Species we have lost over the last quarter of a century

I have just posted this image of a kelp goose from Blackbrook. It is actually a re-post was it was purged some time ago - but it's my favourite black and white photo in colour.



The good news is that I have photos of Falklands steamer ducks (Martin Mere and, I think, Slimbridge), Antarctic skua (Regent's Park) and king cormorant (the old Birdland) plus from Slimbridge the wonderful musk duck (which went just before your cut-off date) and possibly some others from the old days.
The bad news is that they are all slides and my last bout of scanning came to an end when my scanner broke down. I'll see what I can do, but don't hold your breath :rolleyes:

Alan
 
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Been patient thus far :p and as such I can continue to be so!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Quite possible; that said, the Slimbridge listing for the species notes both a failed import in 1955 as well as, intriguingly, a reference to the species being present at the collection into the 1990's. As Slimbridge held - and still holds - NZ Brown Teal, one would imagine that they would know the difference between the two taxa. This would tend to imply there were some knocking around in Europe at the time.

Wuppertal guidebooks at the time always contained a stocklist - I'll see if I can find any guidebooks in my collection which list the birds in question, to see if they are listed at species level (in which case your theory will likely be correct) or subspecies level (in which case the listing might well be accurate, but we'll be left with even more questions.)
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yes, Slimbridge obtained three definite Auckland Island teal in 1955 but they did not survive long and did not breed. I don't give much credence to the bald "to 199?" on Zootierliste.

The London Zoo specimen from 1895 was an Auckland Island teal. I think the others listed on Zootierliste (at Berlin and Wuppertal) are just brown teal. Vogelcommando says the Wuppertal stock-list just says Anas aucklandica.
 
A bunch of shorebirds and other such taxa now.........

Waders lost since 1990

Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) - this taxon was last held in 1998 at Tierpark Berlin. There are no images of this taxon on the Zoochat gallery.

Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa) - this taxon was last held in the early 2000's at Zoo Berlin. The only images of this taxon on the Zoochat gallery are of wild individuals in Central America.

Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis) - this taxon was last held in 1998 at Zoo Krefeld. There are no images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery.

American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) - this taxon was last held in c.2007 at Oceanario Lisbon. The only images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of wild and captive individuals in North America.

American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) - this taxon was last held in the early 1990s at Tierpark Bochum. The only images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery are of wild and captive individuals in North America.

Temminck's Courser (Cursorius temminckii) - this taxon was last held in 2014 at Tierpark Dählhölzli, one of several collections to hold this species during the timespan in question. There are a handful of photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image from Blackbrook Zoo:



Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Pairi Daiza. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Heuglin's Courser (Rhinoptilus cinctus) - this taxon was last held in the early 1990s at Zoo Krefeld. The only image of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery is of a wild individual in Tanzania.

Puna Two-banded Plover (Charadrius alticola) - this taxon was last held in 2001 at Drusillas Zoo Park. There are no images of this taxon in the Zoochat gallery.

Chestnut-banded Plover (Charadrius pallidus) - this taxon was last held in 2012 at Zurich Voliere, one of several collections to hold the species within the timespan in question. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) - this taxon was last held in 1998 at Tiergarten Schönbrunn. The only image of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery is of a captive individual in the USA.

Grey-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) - this taxon was last held in 1990 at Zoo Dresden. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild individuals in Australia and a captive individual in Burma.

Senegal Lapwing (Vanellus lugubris) - this taxon was last held in 2007 at Palmitos Park. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Black-winged Lapwing (Vanellus melanopterus) - this taxon was last held in the early 2000s at Zoo Augsburg. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Southern Masked Lapwing (Vanellus novaehollandiae) - this taxon was last held in 1998 at Rotterdam. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) - this taxon was last held in 2009 at Zoo de Santillana. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Great Snipe (Gallinago media) - this taxon was last held in 2004 at Plzen. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Stilt Sandpiper (Micropalama himantopus) - this taxon was last held in 1993 at Bristol. The only image of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery is a photograph of a wild individual in the United States.

Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicaria) - this taxon was last held in 2004 at Plzen. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are photographs of wild individuals in the United States and Iceland.

Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus) - this taxon was last held in c.2004 at Helsinki Zoo. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) - this taxon was last held in 2006 at Warsaw Zoo. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild individuals in the UK and Tanzania.
 
Just a side-note : it's almost unbelieveble that with more than a quarter of a million pictures in the Gallery so many species are still not represented in the Gallery !!!
 
vogelcommando said:
Just a side-note : it's almost unbelieveble that with more than a quarter of a million pictures in the Gallery so many species are still not represented in the Gallery !!!
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I don't think it's such a big surprise. There are a great many photos of enclosures, signs and other inanimate subjects in the Gallery, plus wildlife too. It is natural that most of the zoo animal photos are of fairly common species and of high profile rarities like pandas and polar bears. Some of the creatures in this thread were only kept in small numbers in one or two zoos and 20 years ago far fewer photos were taken in zoos and many of the enclosures made photography quite difficult.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
Some of the creatures in this thread were only kept in small numbers in one or two zoos and 20 years ago far fewer photos were taken in zoos and many of the enclosures made photography quite difficult.
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There are, of course, quite a few species lost significantly more recently and which one would have thought would have been photographed; among those I can think of are the Northern Giant Mouse Lemur, which was held in about half a dozen UK collections in the last decade or so before the last individual died at Marwell in 2009 and the Crinkle-collared Manucode which was at Zoo Berlin until 2008 and which has gone entirely unrecorded in the Zoochat gallery despite the Trumpet Manucode which shared the aviary being perhaps the most-photographed Bird of Paradise in Europe!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) - this taxon was last held in 2005 at Chester Zoo; the individual in question was a rescue bird found in a Shropshire field which survived for less than 24 hours, and as such there are no images within the Zoochat gallery. However, photographs of the bird were taken and published online; as such, considering how unusual this listing is, a link to a journal article about the bird - including photographs - can be found here. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of a wild individual in Mexico.
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Just to add a bit to the tell of the one that was at Chester for a very brief time a certain Curator that doesn't do birds beat the staff sent to pick it up by about 5 minutes so that he could count it as a wild bird seen!!!
 
um, the bird had been held at a wildlife hospital since the previous day before the Chester staff got there. It couldn't be counted on a list of wild birds any more than it could if the guy had just waited to see it after it arrived at the zoo!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
There are, of course, quite a few species lost significantly more recently and which one would have thought would have been photographed; among those I can think of are the Northern Giant Mouse Lemur, which was held in about half a dozen UK collections in the last decade or so before the last individual died at Marwell in 2009.
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An example that proves my point. The species was kept in 3 UK zoos, if Zootierliste is correct (although I accept that it may not be). As a nocturnal species it would either have been kept under reversed lighting, which makes photography difficult, or under normal lighting, when the animal spends most of the day in its nest box, provided that it was not kept off-show in the first place.
I visited Marwell in 2007 and saw an exhibit in the lemur area with a display board about this species, then known as coquereli. It was an indoor exhibit, under normal lighting and, if I remember correctly, there was no sign of any animal being present. I did revisit the area, with same result, and formed the impression that the animal(s) had either died or been taken off-show (Marwell certainly held several small mammal species off-show at that time).

Alan
 
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Reckon I shall get through some Ciconiiformes now.....

Heron taxa lost since 1990

Chinese Pond-heron (Ardeola bacchus) - this taxon was last held in c.2012 at Vogelpark Niendorf, one of several collections within the timespan in question to hold the species. The only image of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery is of a wild individual in Malaysia.

Green Heron (Butorides virescens) - this taxon was last held in 2010 at L'Oceanogràfic. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild and captive individuals in North America.

Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) - this taxon was last held in 2004 at Tierpark Berlin. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild and captive individuals in North America.

Pacific Reef-Egret (Egretta sacra) - this taxon was last held in 1995 at Zoo Augsburg. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild individuals in South-east Asia and the Pacific islands.

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Vogelpark Bobenheim-Roxheim. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of wild and captive individuals in North America.

Stork taxa lost since 1990

Asian Open-billed Stork (Anastomus oscitans) - this taxon was last held in 2015 at Walsrode, one of a handful of European collections to hold the species within the timespan in question. There are a few images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph taken at Walsrode in 2013:



Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) - this taxon was last held in 1996 at Wuppertal. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in Asia, North America and Australia.

Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Vogelpark Niendorf, one of a number of European collections to hold the species within the timespan in question. There are a handful of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following photograph of the final individual in Europe a few months before it died:



Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) - this taxon was last held in 2004 at Prague, one of a number of European collections to hold the species within the timespan in question. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in Asia.

Ibis taxa lost since 1990

Red-naped Ibis (Pseudibis papillosa) - this taxon was last held in 2005 at Walsrode, one of several European collections to hold the species within the timespan in question. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Plumbeous Ibis (Theristicus caerulescens) - this taxon was last held in 1997 at Zoo Berlin. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

---

It is worth noting that there are quite a few taxa not mentioned above - especially among the storks and herons - which may well now be absent from Europe, having diminished to single individuals at a single collection. As chance would have it, the bulk of these are held at Vogelpark Niendorf, a collection I plan to visit in June 2016, and as such I may be able to add a few more taxa to the list then..... although for obvious reasons I hope I do not, both because the loss of a taxon is always a pity and because all the taxa concerned would comprise lifeticks! :p
 
A bunch of odds and ends which have traditionally - and often incorrectly - been lumped together within the Gruiformes.......

Bustard taxa lost since 1990

Black Bustard (Afrotis afra) - this taxon was last held in 2000 at Paignton. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

White-quilled Bustard (Afrotis afraoides) - this taxon was last held in 1995 at Frankfurt. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Buff-crested Bustard (Lophotis gindiana) - this taxon was last held in 1991 at Tiergarten Schönbrunn. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive individuals in North America, and wild individuals in Africa.

Rail taxa lost since 1990

Grey-necked Wood-rail (Aramides cajaneus) - this taxon was last held in 2011 at Dierenpark Emmen, one of a number of collections within Europe to hold the species during the timespan in question. The only images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery are of captive and wild individuals in North America.

Gough Moorhen (Gallinula comeri) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Curraghs Wildlife Park, having been held at a staggering 22 European collections within the timespan in question, the vast majority of which were within the United Kingdom and regularly bred the taxon. As such it is somewhat surprising that there is only a single image of the species within the Zoochat gallery, the following image taken in 2004 at Bristol Zoo:



Slaty-breasted Rail (Gallirallus striatus) - this taxon was last held in 2001 at Wilhelma. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Lewin`s Rail (Lewinia pectoralis) - this taxon was last held in the mid-1990s at Zoo Berlin. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Allen's Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni) - this taxon was last held in 2006 at Jerez, one of a handful of collections to hold the species within the timespan concerned. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Azure Gallinule (Porphyrio flavirostris) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Prague, when an import was briefly quarantined offshow there. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

American Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus) - this taxon was last held in 1996 at Walsrode, one of a handful of European collections to hold this taxon within the timespan in question. There are a small number of images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, however the only photograph taken within a European collection is the following image from Bristol Zoo in 1986:



African Swamphen (Porphyrio madagascariensis) - this taxon was last held in 2011 at Colchester. There are a number of photographs of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery, including the following image of the last individual in Europe:



White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea) - this taxon was last held in 2011 at Burgers Zoo. There is a single image of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery:



Ruddy-breasted Crake (Porzana fusca) - this taxon was last held in 2007 at Plzen. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Band-bellied Crake (Porzana paykullii) - this taxon was last held in 1995 at Dortmund. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Red-legged Crake (Rallina fasciata) - this taxon was last held in 2010 at Plzen. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Red-necked Crake (Rallina tricolor) - this taxon was last held in 2008 at Plzen. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Trumpeter taxa lost since 1990

Green-winged Trumpeter (Psophia viridis) - this taxon was last held in 1993 at Vogelpark Avifauna. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Buttonquail taxa lost since 1990

Common Buttonquail (Turnix sylvaticus) - this taxon was last held in 1996 at Leipzig. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Yellow-legged Buttonquail (Turnix tanki) - this taxon was last held in 2007 at Dvur Kralove. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.

Mesite taxa lost since 1990

Subdesert Mesite (Monias benschi) - this taxon was last held in 2002 at Walsrode. There are no images of this taxon within the Zoochat gallery.
 
