My wish list to see would have to be:
1/ Pink-headed Duck; if we had had them in the UK a decade or two longer they would probably have survived in aviculture. AND I've handled a skin...
2/ Passenger Pigeon -- another species that could so easily have survived in aviculture. nodody has yet come back to me with an answer as whether they ever bred at London Zoo
3/ Carolina Parrakeet
4/ Thylacine
5/ Quagga; again, it should have been easy to establish a captive population if anyone had tried. Did anyone like Blauw ever breed them?
6/ Javan Rhino; small chance of ever seeing a live one
7/ Sumatran Rhino; slightly better chance of seeing a live one.
BUT, isn't it wonderful we have good numbers of Southern White Rhino, Nene, Laysan Teal, Edwards' Pheasants, Takhi, Pere David's Deer and so on?
Did that chap Alfred Ezra at Foxwarren ever breed Pink headed Ducks, or did he just maintain them successfully?
I believe they were thought to be an aberrant form of Pochard, so probably not too diffiult to breed with settled stock.
I believe Quaggas were bred(?) at the Earl of Derby's Knowsley collection, but no one else really bothered- and then suddenly it was too late...
And yes, very lucky there are so many other 'near misses' when it comes to great rarity/exinctions. Though some of them we perhaps rather take for granted nowadays since their numbers have increased again.
A very strange animal-it looks rather like a Coyote with a bushy white-tipped tail. Isn't there a theory they were actually just a species of South American Fox (Cuon?) and were introduced, not native to the Falklands?
Did that chap Alfred Ezra at Foxwarren ever breed Pink headed Ducks, or did he just maintain them successfully?
I believe they were thought to be an aberrant form of Pochard, so probably not too diffiult to breed with settled stock.
I believe Quaggas were bred(?) at the Earl of Derby's Knowsley collection, but no one else really bothered- and then suddenly it was too late...
And yes, very lucky there are so many other 'near misses' when it comes to great rarity/exinctions. Though some of them we perhaps rather take for granted nowadays since their numbers have increased again.
Alfred Ezra had Pink-headed Ducks living ten years and more, but never bred them. As far as I know nobody else did either. Ezra bred White-backed Ducks [I think the Madagascar form] which are usually considered difficult. I think Delacour also kept Pink-headed in good health for many years without breeding. When I find the paper I have about the Knowsley collection, I'll check it for breeding Quagga; I rather think they didn't. They did of course have first breedings with a lot of things.
Alfred Ezra had Pink-headed Ducks living ten years and more, but never bred them. As far as I know nobody else did either.
When I find the paper I have about the Knowsley collection, I'll check it for breeding Quagga; I rather think they didn't. They did of course have first breedings with a lot of things.
That's what I thought. I've seen a photo of them on the lake at Foxwarren with other waterfowl. When I saw/examined those skins in Bombay I found the drakes' heads and necks really were a bright pink!
Not sure about Knowsley actually breeding quaggas, maybe not. Didn't he drive a carriage using them? I know they bred Passenger Pigeons.
Passenger Pigeon -- another species that could so easily have survived in aviculture. nodody has yet come back to me with an answer as whether they ever bred at London Zoo
In an attempt to answer your question, I have been looking through various editions of that useful publication “List of Vertebrated Animals Exhibited in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London”. Various passenger pigeons are listed as being in the collection; the earliest I have found was a female acquired on 8th March 1852. However, I have found no reference to passenger pigeons breeding at the zoo. (I am not categorically stating that passenger pigeons were not bred at the zoo, but I have found no evidence that they did.)
When I find the paper I have about the Knowsley collection, I'll check it for breeding Quagga; I rather think they didn't. They did of course have first breedings with a lot of things.
Apologies for another digression, that has nothing to do with Javan rhinos, but I don’t think quagga were bred at Knowsley either.
Interestingly, though, the Knowsley quagga mare, that was purchased by Amsterdam Zoo after the Earl of Derby died, subsequently gave birth to a hybrid foal to an Asiatic wild ass in Amsterdam.
I've seen the (little) Aviary at Cincinnati Zoo where the very last Passenger pigeon, the female called 'Martha' died. They keep it as a sort of 'museum' exhibit in the zoo.
If you want to see what Passenger Pigeon was like there are plenty of museum specimens, while the extant North American Mourning Dove is a very similar, though smaller version of it.
