Otters vs. Meerkats

snowleopard

snowleopard

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As someone who has visited a tremendous number of zoos in the United States, it seems to me that both meerkats and otters are ubiquitous, and thus found in every nook and cranny wherever one looks. Out of curiosity I decided to see which mammal is more common in major American zoos, and to my surprise the otter won the battle! Meerkats have expanded ever since the 1994 release of Disney's film The Lion King, but there are many kinds of otters and some zoos even have multiple species within their collection.

My starting point was the book America's Best Zoos (2008: Nyhuis & Wassner), and I went through the 60 zoos to figure out which ones held either otters or meerkats, or in many cases both types of mammal. I've visited 59 out of the top 60 zoos and so I've actually seen the exhibits with my own eyes, but please feel free to point out any errors in my calculations as animal collections are an ever-changing form.

Otters: There are 52 out of the top 60 zoos with at least one otter species, and the 8 zoos that lack otters are: Binder Park, Gladys Porter, Honolulu, Louisville, Nashville, Rio Grande, Riverbanks and San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Meerkats: There are 47 out of the top 60 zoos with meerkats, and the 13 zoos that lack the species are: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Audubon, Binder Park, Bronx, Cincinnati, Columbus, Fort Wayne, Jacksonville, Maryland, Montgomery, North Carolina, Roger Williams Park and San Antonio.

Overall, there are some big-name zoos that surprisingly lack meerkats, but only a single zoo (Binder Park) without either meerkats or otters.
 
Here's a fun follow-up question: how many of those 60 zoos have exhibits for meerkats and exhibits for at least one species of otter?

And another: do any of them have exhibit complexes that feature exhibits for meerkats and exhibits for otters in close proximity? I can think of Houston Zoo's Natural Encounters and Pittsburgh Zoo's Kids Kingdom as examples, but their exhibits are not exactly adjacent to each other.
 
Bronx has one species (Oriental Small-Clawed) but has them in two exhibits! One in JungleWorld and another in the Children's Zoo. I've seen North American River Otters at almost every zoo I've been to and most exhibits I haven't really liked. Bronx's exhibits are ok but could be a bit better. I don't know how Smithsonian's N.A. River Otter enclosure is as American Trails was still under construction when I went so the otters were in a temporary exhibit behind the Small Mammal House but I love their Asian Small-Clawed Otter exhibit! It's big, sunny, and grassy and has a nice bit of water. Beardsley has the best N.A. River Otter exhibit I've seen.

~Thylo:cool:
 
These species are perfect zoo species in terms of being active, social (some otter species), and playful. People can relate to meerkat division of labor with their sentry system. They are also species that any sized zoo (big, medium, or small) can build good exhibits for and maintain.

In California I think that almost every AZA accredited zoo has meerkats and/or some otter species. The Oakland Zoo has great North American river otter and meerkat exhibits and the Sacramento Zoo has a very nice renovated river otter exhibit. The Los Angeles Zoo has a spectacular family of giant otters with a natural social system of parents and two pairs of offspring of different ages. They will be the stars of the new Rain forest of the Americas opening in late 2013 hopefully.
 
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Maritime Aquarium's Meerkat exhibit is alright and a pretty large size for three siblings. Could use a bit more logs and such, though. Smithsonian's was ok but was much smaller than Maritime's and also held three so it was over crowded. It did have a nice amount of logs and such.

~Thylo:cool:
 
This thread makes me curious what zoo in the world has the most otter species. The most that I can think of is San Diego Zoo which has North American river otters, African spot-necked otters, and Cape clawless otters (or at least did if not still).

I think a zoo or aquarium should create an exhibit called "OTTER!" with sea otters, giant otters, river otters, Asian-small clawed otters, and the African otter species. You could show different otter behavioral systems and ecological lifestyles. Who wouldn't love that?
 
DavidBrown said:
This thread makes me curious what zoo in the world has the most otter species. The most that I can think of is San Diego Zoo which has North American river otters, African spot-necked otters, and Cape clawless otters (or at least did if not still).

I think a zoo or aquarium should create an exhibit called "OTTER!" with sea otters, giant otters, river otters, Asian-small clawed otters, and the African otter species. You could show different otter behavioral systems and ecological lifestyles. Who wouldn't love that?
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Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2007 had a temporary exhibit called "Wild About Otters" that featured spotted-necked and small-clawed otters, plus lots of interpretation about the other species, including the sea otters displayed in another part of the Aquarium (as well as swimming in the kelp forest right offshore).

