (2014, 2015 and 2018) when I was mostly focused on cold-weather, northern USA zoos. I saw a whopping ELEVEN zoos with Woodchucks in the space of a couple of weeks in the summer of 2018, because if you visit zoos in Michigan and Wisconsin like I did then you will see Woodchucks at least once or twice a day. People living there must see them occasionally in the wild, by the side of highways or even in a backyard. It's very much a geographical quirk though, because outside of that part of the world this species is very rare in captivity and there's only around 30 zoos with Woodchucks in the world.

I've seen Lowland Pacas at 11 zoos:

1- San Diego Zoo Safari Park (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2011
2- Los Angeles Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2017
3- Wildlife Learning Center (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2017
4- Toledo Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
5- Washington Park Zoo (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
6- Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium (USA) – Lowland Paca – 2018
7- Zoo Neuwied (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
8- Duisburg Zoo (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
9- Berlin Tierpark (Germany) – Lowland Paca – 2019
10- Monsters Aquarium (Thailand) – Lowland Paca – 2024
11- Chiang Mai Zoo (Thailand) – Lowland Paca – 2024

AND...

I've seen Woodchucks at 18 zoos:

2018 = 11 zoos

1- Toronto Zoo (Canada) – Woodchuck – 2008
2- Wildwood Wildlife Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
3- DeYoung Family Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
4- Clay Center Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2014
5- Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2015
6- West Coast Game Park Safari (USA) – Woodchuck – 2015
7- Wilderness Walk Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
8- GarLyn Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
9- Wilderness Trails Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
10- Howell Nature Center: Wild Wonders Wildlife Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
11- Willowbrook Wildlife Center (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
12- Animal Gardens Petting Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
13- Bear Den Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
14- Shalom Wildlife Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
15- Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
16- Special Memories Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
17- Zollman Zoo (USA) – Woodchuck – 2018
18- Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA) – Woodchuck – 2023

San Diego Zoo Safari Park (USA) had Lowland Pacas at least between 2010-2012 and perhaps longer, in two different locations within the park. There was an exhibit for the species in the Condor Ridge area, as well as an exhibit next to the Wings of the World aviary near the zoo's entrance. I don't think there's been Lowland Pacas there for many years now.

full


@Otter Lord

Black Howler Monkey/Lowland Paca exhibit at Los Angeles Zoo (USA), in the Rainforest of the Americas zone.

full


@Coelacanth18

I then saw a couple of Lowland Pacas at the Wildlife Learning Center (USA) in California (my photo of the exhibit is in the gallery) and Toledo Zoo (USA) kept the species with Emperor Tamarins in the historic, 1930s-era Aviary building.

full


@Moebelle

Washington Park Zoo (USA) is a neat little place with a whole bunch of 1930s-era architecture and this small Indiana zoo had Lowland Pacas when I was there in 2018.

full


Inside the slightly industrial, yet still excellent, South America House at Neuwied Zoo (Germany) can be found a Lowland Paca/Tamandua exhibit and it was wonderful to see those species together when I toured the zoo in 2019.

full


The species has left Duisburg Zoo (Germany) now, but when I visited in 2019 the Rio Negros house not only had an Amazon River Dolphin but also a Lowland Paca.

full


@Maguari

I have a photo of a sleeping Lowland Paca at Monsters Aquarium (Thailand) in the gallery, as well as a shot of the all-indoor exhibit.

full


At Chiang Mai Zoo (Thailand), a couple of Lowland Pacas were kept in an old-fashioned cement 'pit' with some potted plants and rocks. You can see a paca in my photo:

full


As for Woodchucks, you can see a couple of them in this tiny cage at Wildwood Wildlife Park (USA). The cage was right near the zoo's entrance, in amongst an area with animals that could be taken out and petted by staff and visitors. Seems sketchy to me!

full


It's not difficult to see Woodchucks in many crappy American zoos, as they are often kept in tiny cages such as this one at DeYoung Family Zoo (USA). A Woodchuck is eating from its silver food dish in my photo.

