What's your favourite species at your local zoo

Javan Rhino

Javan Rhino

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
When you visit your local zoo, what are your favourite species there? Which species do you generally head for straight away, which ones catch your interest and which ones do you always feel you HAVE to see?

An interesting addition to this can be which species you miss at your local zoo. Old favourites that have left the collection that, in your opinion, have left a hole?

I'll start with my list for favourite species at Chester:

Sumatran orangutans
Jaguars
Okapi
Black rhinoceros
Indian rhinoceros
Cabot's tragopan
San Francisco garter snake
Bangaai cardinalfish

Species no longer on-show/in collection
Mission golden-eyed tree frog
Red bird-of-paradise
Philippine crocodile
Taveta weaver
 
HWP for me

Musk ox (haven't seen them yet, kinda contradictory)
Japanese serow
Bharal (especially now that the males have matured and their horns are magnificent)
European forest reindeer
European moose (nothing beats a large male gliding past just inches from your car)
And finally an Asian wild ass, whose name escapes me for the moment?

A species i miss, the Afghan urial and the Alpine ibex.
 
I have two home collections, as it were, due to the lack of decent collections in my area I have had to spread my wings a bit!

Chester Zoo

On-show

Giant Otter
Sumatran Orang
Jaguar
Okapi
Red Panda
Tuatara


Missed species

Mission golden-eyed tree frog
Red bird-of-paradise
Philippine crocodile




Edinburgh Zoo

On-show

Asiatic Golden Cat
Aardwolf
Binturong
Sun Bear
Marbled Polecat
Maned Wolf


Missed species

Patagonian Sealion (not gone yet, I think, but will be next time I visit)
Pallas Cat
Ratel
 
It's Sewerby Zoo for me:-

Favourite current species:

Red-masked Conure
Bourke's Parakeet
Blue and Yellow Macaw
Temminck's Tragopan
Napoleon Weaver
Violaceous Touraco
Guanaco

Missed species:

Coati
White-throated Capuchin
Striped Grass Mouse
Malabar Giant Squirrel (ancient history)
Black and White Mannikin (especially as they were from my collection)
Argentine Red Shoveler
Scarlet Macaw
Green-winged Macaw (another ancient history species), oh and the single specimen shared its aviary with an Agouti - I used to like it as well, not sure of its species though
 
Blackpool for me:

Yacare Caiman
L'Hoest's Monkey
Pileated Gibbon
Magellinac Penguin

Missed species:
Markhor
Agile Wallaby
 
Love this thread, but I'm stunned by the length of the lists, 'favourite' to me means 2 or 3 at the most, otherwise it becomes a list of animals that i like to see rather than my favourites.

At Twycross - chimps and orangs (visit Green mile, then Jambo's; orangs, followed by Kips group

YWP - raccoon dogs and Colin the goat. :)
 
mazfc said:
Love this thread, but I'm stunned by the length of the lists, 'favourite' to me means 2 or 3 at the most, otherwise it becomes a list of animals that i like to see rather than my favourites.

At Twycross - chimps and orangs (visit Green mile, then Jambo's; orangs, followed by Kips group

YWP - raccoon dogs and Colin the goat. :)
Click to expand...

It's not a problem really I don't think, I meant it as what are your favourite species at the zoo, but it could depend on a number of factors. ie. Chester has such a diverse collection that these ARE all favourites that I feel the need to see when I visit above all others.

I would say maybe have a maximum of 8-10, obviously it would defeat the object if people listed every species, but some collections are so diverse that you can't help but have several favourites :p
 
Whilst Sewerby is my really local (about a mile away) zoo, Flamingo Land is my nearest big, for want of a better word, zoo and if I listed all the past species I miss I could probably fill a whole page. On the other hand my current favourites would be just the Yellow-collared and Green-winged Macaws, and the Sacred and Scarlet Ibises.
 
How about this then: if you could only see 2 animals in your local collection what would they be? :)
 
At Sewerby mine would be the Red-masked Conures and the Blue and Yellow Macaws, and at Flamingo Land the two species of Macaw I mentioned.
 
My favourite species at London Zoo are

Panay cloud runner
Bearded barbet
Australian water rat
Aquatic caecilian
Naked mole-rat
Cave cricket
Alaotran gentle lemur
Titi monkey
Aye-aye (although they've been of show for years)

Missed species:
Plumbeous redstart (a hand-reared one used to come to the front of its enclosure when I visited)
Campbell's guenons
Douc langur
Goodfellow's tree kangaroo
Timor deer
Cusimanse
Kiwi
Four-eyed opossum
New Guinea bandicoot
Barton's echidna (I used to count the front toes as it walked about, as I was convinced it had 5 toes and wasn't a Bruijn's echidna)
The collection of wild dogs that was lost when the Lion Terraces were built.
Markhor
Peripatus
Camel spider
Pygmy slow loris
 
Chester

Must sees:

Red Panda
Elephant
Okapi

Missed:

Binturong (sob! sob!)

Kinkajou
Fennec Fox

(yes, I miss the small mammal house)
 
mmm I've delayed posting as I don't tend to have favorites - But my life is not complete unless I get to see some Big Cats really - so my Home Zoo is Chester and I do tend to make sure that I see the Cheetah, Tigers, Jaguars & Lions - I love watching the Hunting Dogs too and have a HUGE soft spot for the Giant Otters - BUT I really don't like to neglect the Anteater, Aardvark (I'm saying that in hope as I've not seen them yet) and the Bush Dogs - the Orangs are also a must on a murky day and I do like my snakes as well - oh god no I've missed off the Rhino and the Bats and the Giraffe and the Okapi - see I like to get them in too - this is looking like a full day again already :O)

I suppose what I'm saying is - if I have a desire to spend an hour or two watching something then I will - but a small part of me wonders what everything else has been up to!

Hyrax - I think they are fascinating as well.....

God I'm totally crap at restricting myself to one favourite I never realised - I obviously just can't do it :O(
 
Paignton

Pileated Gibbon on island
Orangs on Le Fevre island
Barbary Sheep on quarry cliff

Living Coasts

Chough & Puffins
Ruff & Stilt
Inca Tern

Marwell

Okapi
Giraffe
Sable Antelope

Edinburgh

Fish Eagle
Gentoos
Wolverine
 
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