Mexican animal-species in western zoos

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
By reading the discusion by the photo of the Yucatan brown brocket deer in the Xcaret Park Gallery I was wondering which Mexican endemics are kept in western zoos.
To start I know of the Marroon-fronted parrots at Loro Parque ( present ) and the historical holdings of Vulcan rabbits at Jersey and Antwerp.
In privat collections there are also several chiclids and live-baring fishes, several of which are extinct in the wild !
The most commonly kept and bred species is probebly the Thick-billed parrot which is not completly endemic ( it also occur(ed ? ) in the USA ) but it's main distribution is in Mexico.
 
Well there are Peninsular pronhorns (Antilocapra americana peninsularis) in a few American zoos and Los Angeles Zoo is one of them, and according to Ultimate Ungulate, the San Diego Wild Animal Park had Mexican bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana), I cant really think of other endemic mexican wildlife in western zoos, but I would like to see more endemic mexican wildlife in western zoos like Yucatan brown brockets and Volcano rabbits, especially here in the United States, and btw @Vogelcommando, Nice thread idea !!!
 
I imagine the most commonly kept and bred Mexican endemic, which is actually a critically endangered species, would be the Axolotl. They are kept as pets in NZ, and presumably other parts of the world, and are found in many European zoo collections (110 according to zootierliste), as well as in Australasia (don't know about America, but probably there too).
 
thank you for this interesting thread vogelcommando. There are no socorro island doves in any mexican zoos, yet they are present in various UK Collections. Africam safari park has sent horned guans to ST. Louis zoo and mexican red brocket deer to Phoenix zoo.It is really a pity that the axolotl so common in acuaria,seems to be doomed in its native state, since the detriorating condition of lake xochimilco here in mexico city seems to be irreversible.
 
Last edited:
When I was at Le Parc Des Felins (France) recently, one of their margay enclosures was listed as the west Mexican subspecies.

Speaking of cats, it would be really nice if some of our Southwest US zoos could start a breeding program for the Sonoran jaguar that lives in Northern Mexico and occasionally crosses the border over here in Southern Arizona. Phoenix Zoo got one a couple years ago for medical treatment from the zoo in Hermosillo, Mexico. They were going to breed it with their female (though she was not a Sonoran subspecies), but then the zoo in Hermosillo asked to have him back.
 
I imagine the most commonly kept and bred Mexican endemic, which is actually a critically endangered species, would be the Axolotl. They are kept as pets in NZ, and presumably other parts of the world, and are found in many European zoo collections (110 according to zootierliste), as well as in Australasia (don't know about America, but probably there too).

Axolotls are available as pets in the US. Mexico has quite a few species that would make great additions to zoos. I think it would be neat to have an exhibit in one of the border states that exhibited animals found south of the border. I think people could be surprised at what is found in Mexico.
 
From the top of my head, the Los Angeles Zoo has Mexican Lance-headed Rattlesnakes, Giant Horned Lizards, San Esteban chuckwalla, Baja Blue Rock Lizard, Mexican Black-Tailed Horned Viper, Mexican leaf frog, Baja California rat snake, Axolotl, Peninsular Pronghorn, and a species of Shovel-headed Tree frog.
 
One half of the Dallas World Aquarium's indoor rainforest area is devoted to Mexican species.
 
I must be ashamed .... I forgot about the Axolotl ! I´ve kept them privatly and also took care for them at a zoo and of course this must be the most commonly kept and bred Mexican endemic !
 
From the top of my head, the Los Angeles Zoo has Mexican Lance-headed Rattlesnakes, Giant Horned Lizards, San Esteban chuckwalla, Baja Blue Rock Lizard, Mexican Black-Tailed Horned Viper, Mexican leaf frog, Baja California rat snake, Axolotl, Peninsular Pronghorn, and a species of Shovel-headed Tree frog.

Besides the Peninsular pronghorn, did Los Angeles Zoo actually import those animals from Mexico ?
 
Indigo, most of the reptiles were collected by zoo staff working in conjunction with one of the Mexican Universities and San Diego Zoo staff. Los Angeles put in for long permit process and was approved by the Mexican government.
 
The Mexican wolf seems to be just a name, isn't it? As I see on web it's distribution is in USA. Another animal is House finch / Carpodacus mexicanus. Once again we see "mexicanus" here but it's distribution spreads all over the USA I think. Anyway, we have a breeding pair of these finches in Nahariya - Israel.
 
