Seen all species or subspecies of any animal?

nanoboy

nanoboy

Well-Known Member
I follow a birding website and just saw a comment that a guy was pretty stoked that he saw a brolga in the wild today, meaning that he had now seen all species of cranes.

It got me thinking: which animals have you seen all species of (or subspecies if it's like tigers say or if you are meticulous) either in the wild or in a zoo.
 
I think genera or families might be a better taxonomic unit to complete.

There are some families of animals that are fairly easy to "collect", especially in zoos. These include the very small (1-2 species) families (e.g. ostrich, rheas, secretary bird, platypus, red panda, etc.), and the fairly small (<10 species) families (e.g. Camelids, Pelicans, Bears, etc.). I have collected all species of those examples in zoos. I'm fairly close with cranes, having seen 13/15 species.

Many families (and some genera) are simply too diverse to ever see all of though.
 
I have seen all pelicans, flamingoes, camelids and large bears in zoos, but you only have to visit 3 zoos for that ;), so many others will also have done that. Also nice is the complete great ape family.

From the storks I miss 3 and only 1 crane is missing
 
I've seen all the flamingos and horses too.

A bit of a tricky one would be all the Tapirs (I've seen 3/4), which would require a bit of travel, and all the rhinos.
 
zooboy28 said:
I've seen all the flamingos and horses too.

A bit of a tricky one would be all the Tapirs (I've seen 3/4), which would require a bit of travel, and all the rhinos.
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I've seen all the cranes, and all tapirs, plus both subspecies of Red Panda. I've seen all the great apes (either in the wild or captive) with the exception of Eastern Lowland Gorilla.

And I would have had all the quolls if the chuditch at the Desert Park had been awake and moving last week.

:p

Hix
 
I've never thought about this but now I'm thinking the complete stork-family spring in mind. Also all Pelicans, Great apes, Flamingos and Zebras. From the Crane-family still one is missing and from the Turacos 2 have so far managed the not been seen by me :).
There must be others but this is what springs to my mind directly.
 
I dare say I'm the only person here who has seen all five species of kiwi. I've seen three in captivity, and have seen or heard all five in the wild. So counting both zoos and wild I have physically seen them all.
 
Hix said:
And I would have had all the quolls if the chuditch at the Desert Park had been awake and moving last week.
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All the quolls? Including the 2 New Guinea species (albopunctatus and spartacus)? I've seen the 4 Australian species, but not the New Guinea forms.
I've also seen all species of tapir, crane, stork, and spoonbill, + all the generally-recognised species of crocodilian (but it's now thought there may be 3 species of dwarf crocodile).
 
MikeG said:
All the quolls? Including the 2 New Guinea species (albopunctatus and spartacus)? I've seen the 4 Australian species, but not the New Guinea forms.
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maybe -- he has been collecting in New Guinea! But I think probably he means Australian quolls.....
 
MikeG said:
All the quolls? Including the 2 New Guinea species (albopunctatus and spartacus)?
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Poop. Forgot about the PNG ones. OK, I've only seen half of them.

Pertinax said:
Cross River Gorilla?
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Poop again.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
I've seen all the great apes (either in the wild or captive) with the exception of Eastern Lowland Gorilla.
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Console yourself with the fact this means you have seen all the species-level great apes. :p

MikeG said:
+ all the generally-recognised species of crocodilian (but it's now thought there may be 3 species of dwarf crocodile).
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Including Crocodylus suchus?

My list is rather less impressive, but at species level I have seen all the swans, flamingos, bears and horses, and in terms of wild "sets" I have seen all the UK native mustelids in the wild :) though if one includes the introduced American Mink this achievement falls down.
 
nanoboy said:
I have never seen a Siberian tiger or an Indian rhino, but hey, I've seen a platypus in the wild. :D
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Funny old World isn't it. I can travel 5 miles to see Siberian Tigers and 25 miles to see Indian Rhinos! Yet my chances of ever seeing a Platypus in any environment are as it stands now are not likely in the near future.
 
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TeaLovingDave said:
My list is rather less impressive, but at species level I have seen all the swans, flamingos, bears and horses, and in terms of wild "sets" I have seen all the UK native mustelids in the wild :) though if one includes the introduced American Mink this achievement falls down.
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Do you count feral ferrets in the same category as American mink?

Its fair to say as it stands now (like myself) you have seen all indigenous UK mustelids.

As far as seeing American Mink, I know a few places in Cheshire to see them, but they are getting rarer and rarer. If you want to go a ‘quest’ to see one or two I suggest getting an O/S map and looking for ponds and lakes and have a walk around these, the tell tale signs are easily seen, usually half or hardly eaten fish carcasses at the bankside. I know one very good hotspot but believe you are still not a driver. However more than happy to advise on locations and a good one for polecats too.
 
Pootle said:
Do you count feral ferrets in the same category as American mink?

Its fair to say as it stands now (like myself) you have seen all indigenous UK mustelids.

As far as seeing American Mink, I know a few places in Cheshire to see them, but they are getting rarer and rarer. If you want to go a ‘quest’ to see one or two I suggest getting an O/S map and looking for ponds and lakes and have a walk around these, the tell tale signs are easily seen, usually half or hardly eaten fish carcasses at the bankside. I know one very good hotspot but believe you are still not a driver. However more than happy to advise on locations and a good one for polecats too.
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As far as feral ferrets go, it is six and two threes really, as I have seen both feral ferrets and true polecats in the wild :)

It is, of course, no bad thing that the American Mink is getting rarer and rarer - part of the issue is that in my immediate area (County Durham, North Yorkshire and Northumberland) the resurgence of the Otter has thoroughly decimated the population of American Mink :p a handy little side effect is that water voles are now pretty common in this area.
 
All species of great apes is the most impressing I can come up with. I haven't even seen all species of bears yet (I missed out on the sun bears when I visited Berlin Zoo) so I guess I've got a long way to go. :p

Of course, I only really want to count animal groups with at least five members. Otherwise, I can say I've seen all (living) species of hippos, giraffes, aardvarks, rheas etc.

EDIT: On a second look, I've actually seen all species of geese if you count Wikipedia's definition with only the genera Anser, Branta and Chen. And all species of swans if you consider whistling swan and Bewick's swan the same species.
 
Chlidonias said:
I dare say I'm the only person here who has seen all five species of kiwi. I've seen three in captivity, and have seen or heard all five in the wild. So counting both zoos and wild I have physically seen them all
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I feel as though I saw more than one in the nocturnal house at Willowbank, am I imagining that?
 
zooboy28 said:
I think genera or families might be a better taxonomic unit to complete.

There are some families of animals that are fairly easy to "collect", especially in zoos. These include the very small (1-2 species) families (e.g. ostrich, rheas, secretary bird, platypus, red panda, etc.), and the fairly small (<10 species) families (e.g. Camelids, Pelicans, Bears, etc.). I have collected all species of those examples in zoos. I'm fairly close with cranes, having seen 13/15 species.

Many families (and some genera) are simply too diverse to ever see all of though.
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There are actually 4 subspecies of ostrich;)
 
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