full


Another abomination of a cage for a Woodchuck, with the animal hiding in a metal pipe at Clay Center Zoo (USA). There's nowhere to dig...

full


This exhibit is a little better, but the rocky outcrop in the middle would be useless for a burrowing animal such as a Woodchuck. I took this photo at Wilderness Walk Zoo (USA):

full


GarLyn Zoo (USA) had a small wire cage for a Woodchuck that was full of branches and previously would have held a different species. I noted that the Woodchuck was an albino specimen.

full


Wilderness Trails Zoo (USA) had a heavily fortified Woodchuck exhibit in 2018:

full


The best Woodchuck exhibit I've ever seen was at the obscure Howell Nature Center: Wild Wonders Wildlife Park (USA). Perhaps at one time there was a trio of wood and wire cages, but when I toured this zoo in 2018 all three enclosures were joined to form one large Woodchuck exhibit. Also, visitors could crawl through that open door and there was an exit 15 feet away, but while inside that tunnel it was possible to get close-up views of the zoo's Woodchucks. It was kind of neat!

full


Why is it that SIX of the zoos I've seen Woodchucks at all begin with the letter "W"? A curious statistic! Willowbrook Wildlife Center (USA) is the latest:

full


@pachyderm pro

Another small cage, this time with a green kiddie pool, for a Woodchuck at Bear Den Zoo (USA):

full


At Shalom Wildlife Zoo (USA), my perception was that the Woodchuck was confined to the tiny metal cage in the center of the rusty circle. And yet there's all that forest as a backdrop...

full


A now permanently closed naff little roadside facility, Special Memories Zoo (USA) had a Woodchuck when the place was open.

full


You can see a Woodchuck curled up in its all-cement indoor exhibit at Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA):

full


Rodents: 6 species so far (and not many more to go!)

Prairie Dog - 116 zoos
North American Beaver - 35 zoos
Nutria - 24 zoos
Woodchuck - 18 zoos
Lowland Paca - 11 zoos
Eurasian Beaver - 6 zoos
Click to expand...
We all know Detroit zoo is the best woodchuck exhibit… right? :p
 
Enzo said:
I guess you have never seen a pacarana before. Neither have I, although they have been held at a multitude of Brazilian zoos
Click to expand...
Unfortunately pacaranas are seldom seen in zoos, although I did see the species on a number of occasions in the old Nocturnal House at Bristol Zoo back in the 1980s; I also saw pacarana at Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, in 1987.
 
Now that we've hit 100 pages on this thread, in a single year (!!), it's time to look at 'Mole-Rats' and porcupines, maybe a couple of others, and then probably pack it in as I don't have data on loads of other small rodents and I've seen a million Greater Capybaras and Maras and don't even want to bother with those species.

When it comes to showcasing some kind of Mole-Rat in a zoo, quite often the style of exhibit comes down to two options. The first is to have clear, see-through acrylic/glass tunnels and den areas that are completely transparent and offer up fantastic viewing for visitors, but are also quite fake looking and they remind me of what I used to construct for my pet hamsters as a kid.

The second option is to have the clear tunnels and den areas, but to incorporate some sort of mock-rock facade to make it a bit more immersive. This 'naturalistic' appearance is still fake, but offers up a sense of what the underground environment is like for the dirt-dwelling rodents.

I've seen 'Mole-Rats' at 41 zoos and 45 exhibits and 5 species (38 Naked, 4 Damaraland, 1 Ansell’s, 1 Mechow’s, 1 Zambian)

