Indian Ocean Islands

R

Reedstilt

Active Member
I'm working on a project and I'm having some difficulty finding some information. Hopefully some of you might know what I need to know. I'm looking for zoos that house animals from western Indian Ocean islands, namely the Comoros, Aldabra, the Seychelles, and the Mascarenes, and what species they have.

For example, I know that the Columbus Zoo (among others) have Aldabra Giant Tortoises, so you can skip that species.

There are three species in particular I'd like to find: Coconut Crabs, Rodrigues Flying Fox, and Aldabra Rail, but any and all will be helpful.

Thanks in advance.
 
Jersey Zoo aka Durrell is particulary good for island animals as it follows their primary ethos to protect and conserve animals with small distributions as they are always at high risk. And as such island animals tend to fall right within this category and their collection has huge emphasis on the carribean islands, indonesia and the western indian ocean.

They do have Rodrigues fruit bats and Livingstone's fruit bats ( I know, you didn't ask) as well as a host of other species from Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, Rodrigues and the Round Island including the pink pigeon, echo parakeet, Round Island Boa and Round Island skink.
However they do not appear to have the Aldabra Rail, sorry.

However they do a great deal of their consevation work in-situ and given they have great expertise in almost single-handedly saving island birds (such as the Mauritius Kestrel) I am sure they must be doing some work for the last flightless rail so it would be a good idea to look them up.

As for the coconut crab, this species is not particualarly conservationally relevent due to their massive distribution, large population, and seeming invulnerability to anything and everything (including nuclear bomb testing) and hence no interest from the Jersy Zoo. However, I do remember seeing them at the Melbourne Aquarium a couple of years back so they should still be there.

Hope this helps.
 
I saw Coconut crabs in Pairi Daiza (former Parc Paradisio) in Belgium this summer. Rodriquez flying foxes and Aldabra giant tortoises are not very rare in Europe. Also Mauritius pink pigeons are kept in quite al lot of European zoos.
 
Bristol future animal wildlife park will construct an innovative complex with a battery for Comoros fruit bats,mayotte lemurs,they should add Comores reptiles and birds on display as well as those of Seychelles,
 
Chlidonias said:
I don't believe there are any Aldabra rails in captivity
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Based on what I've been able to find out so far, I'd have to agree with you. Why is that, I wonder. How about White-Throated Rails in general?

frank said:
Bristol future animal wildlife park will construct an innovative complex with a battery for Comoros fruit bats,mayotte lemurs,they should add Comores reptiles and birds on display as well as those of Seychelles
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Very cool. I'll look forward to hearing more about that.

Whats an Ounce said:
Jersey Zoo aka Durrell is particulary good for island animals
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Oh, awesome! Looks like the Jersey Zoo has a lot of animals I'll eventually need to track down, and their Mascarenia project seems quite similar to what I'm envisioning with my project.

In case anyone is curious, the project I'm working on is for my Zoo Science and Management class. Basically, we have to do that master plans for 1-5 acre exhibit, hypothetically as an extension of the Columbus Zoo. The suggested theme was the African savanna, but since the zoo is actually doing that in a 50 acre exhibit, I figured I couldn't properly do the savanna justice. Right now I'm leaning toward a Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands exhibit instead. Figuring out which zoos already had the Madagascan animals I'm interested in was relatively easy; the Indian Ocean islands were proving more difficult.
 
Jersey Zoo is basically the leader in ex-situ Indian Ocean conservation. The only reason that, eg, the Mascarene fauna are even in captivity in good numbers is due to their sterling work
 
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Reedstilt said:
In case anyone is curious, the project I'm working on is for my Zoo Science and Management class.
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That sounds like the most awesome class in the history of education. If I had known that such a class existed, my whole career path would be drastically different.
 
Whats an Ounce said:
That sounds like the most awesome class in the history of education. If I had known that such a class existed, my whole career path would be drastically different.
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From the way the professor and the zoo facilitator talk about it, it seems like this may only be the second year they've offered the class. And yes, it's awesome.
 
I've been checking ISIS regularly, but I haven't found a way to search by native range (is there a way?). So I've been searching species by species whenever I get an idea. Not the most effecient way of doing it.

The other site is new to me. I'll have to check it out.
 
ISIS you have to check by species. Zootierliste only covers European zoo collections but is much more user-friendly
 
Reedstilt said:
I've been checking ISIS regularly, but I haven't found a way to search by native range (is there a way?). So I've been searching species by species whenever I get an idea. Not the most effecient way of doing it.

The other site is new to me. I'll have to check it out.
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Don't miss that you can switch between current and former holdings on zootierliste. ISIS in only good to check non-european holdings and is not really updated in comparison to zootierliste.
 
Reedstilt said:
There are three species in particular I'd like to find: Coconut Crabs, Rodrigues Flying Fox, and Aldabra Rail, but any and all will be helpful.
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I'm sure someone can correct me if I am wrong, but when I went to London Zoo some years ago, I recall there being an enclosure labelled as holding coconut crabs in the Web Of Life (now B.U.G.S, I believe). Was this the case, and if so are they still there?
 
The Greater and Lesser Antilles themed world would be something unique so far,in Europe there isn´t a single zoo with such a unique compound,Hutias,almiquis (Cuban Shrews),endemic birds,bats,boas,lizards anoles,frogs.

Rotterdam zoo displays very few Antillean species such as Aruba rattlesnake,Aruban burrowing owl and Cuban Hutias.

On 2,5 hectareas,I think this project could be possible!.
 
If you are looking at a Madagascar-themed exhibit, you might bear in mind that some close relatives of the extinct large animal fauna of Madagascar still survive. Pygmy hippos close to the living West African form survived until about 1,00 years ago, possible more recently, and the Aldabra tortoise is very close to the extinct Madagacan form as well. There were also crocodiles close to the living Nile crocodile.
 
Zoovolunteer said:
There were also crocodiles close to the living Nile crocodile.
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Nile crocodiles still live in Madagascar including the famous cave dwelling crocodiles of the Ankarana reserve.
Voay Robustus the most recent species to die out there, about 2000 years ago, was actually more closely related to dwarf crocodiles.
 
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