I've compiled a list of all my Near Misses! In each example me and the animal were each present but different circumstances led to me not being able to see or more importantly photograph said animal.
1.) Greater Glider (David Fleay WP) Waited a little for this guy to come into view, didn’t show himself. Was kinda in a time crunch to make a flight later in the day, and I was pretty sure Greater Glider’s were kept at some of the other Zoos I was going to. I was sorely wrong.
2.) Long-beaked Echidna (Taronga Zoo) Visited in 2007 while they were off exhibit. Spoke to a keeper about seeing them off exhibit, but it was pretty impossible because they’re nocturnal and sleep underground.
3.) Leadbeater’s Possum (Toronto Zoo, Healesville) Went to Toronto Zoo twice while they had them. First time I was too young to care/didn’t have a decent camera. 2nd time looked for it, but didn’t ask any keepers (turns out it was off exhibit). I regularly ask for off-exhibit species now. Also just missed these at Healesville Sanctuary, seems like they had them before 2007 and a couple years after.
4.) Hog Badger (Toronto Zoo) Only had these the first time I went to Toronto, when I was too young to care/didn’t have a decent camera. I remember waiting a little for it to come out, but I doubt it was often out.
5.) Bush Pig (San Diego Zoo) I photographed the weird Dark Phase one that was labeled as a Giant Forest Hog, but skipped over the regular Bush Pig exhibit because at the time they were considered the same species as Red River Hog and I didn’t “waste” film for subspecies.
6.) Richardson’s Ground Squirrel (Plzen) In the midst of photographing 99 new mammal species over 2 days, this was the one and only species I was unable to get photos of. Went to the exhibit a few different times, just never came out. Oh well there went my chance of 100 new mammal species at one place.
7.) Nilgiri Langur (Erfurt) Traveled to 3 Zoos in one day. Wildpark Leipzig, Leipzig Zoo, and Erfurt Zoo. I arrived at the later at about 5pm with hardly any time to spare and no one that spoke English. Desperately tried to find the Nilgiri Langur exhibit with no such luck. I think they were in a cage within the walk-through Barbary Macaque exhibit, but that was closed off. I contemplated climbing into it, but decided I probably wouldn’t be able to get back out haha.
8.) Nigerian White-throated Guenon (Mulhouse) The only species I missed by accident on my 2010 Euro-Zoo trip. I had 222 new mammal possibilities spread out over 30 or so Zoos. I had a list of the total, and then separate lists for each Zoo. Unfortunately when making the Mulhouse Zoo list I omitted this Guenon species, so I didn’t even bother looking for it while running around the zoo.
9.) Greater dwarf lemur (Zurich) Same day I visited Mulhouse Zoo, I drove to Zurich Zoo arriving about 2pm. Tried to find a nocturnal exhibit for this lemur until realizing that the 1 specimen of this species outside of Madagascar is kept in a diurnal gigantic walk through Madagascan forest exhibit. Complete needle in a haystack. I wasted so much time looking for this that I didn’t leave time for the next guy on the list.
10.) Plains viscacha (Zurich) Primates over Rodents. Zoo was closing by the time I spoke to a keeper who told me the Greater dwarf lemur would be impossible to see. I begged to stop by the viscaha on my way out. But she said it was impossible. Hmm didn’t really sound impossible…
11.) Key Largo Wood Rat (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
12.) Mechow’s Mole Rat (Disney’s Animal Kingdom) 2 more rodents. I called ahead of time to check on these and as you can imagine I was transferred to a few different people before I got an answer. But I was assured that both were there and on exhibit and even was told where to find them. Unfortunately they sent me to the Naked Mole Rat exhibit. And both species I wanted to see were off exhibit and they wouldn’t let me see them. I was able to get a refund for the entrance fee for DAK for me and my dad!
13.) Bolivian hairy armadillo (Huachipa)
14.) Colocolo (Huachipa)
15.) Silky anteater (Huachipa) These final three hurt the most. All three are off exhibit. The keeper in charge of these was on vacation when I visited. Her husband also worked at the Zoo, and wasn’t able to get a hold of her to get the OK. I emailed her in hopes I could return to the zoo the next day, but she didn’t respond till I was already back in the USA. Of course she had no problem with it then. Guess I’ll have to go backkk.
I encourage anyone else that wants to compile a list of all their near misses to do so. A different list I'll make sometime is animals that had passed away right before I arrived