4 zoos = 2 species

1- San Diego Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2006
2- Lincoln Park Zoo - Illinois (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
3- Brookfield Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
4- Toronto Zoo (Canada) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
5- Bronx Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
6- Smithsonian’s National Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
7- Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
8- Memphis Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat– 2008
9- Zoo Atlanta (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
10- Disney’s Animal Kingdom (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
11- Point Defiance Zoo (USA) – Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
12- Oregon Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
13- Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
14- Louisville Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
15- Philadelphia Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
16- Riverbanks Zoo & Garden (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
17- Audubon Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
18- Houston Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
19- Dallas Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
20- ABQ BioPark Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
21- Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2011
22- Erie Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
23- Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
24- Little Rock Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
25- Peoria Zoo (USA) – Zambian Giant Mole-Rat – 2014
26- Scovill Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
27- Henson Robinson Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
28- Lincoln Children’s Zoo - Nebraska (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
29- Pueblo Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
30- Pacific Science Center (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
31- Toledo Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2018
32- Pairi Daiza (Belgium) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
33- Wuppertal Zoo (Germany) – Ansell’s Mole-Rat – 2019
34- Aquazoo Lobbecke Museum (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
35- Berlin Tierpark (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
36- Osnabruck Zoo (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat, Mechow’s Mole-Rat – 2019
37- Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Netherlands) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
38- Randers Regnskov (Denmark) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2022
39- Terrariet Reptile Zoo (Denmark) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2022
40- The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2023
41- Singapore Zoo (Singapore) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2024

Ugly or cute? Hmmm...I'll go with ugly as my response. ;)
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@Dianamonkey

The first time I ever saw a pile of little Naked Mole-Rats was in the Discovery Outpost Children's Nursey at San Diego Zoo (USA). There was an original exhibit for the species, then I think the one in the photo below was a new one built later on, and of course now there's a really new Naked Mole-Rat exhibit inside the $90 million Wildlife Explorers Basecamp complex. How times have changed:

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@geomorph

A mock-rock wall of Naked-Mole Rat 'burrows' at Brookfield Zoo (USA), inside the Fragile Desert building.

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@geomorph

When I was at Philadelphia Zoo (USA) in 2010, within the building known as the Rare Animal Conservation Centre, there was an excellent Naked Mole-Rat exhibit. It's fun to go from tiny hole to hole in order to locate the rodents in this kind of setup.

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Elsewhere at Philadelphia Zoo (USA), this time inside the Small Mammal House, was an exhibit for Damaraland Mole-Rats and Bushy-tailed Jirds.

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Dallas Zoo (USA) had a wood-paneled Naked Mole-Rat exhibit in the Children's Zoo when I visited in 2010 and 2015. It had a mine shaft vibe.

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Going with the clear tunnel, non-naturalistic look for Naked Mole-Rats is the exhibit at Erie Zoo (USA).

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@fkalltheway

"Naked Mole-Rats...not your ordinary mammal!" is the slogan on the top of the exhibit at Rosamond Gifford Zoo (USA).

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In the Africa! section of Peoria Zoo (USA) there's a small building with several terrariums. The species list when I toured this zoo in 2014 consisted of the following: Zambian Giant Mole Rat, Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew, Zebra Mouse, Madagascar Tree Boa, Pancake Tortoise, Taveta Golden Weaver, Emperor Scorpion and Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

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Inside the Reptile House at Scovill Zoo (USA) in 2014 was an extremely basic Naked Mole-Rat exhibit.

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It's very easy for zoos to have 3 or 4 tiny acrylic tanks for Naked Mole-Rats and the species certainly doesn't require much space. Here's another very basic exhibit that was at Henson Robinson Zoo (USA) in 2014:

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Another glorified hamster cage exhibit for Naked Mole-Rats, this time at Lincoln Children's Zoo (USA). These kind of fake-looking enclosures are still exciting to see for most zoo visitors, as the animals are easily visible and quite often active in the various acrylic tunnels.

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Grey Mouse Lemur and Naked Mole-Rat exhibits inside the spooky Crypt at Pairi Daiza (Belgium):

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@KevinB

Wuppertal Zoo (Germany) has Ansell's Mole-Rats in a terrarium with a lot of height. I seem to remember this exhibit being inside the Feline House!

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@Maguari

Inside the Giraffe House at Berlin Tierpark (Germany) is a fairly new (2018?) Naked Mole-Rat exhibit.

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@MagpieGoose

Osnabruck Zoo (Germany) has a brilliant Underground building where visitors walk around in the dark and look at a series of rodents in a mock-rock cave setting. It's utterly fantastic, but not conducive to great photos.

