The original inhabitants of this exhibit were Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) and I saw those animals in 2003. I believe that they were then replaced with Chinese goral (Naemorhedus griseus) prior to them acquiring Transcaspian urial (Ovis arkal). The urial, though a fascinating addition to the zoo's collection, seem bio-climatically out of place in the Tropics Trail. Does anyone know where Minnesota Zoo's urial were originally sourced from or if they ever bred them?
I’m pretty sure they either got theirs from saint Louis or the nearby hermker park zoo. They also plan to build a new outdoor exhibit fr the urials along with the red pandas. You can also find photos of the exhibits when it exhibited the Nilgiri tahrs in the gallery.
@Dhole dude ah thank you for letting me know. I would have assumed St. Louis Zoo or Hemker Park Zoo myself, especially the former... Now that you mention it, I think I remember seeing photos of Nilgiri tahr at Minnesota Zoo in the gallery uploaded by @dmanwarren
@geomorph very nice. Did you photograph them? I will say that Chinese goral are bio-climatically more appropriate for a Tropics Trail then Transcaspian urial. Why did they decide to phase out goral and replace them with urial? Ideally I would would have liked them to keep the Nilgiri tahr, Chinese goral and the Transcaspian urial, but the question would have been about space.
I think the species changes were driven by the general decline in caprine diversity in American zoos. MN Zoo was one of the last AZA zoos to hold Nilgiri Tahr and swapped them out for Goral around the same time they disappeared from other holders. Goral are also now disappearing and I don't think there were any available when theirs died, explaining the more recent switch to Urial.
