Which collection in the United kingdom has the most on-show species of Mammals

zoogiraffe

zoogiraffe

Well-Known Member
I have been wondering for awhile which UK collection has the largest number,of mammals on-show so as a result I decided to count up the number of mammals on-show at Chester Zoo and came up with the total of 71,I then had a go at counting up species on-show at Twycross,and came up with a total of 72,although I could be a few out either way with this count!!Now Chester will have 72 species as soon as the Aardvarks join the Meerkats,so the big question is does any UK collection have more species on-show than these 2?
 
this is a very interesting thread zoogiraffe. i'm sure at one time london out numbered these two by a long shot!
 
^i was just thinking prehaps marwell, port lympne or whipsnade may well have more
 
Well I wouldn't have put Marwell that high but then when I stopped and thought about it didn't surprise me that much,I don't think Port Lympne will have many more than 60 species because they have alot of exhibits with duplicate species!
 
zoogiraffe said:
Well I wouldn't have put Marwell that high but then when I stopped and thought about it didn't surprise me that much,I don't think Port Lympne will have many more than 60 species because they have alot of exhibits with duplicate species!
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Sorry, meant 65, just corrected it. ;)
 
Counting the non-domestic species on Colchester's website got me to 62. I have no idea just how accurate that is likely to be, although I didn't notice too many obvious absentees.

London may well have had a mammal species list of pushing on for 100 well past 1991. The Clore probably did have 40+ species held until a decade ago.
 
Gone through Port Lympne on Zootierliste and I got circa. 75, but that is counting the fact that there are still Brown hyena and Golden-bellied mangabeys on-show, as you go past their enclosures on the safari experience.

It also counts subspecies, so for example the two subspecies of guereza are counted as 2 rather than 1, don't know if that's what we're wanting? Also, there could be mistakes on zootierliste's side, and I could have thought something was on-show when it isn't.
 
A quick count on Zootierliste for Edinburgh gets up to the high 70's. Unfortunately I haven't got the time at the moment to scrutinise in detail and check for duplications or off-show animals but I would imagine it's a contender.
 
Zambar said:
Just counted over Marwell's off the top of my head, came up with 65.
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Surely it wasn't that long ago that Marwell had nearer 100 mammal species, between both the domestics and the incredible rodent collection.
 
kiang said:
Surely it wasn't that long ago that Marwell had nearer 100 mammal species, between both the domestics and the incredible rodent collection.
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I remember that wonderfull Rodent collection,but much of it was off-show more the pity as it was a truely brilliant colection,this is just why I asked the question as many collections seem to be keeping more and more species off-show!
 
Well, okay, I've just printed the inventory off and counted: 81 total including domestics which are: rat, rabbit, ferret, donkey, kune kune pig, bactrian camel (it says "domestic bactrian camel" as well as "bactrian camel": take your pick), llama, alpaca, goat and sheep. But of course it's not up to date... for instance, four reindeer have arrived since Jan 2011 when this inventory was made (are they domestic?) and there may have been others. I don't know exactly how they arrived at the 74 figure, but that's what you find at first glance on the website.
 
Regarding the list of mammals at London being divided into two groups, domestic and wild, I think this is irrelevant, it is quite simply just a list of mammals currently held at the zoo.Domestic animals have,in my opinion, just as important role to play in a zoological collection as endangered wild animals. Before the children's zoo at London was refurbished there was a room containing budgies, Syrian hamster, rat etc. along with the relevant information on how to look after these animals as pets. I think the visitors would take more notice and learn more from this than from any leaflet they may read published by the R.S.P.C.A. or Pets At Home, no matter how well these leaflets have been produced, I certainly think this room at the children's zoo should have remained open for this purpose, however, Twycross has done an excellent job informing and educating the visitors how to care for their rabbits, guinea pigs etc. at their new pets corner.
 
according to the lists in the "what zoos can do" book, marwell has 109 mammal species followed by colchester with 88, then twycross, whipsnade, edinburgh, chester and london in the 70s.
 
dublinlion said:
according to the lists in the "what zoos can do" book, marwell has 109 mammal species followed by colchester with 88, then twycross, whipsnade, edinburgh, chester and london in the 70s.
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Unfortunately that's one of quite a few things in this important, but flawed, book which should be took with a pinch of salt. Basically it works as a rough guide but I wouldn't take anything it says as gospel without cross-checking with facts or other zoo-nerds opinions.
 
TARZAN said:
Twycross has done an excellent job informing and educating the visitors how to care for their rabbits, guinea pigs etc. at their new pets corner.
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Completely off-thread but I've got to agree with you on this, it's one of the (few) things Twycross has done right in recent years though it is a shame it's a bit out of the loop due to its location.
 
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