Found this list of animals unique to Mexico

Mammals include the Vaquita, the Yucatan Brown Brocket , the Pygmy Raccoon , the Pygmy Spotted Skunk , Nelson’s Small-eared Shrew, the Fish-eating Bat, the Mexican Agouti, the Mexican Prairie Dog, the Tropical Ground Squirrel, the Chiapan Climbing Rat, the Tehuantepec Jackrabbit, and, as a breeding species, the Guadalupe Fur Seal. Mammals representing endemic genera include the Volcano Rabbit, the Gray Mouse Opossum, Buller’s Pocket Gopher, Thomas' Giant Deer Mouse, the Magdalena Rat, and the Banana Bat.

Birds include the Blue-capped Hummingbird, the Short-crested Coquette, the Citreoline Trogon, the Bearded Wood-partridge, the Rufous-bellied Chachalaca, the Elegant Quail, the Thick-billed Parrot, the Mexican Parrotlet, the Socorro Dove, the Tufted Jay, the Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Nava's Wren, the Red-breasted Chat, the Orange-breasted Bunting, and several possibly extinct species: the Imperial Woodpecker, the Cozumel Thrasher, and the Guadalupe Storm-petrel.

Mexico has an exceptional endemic reptile fauna (second only to Australia) including an endemic family, the Bipedidae, that includes the Baja California Worm Lizard. Other reptiles restricted to Mexico include the Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake, Dunn’s Hog-nosed Viper, the Mexican Horned Pitviper, the Giant Hook-nosed Snake, the Ridge-headed Snake, the Oaxacan Spiny-tailed Iguana, the Puebla Knob-scaled Lizard, the Mexican Blind Lizard, the Bromeliad Arboreal Alligator Lizard, the San Esteban Island Chuckwalla, the Coahuilan Box Turtle, and the Bolson Tortoise.

Amphibians include the West Mexico Leaf Frog, the Shovel-headed Treefrog, the Dwarf Mexican Treefrog, Schultze's Mountain Stream Frog, the Axolotl, the Bigfoot Splayfoot Salamander, the Cerro Baul Dwarf Bromeliad Salamander, Townsend’s Dwarf Salamander, the Golden Thorius, and the Oaxacan Caecilian.

The Chiapas Catfish is the sole member of the endemic family Lacantuniidae. Other endemic freshwater fish include the Mexican Blindcat, the Blind Swamp Eel, the Mexican Blind Brotula, the Sarabia Cichlid, the Cuatro Ciénegas Cichlid, the Twoline Pupfish, the Tequila Splitfin, the Golden Skiffia, the Montezuma Swordtail, and the Mexican Golden Trout. Endemic marine fish include the Gulf Flashlightfish, the Coral Toadfish, the Plume Tube Blenny, the Blue-spotted Jawfish, the Clarion Damselfish, the Leopard Grouper, the Totoaba, the Gecko Goby, the Cortez Round Stingray, and the Lucas Barracuda.

Insects known only from Mexico include a swallowtail Baronia brevicornis, the Social White Eucheira socialis, Minerva's Owl Butterfly, a moon moth Actias truncatipennis, a damselfly Paraphlebia zoe, a jewel scarab Chrysina macropus, an elephant beetle Megasoma nogueirai, and an endemic grasshopper family, the Xyronotidae. A rich cave fauna includes a shrimp Creaseria morleyi, an endemic scorpion family, the Typhlochactidae, and an endemic millipede family, the Typhlobolellidae. Endemic marine molluscs include the Black Murex, a chiton Lepidozona clathrata, and a cone shell Conus kerstitchi. Other endemic invertebrates include the Mexican Rustleg Tarantula, a crayfish Cambarellus montezumae, a mussel Friersonia iridella and a freshwater snail Mexipyrgus carranzae.
 
Estimado Alex Kant, canis lupus baileyi was found in Mexico until the sixties or seventies. When i did fieldwork in the copper canyon of chihuahua i met various people who had seen and shot wolves. This was in the eighties and no lobos were left. The current mexican wolves come from 2 captive groups. One was from the San Juan de aragon zoo in mexico city and the other group was from the arizona sonora desert museum. These were the last pure lobos. Currently there are about 350 lobos left. The only reintroduction program to the wild that has been successfull is in the southwestern United states, in a protected area of New mexico, which was part of the native range of the lobos. Attempts to reintroduce lobos to the wild in mexico have failed because of poisoning.
That said, there are several interesting species that are endemic to both Chiapas state and Guatemala.The resplandescent queztal and the horned guan come to mind.
 
