Animals Which 20 Years Ago Were Rarely Kept In UK Zoos But Are Common These Days

[bugs]

Sorry for the long title, lol.

I was just wondering what animals 10 to 30 years ago were seen as being 'special' and only kept in one or two UK zoos, are these days common and are likely to be seen at many zoos.

I was also wondering what animals people think will be common place at zoos in 5 to 10 years time that today are rarer and can only be seen at one or two zoos. For example, 5 years ago only London Zoo kept anteaters but now 6/7 UK zoos house them.

I think in the next few years komodo dragons will be kept in more collections than the 3 zoos which currently house them.

Bugs

 

[Johnny Morris.]

I didn't used to visit many zoos 20 years ago, but don't recall Lemurs being as popular as they are at the mo. I don't dislike Lemurs, i just don't want to see them at every zoo.

 

[kiang]

Nyala at one time were only kept by Marwell now can be seen in 5 collections

Bongo were only kept at Woburn, now kept in at least 15 collections

Scimitar horned oryx, only kept at London and Marwell again commonly seen.

Back then there were no koala, wolverine, Japanese serow, Somali wild ass, kiang, red river hog, Visayan warty pig, Bornean bearded pig, lesser Malayan chevrotain, mishmi takin, Owston's palm civet, cusimanse, purple faced langur, red titi, giant otter, and i could go on and on and on..............

And who would have thought we would see a pair of Sumatran rhino?

 

[Gentle Giant]

Nyala at one time were only kept by Marwell now can be seen in 5 collections

Bongo were only kept at Woburn, now kept in at least 15 collections

Scimitar horned oryx, only kept at London and Marwell again commonly seen.

Back then there were no koala, wolverine, Japanese serow, Somali wild ass, kiang, red river hog, Visayan warty pig, Bornean bearded pig, lesser Malayan chevrotain, mishmi takin, Owston's palm civet, cusimanse, purple faced langur, red titi, giant otter, and i could go on and on and on..............

And who would have thought we would see a pair of Sumatran rhino?

The wolverines were in the collection at Riber Castle Wildlife Park in Derbyshire around 1980s. I visited there, when I was young!

 

[zebedee101]

Pere David deer and Przewalski's wild horse

 

[Vulpes]

What about the opposite animals that were kept 20 years ago and are rarely seen now, dingo for example! there are none in the UK!

 

[Bele]

In the early days of the Clore Pavilion at Regent's Park I always used to treasure the sight of a pair of ruffed lemurs , the only ones in the UK . One was red ( I think the male) and the other black and white . I believe one had been collected by David Attenborough .

This pair bred once , producing a male offspring , soon after the old male died . The son later bred with his mother and quite a few hybrids were produced ( the original Jersey animals were also hybrids) . Some of the hybrids had a deficient gene and were born hairless , I have a photo somewhere of one of these strange animals housed behind the scenes in the Sobell .

The Clore also held the only golden lion tamarin in the UK ,who was sent to join others in South Africa for potential breeding .

Other great rarities were maned wolves and snow leopards .

 

[Pertinax]

In the early days of the Clore Pavilion at Regent's Park I always used to treasure the sight of a pair of ruffed lemurs , the only ones in the UK . One was red ( I think the male) and the other black and white . I believe one had been collected by David Attenborough .
.

It was the Black and White female that was presented by Attenborough. They had it somewhere else in the zoo even before the Clore opened, when it was moved in there. It remained on its own for many years. I would always go to see it but it was either invisible or curled up asleep. They finally obtained the male Red Ruffed from Paris as a mate. Following that the original one became far more visible & active and the rest is as you document it.

 

[Pertinax]

Other great rarities were maned wolves and snow leopards .

In the early 1960's there was a Snow leopard at London in the old Lion House, in the cage facing what was then the Cattle Sheds. As far as I know it was the only one in the UK at that time.

I can't remember if London also exhibited Maned Wolf at the same time- probably so as they had quite a big selection of wild dogs, foxes etc. I first remember them in Europe where they seemed commoner.

 

[bongorob]

So the male red ruffed lemur and the female black and white ruffed lemur produced young capable of successfully breeding themselves. Seems to be one species that has been split for no obvious reason.

 

[Pertinax]

Pere David deer and Przewalski's wild horse

Possibly in the USA, but in the UK a number of collections were keeping these as far back as the 1970's, and some before.

Marwell, Whipsnade & Howletts and probably Woburn all had Prezwalski Horses.

Woburn had the parent herd of 500+ Pere David deer and Whipsnade a smaller herd.

But its true they are now even more commonly seen particularly Pere Davids is in nearly every Safari Park for instance.

 

[Pertinax]

So the male red ruffed lemur and the female black and white ruffed lemur produced young capable of successfully breeding themselves. Seems to be one species that has been split for no obvious reason.

AFAIK they are different colour forms of the same species which occupy seperate areas in Madagascar and don't occur together. Hence the desire not to 'hybridise' the colours in captivity.

 

[Pertinax]

in the 1960's there were just two Red River Hogs in Uk, a male at Dudley and female at Paignton. After they disappeared/died there were NONE for perhaps the next twenty five years until two pairs were imported from Duisburg to Belfast and Port Lympne.