Minnesota Zoo exhibits small-clawed, North American river and Northern sea otters.
 
reduakari said:
Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2007 had a temporary exhibit called "Wild About Otters" that featured spotted-necked and small-clawed otters, plus lots of interpretation about the other species, including the sea otters displayed in another part of the Aquarium (as well as swimming in the kelp forest right offshore).

Minnesota Zoo exhibits small-clawed, North American river and Northern sea otters.
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I saw that exhibit at Monterey and it was spectacular. They had a display for each otter species. I guess that the exhibit I am proposing was functionally done by Monterey.
 
geomorph said:
Here's a fun follow-up question: how many of those 60 zoos have exhibits for meerkats and exhibits for at least one species of otter?
Click to expand...

I decided to investigate, and 41 of the zoos have BOTH meerkats and otters in their collection. I suppose that it is not that astonishing how popular those animals are, and even many aquariums also have otters. Here is the list of 41 zoos: National Zoo, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, DAK, Miami, Busch Gardens, Lowry Park, Atlanta, Knoxville, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Caldwell, Brookfield, Point Defiance, Woodland Park, San Francisco, Oregon, Lincoln Park, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Milwaukee County, Sedgwick County, Minnesota, Kansas City, Saint Louis, Omaha, Phoenix, Cheyenne Mountain, Denver, Utah's Hogle, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Diego.

Top 60 American zoos with 2 species of otter:

National - small-clawed and river otter
Houston - small-clawed and river otter
Lincoln Park - small-clawed and river otter
Columbus - small-clawed and river otter
Kansas City - small-clawed and river otter
Denver - small-clawed and river otter
Woodland Park - small-clawed (opening in May) and river otter
Cheyenne Mountain - small-clawed and river otter
Brookfield - small-clawed (in two separate exhibits) and river otter
Miami - small-clawed and giant otter
Los Angeles - river and giant otter
Point Defiance - small-clawed and sea otter

Top 60 zoos with 3 species of otter:

San Diego - river, spot-necked and cape clawless otter
Omaha - river (still there?), small-clawed and spot-necked otter
Minnesota - small-clawed, river and sea otter
 
DavidBrown said:
This thread makes me curious what zoo in the world has the most otter species. The most that I can think of is San Diego Zoo which has North American river otters, African spot-necked otters, and Cape clawless otters (or at least did if not still).

I think a zoo or aquarium should create an exhibit called "OTTER!" with sea otters, giant otters, river otters, Asian-small clawed otters, and the African otter species. You could show different otter behavioral systems and ecological lifestyles. Who wouldn't love that?
Click to expand...

Love the idea of OTTER !

Team Tapir223
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Maritime Aquarium's Meerkat exhibit is alright and a pretty large size for three siblings.
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There are actually six siblings, all from Hogle Zoo. It is still a decent size though.
Back to the original thread topic, these two popular, small mammals seem to pop up everywhere now, and, unlike snowleopard, I thought otters would win. Meerkats and otters can both be in small carnivore houses or children's zoos, so that doesn't prove anything. But in geographically-themed exhibits, meerkats are limited to Africa, but depending on the species, otters in U.S. zoos can be placed in North American, South American, African, Asian, or oceanic exhibits.
 
BeardsleyZooFan said:
There are actually six siblings, all from Hogle Zoo. It is still a decent size though.
Back to the original thread topic, these two popular, small mammals seem to pop up everywhere now, and, unlike snowleopard, I thought otters would win. Meerkats and otters can both be in small carnivore houses or children's zoos, so that doesn't prove anything. But in geographically-themed exhibits, meerkats are limited to Africa, but depending on the species, otters in U.S. zoos can be placed in North American, South American, African, Asian, or oceanic exhibits.
Click to expand...
Don´t forget European. Even if they aren´t very active.
 
Meerkats don't have much of an appeal to me. They're like prairie dogs to me; cute to see at first and take a few photos, but then I quickly move on. I find otters more endearing.
 
DavidBrown said:
This thread makes me curious what zoo in the world has the most otter species. The most that I can think of is San Diego Zoo which has North American river otters, African spot-necked otters, and Cape clawless otters (or at least did if not still).
Click to expand...

Not wanting to get inter-continentally competitive , but I'd point out that the Chestnut Centre in the UK (which specialises in otters & owls) has four species: Eurpoean, North American, Asian Short-clawed & giant).
 
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