Species we have lost over the last quarter of a century

[TeaLovingDave]

I seem to recall reading somewhere (or maybe TLD or someone else on the site told me) that, based on a photo of the animal in question, it doesn't seem like Cincinnati's last Pampas Cat was entirely pure... Or perhaps it was the Geoffroy's Cat that wasn't pure... I don't recall

I believe it was a conversation with myself you are recalling; from photographs of the melanistic Pampas Cats at Cincinatti, I have a suspicion that they had some Geoffroy's Cat lineage; largely due to the shape of the head and length of the pelage, as well as the fact that although melanism is not unknown in wild Pampas Cat, it is extremely uncommon, whilst it is a common mutation in Geoffroy's cat.

Suppose we will never know, however.

 

[gentle lemur]

I think that this is a very interesting thread which will pay dividends by filling holes in the Gallery in the long run. But I would caution against expecting too much. Back in 1990 hardly anyone anticipated that there would be anything like the internet, let alone ZooChat or our Gallery: indeed I never really expected to find more than one or two people who might be interested in the photos of the animals that I had taken in zoos. I certainly was interested in documenting the species that interested me and in particular the rare and beautiful ones, but I was no good at predicting which species would become easier to see in zoos and which would dwindle away.
As I have said before, three of the mammals I always tried to photograph at Regent's Park in the 1970s were the bushdog, the maned wolf and the anoa. In each case they were elderly single specimens, they were the only ones in the UK and only a few other collections in Europe held these species; in addition they were hard to see, let alone to photograph. I felt pleased when I had a decent image of each one. Of course they are now reasonably well established and I have many more pictures of them than I thought possible all those years ago.
I remember the grey foxes at Regent's Park well, their enclosure was very close to the maned wolf's, behind the sea lions. It was netted because they were such good climbers. I may have a photograph of them in my boxes of slides or I may not. There are four reasons why I may not. Firstly the species was and is relatively common in the wild, although it is quite attractive, so I may not have bothered. Secondly those dog dens, like many enclosures in those days, were thoroughly awkward for photography and that extra netting made things worse. Thirdly there were far more species to photograph at the zoo then, as we have said in so many threads, and many of them were at least as interesting and attractive as the grey foxes. Finally, although we had given up on flint tools and daguerrotypes, we still used film: I would go to a zoo with two rolls of Kodachrome, 72 exposures in all (or 74 if I managed to squeeze an extra one on each). I couldn't afford more, I could only use 64 ISO and I couldn't do anything to improve a flawed image on the final slide, so I wouldn't squeeze the shutter until I thought I had a good chance of getting a nice image.
It's easy to forget how much things have changed. I took 565 photos at Paignton yesterday - I have broken off processing them to write this post: I think 4 or 5 will be top quality and a similar number will also be interesting enough to be worth putting in the Gallery and I will just smile as I delete most of the others.
I hope I can fill some gaps in the Gallery eventually, as I'm sure many others will, but I'm afraid many gaps will remain. So let's try to make sure we document the animals we have here today properly to avoid this problem recurring.

Alan

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Pigeon taxa lost over the past 25 years

Yellow-eyed Pigeon (Columba eversmanni) - last held at Riga in 1991. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Grey-faced Quail-dove (Geotrygon caniceps) - last held at Cleres Zoological Park in 1990. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Brown Cuckoo-dove (Macropygia amboinensis) - last held at Zoo Berlin in the early 2000's. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of individuals in Australia.

White-crowned Pigeon (Patagioenas leucocephala) - last held at Veldhoven NOP in 2011. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa) - last held at Dierenpark Emmen in 1995. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

African Mourning Dove (Streptopelia decipiens) - last held at Tiergarten Schönbrunn in 2003. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of wild individuals.

White-faced Cuckoo-dove (Turacoena manadensis) - last held at Bristol Zoo in 1992. The only photograph of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a captive individual in the USA.

Black-billed Wood-dove (Turtur abyssinicus) - last held at Cleres Zoological Park in 1993. The only photograph of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a captive individual in the USA.

Galapagos Dove (Zenaida galapagoensis) - last held at Walsrode in 1997. Although I know of a few Zoochatters who have film photographs of the taxon, the only photograph of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a wild individual on the Galapagos Islands.

American Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) - last held at Rotterdam in 1990. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in the USA.

Inca Dove (Columbina inca) - last held at Paris Menagerie in 1991. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in the USA.

Spinifex Pigeon (Geophaps plumifera) - last held at Birdland in the mid-2000's. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in Australia.

Madagascar Green-pigeon (Treron australis) - last held at Zoo Berlin in 1997. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Orange-breasted Green-pigeon (Treron bicinctus) - last held at Jesperhus Feriepark in 2009. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Little Green-pigeon (Treron olax) - last held at Twycross in 1998. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

White-bellied Green-pigeon (Treron sieboldii) - last held at Zoo Děčín in 2001. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Singing Green-pigeon (Treron sphenurus) - last held at Rotterdam in 2004. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Chestnut-bellied Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula brenchleyi) - last held at Moscow in 1998. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

New Caledonian Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula goliath) - last held at Walsrode in 1994. A single photograph of one of the individuals held has been posted to the Zoochat gallery:

Spectacled Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula perspicillata) - last held at ZSL London in 1999. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Pink-bellied Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula poliocephala) - last held at Bristol in 1992. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in the Philippines.