Found this list of animals unique to Mexico - Amphibians include the West Mexico Leaf Frog, the Shovel-headed Treefrog, the Dwarf Mexican Treefrog, Schultze's Mountain Stream Frog, the Axolotl, the Bigfoot Splayfoot Salamander, the Cerro Baul Dwarf Bromeliad Salamander, Townsend’s Dwarf Salamander, the Golden Thorius, and the Oaxacan Caecilian
Another endemic Mexican amphibian is Anderson's Salamander (Ambystoma andersoni) from Lago Zacapu. It is held by a few European collections, including Chester and Paignton in the UK.
 
Estimado Alex Kant, canis lupus baileyi was found in Mexico until the sixties or seventies. When i did fieldwork in the copper canyon of chihuahua i met various people who had seen and shot wolves. This was in the eighties and no lobos were left. The current mexican wolves come from 2 captive groups. One was from the San Juan de aragon zoo in mexico city and the other group was from the arizona sonora desert museum. These were the last pure lobos. Currently there are about 350 lobos left. The only reintroduction program to the wild that has been successfull is in the southwestern United states, in a protected area of New mexico, which was part of the native range of the lobos. Attempts to reintroduce lobos to the wild in mexico have failed because of poisoning.
That said, there are several interesting species that are endemic to both Chiapas state and Guatemala.The resplandescent queztal and the horned guan come to mind.

Thank you very much for this very interesting information!
 
Thank you Keith8404 for the ( complete ? ) list, very impresive !

You're welcome. I simply found it online and copied and pasted it, so I have no idea if it is complete or even accurate. If it is accurate, it is a pretty impressive array of creatures. A zoo building or section devoted just to Mexico could clearly be very interesting.
 
Thank you Keith8404 for the ( complete ? ) list, very impresive !

Very interesting list and an excellent introduction, but not even close to complete. Smaller Mexican vertebrates (fish, reptiles and amphibians) are widely present in captivity, both in zoos and among private keepers. Mexican endemic tarantulas are also widely present in captivity, though Aphonopelma moorei, arguably the most strikingly colored tarantula in the country (resembling Venezuela's Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens), is absent.
However, for many groups there really isn't much interest and they're rare/absent in captivity. For example, the Neotropical silverside fish of the genus Chirostoma are entirely restricted to the strongly polluted Lerma River basin in Mexico. While they belong to a group where captive breeding may not be realistic at present, I'm not aware of any zoo/aquarium showing interest in them either -- their appearance is pretty boring to all but hardcore fish fans.
Another group notably absent are the often arboreal salamanders of the genus Bolitoglossa (Fort Worth's B. dofleini being the only exception as far as I know). There are Bolitoglossa species throughout large parts of tropical America including endemics in Mexico. However, they've proven to be very hard to keep alive in captivity and almost always die very fast. Unfortunately they're also hard hit by the extinction crisis that affects many frogs.
Most axolotls in captivity are domesticated forms that are of little use from a conservation point of view. One can compare it to the captive long-tailed chinchillas: very rare in the wild, but the ones in captivity have been bred so much for specific features that they are quite different from the wild ones.

The pattern is somewhat similar in mammals and birds. As such, most endemic mammals and birds have received little, if any interest and the ones present in captivity are the ones considered 'interesting' to ordinary zoo visitors or animal keepers, e.g. purplish-backed jay and various parrots.

Finally it is worth noting that among larger animals Mexico has far more near-endemics because several of the major zoogeographic regions in the country extend slightly into adjacent countries (found in Mexico and a bit of adjacent countries; USA [California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico], Guatemala, Belize). If including those Mexican near-endemics, the list of larger species kept in captivity grows quite substantially to include things such as Mexican wolf, Yucatan brocket, ocellated turkey, horned guan and thick-billed parrot.
 
Last edited:
I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of Mexican species in US zoos. Although, technically, an American Beaver does have range in Mexico and could be considered a Mexican species! The same goes for American Bison. American Black Bears also live in Mexico, and they are fairly common in zoos.
 
Back
Top