Scmitar Horned oryx, for a number of years(like Nyala) were only at Marwell, London quite a lot later.

I didn't know Woburn were the first to have Bongo. They were unknown in UK all through the 1950/60's era and treated with similar reverence to e.g. Okapi- or Saola perhaps....

 

[Pertinax]

I don't dislike Lemurs, i just don't want to see them at every zoo.

You'd better get used to it! They are a godsend for Zoos- ideal exhibits being easy to house, interesting and active to watch. The common species make excellent interactive and walk-thru subjects and therefore attractive for children, while the rarer species are the subject of conservation and breeding programmes. Zoos love them!!

 

[Cat-Man]

can i just say that marwells nyala were not the only place in the uk to house them, london had some to the late 80s/early 90s. What are the othere places that keep nyala?
marwelll were and i think still are the only place in the uk the keep arabian oryx, and i think the only place in the uk to keep all 3 species of oryx.

Asiatic lions used to be rare when marwell got there pair from abroud many years ago, they also got jerseys pair to encourage breeding behaviour, they were then the only place in the uk to house asiatic lions. now London, Chester, Paington, Twycross, Edinbrugh, Bristol, Dudley and the Cotswold wild animal park and i think thats it keep them. unfortunatly, Marwells male Indus died in 1996 and there female Tara died in october 2001

 

[Mike11]

Dudley im pretty sure houses 1 Asiatic female too.
Red River Hogs have really come on in the last year! they are very easy to keep and many hold them now.

 

[Zambar]

Marwell does not keep all the oryx species', they miss out on the Beisan Oryx. They do however keep the three species' of zebra.

 

[Pygathrix]

20 or maybe 30 years ago:
The only lemurs were ringtailed.
The only lions were African.
Meerkats were still unusual…

Snow leopard, bongo, Sulawesi macaque, bush dogs, pudu, coatis, were held in just a few places but are easy to breed and therefore spread quickly. Red river hogs have really spread like wildfire and I predict Visayan warty pigs will too, although they are not quite as photogenic.

Some animals such as okapi, aye-aye are now to be seen in several zoos in the UK although overall numbers are still low.

Other changes: gorilla, elephants and flamingos – if zoos keep both sexes of these animals then the expectation is that they will breed, or seen to be failing if they don’t. Just keeping them alive seemed to be good enough for a long time.

Once popular animals which have disappeared: the variety of small monkeys is much reduced, esp guenons and patas monkeys. In a way this is inevitable as the trend to show larger troops of fewer species is a good one. Polar bears and dolphins have gone for different reasons.

 

[Johnny Morris.]

You'd better get used to it! They are a godsend for Zoos- ideal exhibits being easy to house, interesting and active to watch. The common species make excellent interactive and walk-thru subjects and therefore attractive for children, while the rarer species are the subject of conservation and breeding programmes. Zoos love them!!

I am used to it, because they seem to be at every zoo. I used to love seeing them too, But now i'm like, Aaah Lemurs again, what's next.

 

[zebedee101]

Possibly in the USA, but in the UK a number of collections were keeping these as far back as the 1970's, and some before.

Marwell, Whipsnade & Howletts and probably Woburn all had Prezwalski Horses.

Woburn had the parent herd of 500+ Pere David deer and Whipsnade a smaller herd.

But its true they are now even more commonly seen particularly Pere Davids is in nearly every Safari Park for instance.

I guess the original post did state 20 years ago which I didn't factor into my response. Am I correct in thinking that the second herd of Pere David deer in the world was established in the mid 1950s at Whipsnade, I think the herd was about 50+ at this time at Woburn so they decided to split the risk. I know the 11th Duke of Bedford was a big supporter of London and Whipsnade before his death and had been president at the turn of the century and his grandson opened the woburn safari park to help with the upkeep of the park. My timescale might be incorrect but my recollection is from the Gerald Durell book "bats in my belfry" where he describes hand feeding the deer that had been transported from woburn as they weren't confident at the time to move adult deer as the anaesthesia/sedatives at the time weren't great. Am I right in thinking he was at Whipsnade in the late 1950s? They were certainly the only two places that had them at the time and all came from the 19 animals that were left after flooding and starving peasants and troops eating the remainder form the royal park. The 19 remaining had been smuggled out of china and were kept in ones or twos throughout the world and the Duke managed to get them all together at Woburn to form a viable herd, because of the risk of natural disaster or disease such as foot and mouth the second herd was formed at Whipsnade and then as you said seem to be a staple of safari park these days.

I moved form the UK to the USA about seven years ago and still come back regularly, which is why I still consider Whipsnade my home zoo. I have managed to visit a number of zoos here in the USA and have been suprised at the number of Pere David deer and Prezwalski horses over here. When I was at Whipsnade we made a big deal of these two species but certainly here in the USA nobody seems to give them a second glance, I guess to the general zoo patron its a pony and not the most attractive of the deer species. The bronx has a nice Pere David deer exhibit and occasionally people stop to view them, the Prezwalski Horses are on the monorail route and they are only given a sentence or two of the commentary. The Prezwalski Horses at the national zoo have a bland square paddock with older none breeding individuals and were totally being ignored by the public despite the zoo being very busy.