Purple-tailed Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula rufigaster) - last held at ZSL London in 2010. The only photographs of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in Asia.

Zoe's Imperial-Pigeon (Ducula zoeae) - last held at ZSL London in 2013. A handful of photographs of this taxon in Europe have been posted in the Zoochat gallery, for instance the following image of the final individual:

Black-backed Fruit-dove (Ptilinopus cinctus) - last held at ZSL London in 1994. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

Black-chinned Fruit-dove (Ptilinopus leclancheri) - last held at Tierpark Berlin in 2013. Although relatively common in European collections in the timespan concerned, the only photographs of this taxon posted to the Zoochat gallery have been of captive individuals in the Philippines and USA.

Ornate Fruit-dove (Ptilinopus ornatus) - last held at Plzen in 2010. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

-------

It is evident that for whatever reason, even those pigeon taxa which have been kept in European collections within the very recent past have recieved little attention from Zoochatters. However, I am reasonably confident that Zoochatters may be able to upload photographs for a reasonable number of the taxa noted above - especially those held at Walsrode and ZSL London, I suspect.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I hope I can fill some gaps in the Gallery eventually, as I'm sure many others will, but I'm afraid many gaps will remain. So let's try to make sure we document the animals we have here today properly to avoid this problem recurring.

A very good point indeed and a lesson we sorely need to learn; as noted in the post regarding pigeons which I just uploaded, there are a number of taxa which were present within the UK - never mind Europe - in the last 5 years or so which are entirely unrepresented in the Gallery, and which are now absent from European collections.

In theory the exercise would reap more reliable dividends if I had restricted the timespan to 15 years, of course - the point in time at which digital cameras started making their way onto the market - but it would be much less fun that way

 

[Chlidonias]

Singing Green-pigeon (Treron sphenurus) - last held at Rotterdam in 2004. No photographs of this taxon have been posted to the Zoochat gallery.

I have never heard Wedge-tailed Green Pigeons called that before. Is that because it is a direct translation of a German name (i.e. from Zootierliste)?

 

[kiang]

Perhaps a request across some of the continental European sites, linked back to here may garner some photos.

 

[Chlidonias]

I believe it was a conversation with myself you are recalling; from photographs of the melanistic Pampas Cats at Cincinatti, I have a suspicion that they had some Geoffroy's Cat lineage; largely due to the shape of the head and length of the pelage, as well as the fact that although melanism is not unknown in wild Pampas Cat, it is extremely uncommon, whilst it is a common mutation in Geoffroy's cat.

Suppose we will never know, however.

I'm not sure your position is entirely tenable TLD. The Cincinnati Pampas Cats were all derived from three founder animals, a wild-caught pair imported from Paraguay in 1972 (hence unlikely either would be hybrids) and a male in 1981 (I don't know if this one was wild-caught or captive-bred, so if there was any hybrid blood it would be from this one).

However, it is simply not true that melanism is "extremely uncommon" in Pampas Cats. You might want to read (for example) Recurrent Evolution of Melanism in South American Felids where studies of melanism in South American cats showed (in their study areas) frequency rates of 25% in Pampas Cats versus 20% in Geoffroy's Cats. Indeed the researchers use the words "a relatively high prevalence of melanism" (referring to all three of their study species) which is at odds with your belief.

Basically, given that the three founders at the zoo were known to be Pampas Cats and that melanism in Pampas Cats is not uncommon anyway, it is most likely they are simply melanistic Pampas Cats.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I have never heard Wedge-tailed Green Pigeons called that before. Is that because it is a direct translation of a German name (i.e. from Zootierliste)?

Never heard of the taxon until I came across it on ZTL, so that would indeed explain it where a common name on ZTL doesn't match with the *actual* common name I have been trying to correct them, but that one slipped through.

However, it is simply not true that melanism is "extremely uncommon" in Pampas Cats. You might want to read (for example) Recurrent Evolution of Melanism in South American Felids where studies of melanism in South American cats showed (in their study areas) frequency rates of 25% in Pampas Cats versus 20% in Geoffroy's Cats. Indeed the researchers use the words "a relatively high prevalence of melanism" (referring to all three of their study species) which is at odds with your belief.

Fair enough I had never seen that study before; good to see some small carnivore research taking place in open-access!