With 22 collections holding the species and regular breeding, what happened to the Gough Moorhen population? I'm not an expert on rails, but I wouldn't imagine the taxa would be one that would have presented too much of a challenge in keeping, and being an endangered island bird that bred well I'd imagine there'd be interest in keeping them. Seems like a quick downfall for what seems to be a relatively common species in the Europe (especially the UK).

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
With 22 collections holding the species and regular breeding, what happened to the Gough Moorhen population? I'm not an expert on rails, but I wouldn't imagine the taxa would be one that would have presented too much of a challenge in keeping, and being an endangered island bird that bred well I'd imagine there'd be interest in keeping them. Seems like a quick downfall for what seems to be a relatively common species in the Europe (especially the UK).

~Thylo:cool:
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I don't know offhand, but I imagine it would be either due to the breeding rate still being exceeded by the rate of death - unlikely I suspect, considering how common it was and the length of time some collections kept the taxon - or due to collections simply losing interest in keeping the species.

In the timespan in question, the following collections held the species according to ZTL:

Wilhelma - held c.1975 until 1995 (bred 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983)
Budapest - held 2000 until 2006 ( no breeding listed)
Vogelpark Avifauna - held 1990 until 2002 (bred 1991, 1993, 1994)
Artis - held 1972 until 2003 ( regular breeding between 1972 and 1999)
Poznan Nowe - held 1991 until 2004 (bred 1992)
Basel - held 1969 until 1994 (bred 1990, 1993 at least)
Lotherton - held 1993 until 2007 (bred 1996, 2003)
Bristol - held 1999 until 2005 (no breeding listed)
Chester - held 1990 until 2003 (bred 1994, 1998)
Tilgate Nature Centre - held 1993 until 1997 (no breeding listed)
Banham - held 1990 until 2000 (bred 1993, 1994)
Paultons Park - held 1992 until ???? (no breeding listed)
Hayle - held 1990 until 1995 (bred 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994)
Harewood - held 1995 until 2001 (no breeding listed)
Gatwick - held 1996 until 1997 ( no breeding listed)
ZSL London - held 1956 until 2000 (regular breeding from 1958, final breedings in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997)
Newquay - 1992 until 1997 (no breeding listed)
Paignton - 1990 until 1999 (bred 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996)
Twycross - 1992 until 2002 (no breeding listed)
Curraghs - 1994 until 2008 (no breeding)
Amazon World - 1997 until 2000 (no breeding listed)
 
Funny but I had a talk with devilfish about this species last saturday while walking along the cage it was kept in ( now it house a pair of Red-billed currasows ). The original birds were brought illegaly to Europe and offered to several zoos but most refused them, the price being to high ! Evenso later several ended up at several zoos ( confistigated, price dropped ??? I'm not sure, have to check that one ) and as stated already, bred quite well. Inbreeding and hybridisation with common moorhen made the population almost infirtile and so the species disappeared from Europe :(. I have a slide of one of the birds at Artis made somewhere in the 1990-ties, as soon as I've found it I will place it in the Gallery.
 
Very interesting; I presume the birds in question were distinct from the London bloodline, looking at the dates of when collections went into the species. By the by, it is a real pity you presumably cannot make it to the Zoochat walk and talk at Chester; I am certain a lot of us would love to meet you!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Very interesting; I presume the birds in question were distinct from the London bloodline, looking at the dates of when collections went into the species. By the by, it is a real pity you presumably cannot make it to the Zoochat walk and talk at Chester; I am certain a lot of us would love to meet you!
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No and no....
First Artis obtained some wild-caught birds and I don't think Zootierliste is right with the year 1972 for the first birds at Artis, I'm quite sure they had them earlier ( have to check ).
And no, I can't make it to the Zoochat walk and talk :( ( but in fact I would love to be there ....maybe next time ! ).
 
Did a quick search and found the following : "Amsterdam ( Artis ) Zoo in the Netherlands has maintained a captive population of these birds since aquiring five in 1956 and two more a few years later: between 1964 and 1983 at least 54 young were produced, 17 surviving more than a year ( the longevity being 13 years and a few months) and there were seven adults and three chicks in the zoo at June 1984".
 
Image of Gough Island moorhen at Lotherton Hall posted in Gallery. It's a pretty low quality scan from a contrasty slide, but it gives an impression of the species.



Alan
 
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