Within the Animazia building at Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Netherlands), there's a Naked Mole-Rat exhibit that arguably doesn't look like any other I've ever seen.

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@Mr Gharial

Built just a few years ago, the massive Naked Mole-Rat exhibit at Living Desert Zoo (USA) must be a candidate for the largest in the world.

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Opened in 2011, the Naked Mole-Rat exhibit at Singapore Zoo (Singapore) is large and impressive.

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@Zooish

Singapore Zoo (Singapore) also has a huge Naked Mole-Rat statue emerging from a wall!

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Rodents: 11 species so far (and not many more to go!)

Prairie Dog - 116 zoos
Naked Mole-Rat - 37 zoos
North American Beaver - 35 zoos
Nutria - 24 zoos
Woodchuck - 18 zoos
Lowland Paca - 11 zoos
Eurasian Beaver - 6 zoos
Damaraland Mole-Rat - 4 zoos
Ansell's Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
Mechow's Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
Zambian Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
 
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snowleopard said:
Not that we've hit 100 pages on this thread, in a single year (!!), it's time to look at 'Mole-Rats' and porcupines, maybe a couple of others, and then probably pack it in as I don't have data on loads of other small rodents and I've seen a million Greater Capybaras and Maras and don't even want to bother with those species.

When it comes to showcasing some kind of Mole-Rat in a zoo, quite often the style of exhibit comes down to two options. The first is to have clear, see-through acrylic/glass tunnels and den areas that are completely transparent and offer up fantastic viewing for visitors, but are also quite fake looking and they remind me of what I used to construct for my pet hamsters as a kid.

The second option is to have the clear tunnels and den areas, but to incorporate some sort of mock-rock facade to make it a bit more immersive. This 'naturalistic' appearance is still fake, but offers up a sense of what the underground environment is like for the dirt-dwelling rodents.

I've seen 'Mole-Rats' at 40 zoos and in 44 exhibits and 5 species (37 Naked, 4 Damaraland, 1 Ansell’s, 1 Mechow’s, 1 Zambian)

4 zoos had 2 species at once

1- San Diego Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2006
2- Lincoln Park Zoo - Illinois (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
3- Brookfield Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
4- Toronto Zoo (Canada) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
5- Bronx Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
6- Smithsonian’s National Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
7- Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
8- Memphis Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat– 2008
9- Zoo Atlanta (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
10- Disney’s Animal Kingdom (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2008
11- Point Defiance Zoo (USA) – Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
12- Oregon Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
13- Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
14- Louisville Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
15- Philadelphia Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
16- Riverbanks Zoo & Garden (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
17- Audubon Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
18- Houston Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat, Damaraland Mole-Rat – 2010
19- Dallas Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
20- ABQ BioPark Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2010
21- Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2011
22- Erie Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
23- Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
24- Little Rock Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2012
25- Peoria Zoo (USA) – Zambian Giant Mole-Rat – 2014
26- Scovill Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
27- Henson Robinson Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
28- Lincoln Children’s Zoo - Nebraska (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
29- Pueblo Zoo (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
30- Pacific Science Center (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2014
31- Pairi Daiza (Belgium) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
32- Wuppertal Zoo (Germany) – Ansell’s Mole-Rat – 2019
33- Aquazoo Lobbecke Museum (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
34- Berlin Tierpark (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
35- Osnabruck Zoo (Germany) – Naked Mole-Rat, Mechow’s Mole-Rat – 2019
36- Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Netherlands) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2019
37- Randers Regnskov (Denmark) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2022
38- Terrariet Reptile Zoo (Denmark) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2022
39- The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens (USA) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2023
40- Singapore Zoo (Singapore) – Naked Mole-Rat – 2024

Ugly or cute? Hmmm...I'll go with ugly as my response. ;)

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@Dianamonkey

The first time I ever saw a pile of little Naked Mole-Rats was in the Discovery Outpost Children's Nursey at San Diego Zoo (USA). There was an original exhibit for the species, then I think the one in the photo below was a new one built later on, and of course now there's a really new Naked Mole-Rat exhibit inside the $90 million Wildlife Explorers Basecamp complex. How times have changed:

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@geomorph

A mock-rock wall of Naked-Mole Rat 'burrows' at Brookfield Zoo (USA), inside the Fragile Desert building.