That said, regarding my other point, wild origin may not preclude hybrid descent - introgressive hybridisation between Pampas Cat, Oncilla and Geoffroy's Cat in wild populations is recorded. The article you link to actually mentions this in passing:

Inter-species hybridization within Leopardus has been reported; thus, high frequencies of melanism within these species could reflect introgression, an ancient trans-specific polymorphism, or independent evolution after divergence from a common ancestor

This quote cites two studies (sadly not open-access, although the abstracts are interesting) which also discuss this matter:

Inter-species hybridization among Neotropical cats of the genus Leopardus, and evidence for an introgressive hybrid zone between L. geoffroyi and L... - PubMed - NCBI

Molecular data reveal complex hybridization and a cryptic species of neotropical wild cat. - PubMed - NCBI

However, it would appear from the above two studies that Oncilla/Pampas lineage is more likely than Geoffroys/Pampas lineage. The Cincinatti animals could, of course, have been pure individuals - but I still think they don't look quite right

 

[bongorob]

or the Cape Clawless Otter at Chester (which died in the mid-1980s) this would be entirely welcome.

Are you sure about that?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Are you sure about that?

All mention of it seems to have been deleted from ZTL, but certainly at one point there was a claim that there had been a Cape Clawless there until something like 1986........

 

[devilfish]

It's easy to forget how much things have changed. I took 565 photos at Paignton yesterday - I have broken off processing them to write this post: I think 4 or 5 will be top quality and a similar number will also be interesting enough to be worth putting in the Gallery and I will just smile as I delete most of the others.

A very interesting post GL. Out of curiosity, why do you delete your photos?

 

[zooboy28]

This quote cites two studies (sadly not open-access, although the abstracts are interesting) which also discuss this matter:

Inter-species hybridization among Neotropical cats of the genus Leopardus, and evidence for an introgressive hybrid zone between L. geoffroyi and L... - PubMed - NCBI

Molecular data reveal complex hybridization and a cryptic species of neotropical wild cat. - PubMed - NCBI

However, it would appear from the above two studies that Oncilla/Pampas lineage is more likely than Geoffroys/Pampas lineage. The Cincinatti animals could, of course, have been pure individuals - but I still think they don't look quite right

How are you finding these papers? If you use Google Scholar they quite often have freely available PDFs attached, the first you cite above is available for example.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

How are you finding these papers? If you use Google Scholar they quite often have freely available PDFs attached, the first you cite above is available for example.

They were cited and linked to in the open-access article which Chli posted

 

[zooboy28]

They were cited and linked to in the open-access article which Chli posted

No, I meant how are you searching for the papers themselves (once you know the citation), are you just searching via a search engine or an article database (like Web of Science, Google Scholar, etc.). The latter (at least Google Scholar) will get you both the link to the original article and often the full-text even if its not open-access.

 

[gentle lemur]

A very interesting post GL. Out of curiosity, why do you delete your photos?

I have not got unlimited hard disk capacity, so I can't keep everything: but I only delete the photos which are not worth keeping
This could be because of incorrect exposure, poor focus, subject motion blur, camera shake, poor framing, subject blinking or grimacing or posing badly in some other way, obstructions (bars, mesh or twigs blowing in the way - as in the photo of the amazons preening each other) or just because the picture before or after was better.*
Out of the 565 shots I took at Paignton this week, I have kept 221 (which is far more than I really need), processed 15 and posted 12 in the Gallery. I have also backed up the saved files on a separate hard drive. I will probably send the best 6 raw files to cloud storage too, but I haven't got round to that yet.

Alan

* Illustrated by this cartoon which quotes the author of my favourite photography blog CLICKittyCAT.com(ic) PHOTOGRAPHY HUMOR : Photo

 

[TeaLovingDave]

No, I meant how are you searching for the papers themselves (once you know the citation), are you just searching via a search engine or an article database (like Web of Science, Google Scholar, etc.). The latter (at least Google Scholar) will get you both the link to the original article and often the full-text even if its not open-access.

There were links *to* the original articles within the reference citing them so I just followed the links.

I've found the open-access link to the first article now, however.

 

[gentle lemur]

Are you sure about that?

I can't be quite certain, but I am very sceptical indeed.
I haven't seen a Cape clawless since 1973 (in Basle) and that includes 2 years living within their range. A researcher looking for them stayed in our bungalow for a while and he didn't see one either.

Alan

 

[zooboy28]

There were links *to* the original articles within the reference citing them so I just followed the links.

I've found the open-access link to the first article now, however.

Oh right, I get it.
But yes, if the links to the article don't offer full free-text, try Google Scholar.

 

[ThylacineAlive]

Oh right, I get it.
But yes, if the links to the article don't offer full free-text, try Google Scholar.

One would think you were secretly a marketer for Google Scholar with the amount of times you've suggested the name in the last few posts

~Thylo

 

[bongorob]

I can't be quite certain, but I am very sceptical indeed.
I haven't seen a Cape clawless since 1973 (in Basle) and that includes 2 years living within their range. A researcher looking for them stayed in our bungalow for a while and he didn't see one either.

Alan

I believe the listing to be an error. Cape clawless otter was kept between 1951 and 1956, dates not confirmed. Unless someone knows differently.

Perhaps someone misread it as 1981-1986.