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@geomorph

When I was at Philadelphia Zoo (USA) in 2010, within the building known as the Rare Animal Conservation Centre, there was an excellent Naked Mole-Rat exhibit. It's fun to go from tiny hole to hole in order to locate the rodents in this kind of setup.

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Elsewhere at Philadelphia Zoo (USA), this time inside the Small Mammal House, was an exhibit for Damaraland Mole-Rats and Bushy-tailed Jirds.

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Dallas Zoo (USA) had a wood-paneled Naked Mole-Rat exhibit in the Children's Zoo when I visited in 2010 and 2015. It had a mine shaft vibe.

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Going with the clear tunnel, non-naturalistic look for Naked Mole-Rats is the exhibit at Erie Zoo (USA).

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@fkalltheway

"Naked Mole-Rats...not your ordinary mammal!" is the slogan on the top of the exhibit at Rosamond Gifford Zoo (USA).

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In the Africa! section of Peoria Zoo (USA) there's a small building with several terrariums. The species list when I toured this zoo in 2014 consisted of the following: Zambian Giant Mole Rat, Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew, Zebra Mouse, Madagascar Tree Boa, Pancake Tortoise, Taveta Golden Weaver, Emperor Scorpion and Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

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Inside the Reptile House at Scovill Zoo (USA) in 2014 was an extremely basic Naked Mole-Rat exhibit.

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It's very easy for zoos to have 3 or 4 tiny acrylic tanks for Naked Mole-Rats and the species certainly doesn't require much space. Here's another very basic exhibit that was at Henson Robinson Zoo (USA) in 2014:

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Another glorified hamster cage exhibit for Naked Mole-Rats, this time at Lincoln Children's Zoo (USA). These kind of fake-looking enclosures are still exciting to see for most zoo visitors, as the animals are easily visible and quite often active in the various acrylic tunnels.

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Grey Mouse Lemur and Naked Mole-Rat exhibits inside the spooky Crypt at Pairi Daiza (Belgium):

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@KevinB

Wuppertal Zoo (Germany) has Ansell's Mole-Rats in a terrarium with a lot of height. I seem to remember this exhibit being inside the Feline House!

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@Maguari

Inside the Giraffe House at Berlin Tierpark (Germany) is a fairly new (2018?) Naked Mole-Rat exhibit.

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@MagpieGoose

Osnabruck Zoo (Germany) has a brilliant Underground building where visitors walk around in the dark and look at a series of rodents in a mock-rock cave setting. It's utterly fantastic, but not conducive to great photos.

Within the Animazia building at Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Netherlands), there's a Naked Mole-Rat exhibit that arguably doesn't look like any other I've ever seen.

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@Mr Gharial

Built just a few years ago, the massive Naked Mole-Rat exhibit at Living Desert Zoo (USA) must be a candidate for the largest in the world.

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Opened in 2011, the Naked Mole-Rat exhibit at Singapore Zoo (Singapore) is large and impressive.

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@Zooish

Singapore Zoo (Singapore) also has a huge Naked Mole-Rat statue emerging from a wall!

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Rodents: 11 species so far (and not many more to go!)

Prairie Dog - 116 zoos
Naked Mole-Rat - 37 zoos
North American Beaver - 35 zoos
Nutria - 24 zoos
Woodchuck - 18 zoos
Lowland Paca - 11 zoos
Eurasian Beaver - 6 zoos
Damaraland Mole-Rat - 4 zoos
Ansell's Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
Mechow's Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
Zambian Mole-Rat - 1 zoo
Click to expand...
Sadly, no mole rats in South America for me. None in Portugal either, to my knowledge.

When I first heard of mole rats, I thought they were absent from zoos, but I have been proven quite the contrary since then. At the time, I also believed there were no other species of mole rat besides naked.
 
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