Alcids in America

KCZooFan

KCZooFan

Well-Known Member
I was wondering what alcid species were currently kept in American zoos, and what kind of exhibits they are held in? I have seen common murres, tufted puffins, horned puffins, and rhinocerous auklets at Omaha, Saint Louis, and Lincoln Park. It is such a large and beautiful family of birds, it seems to be underrepressented in American zoos.
 
KCZooFan said:
I was wondering what alcid species were currently kept in American zoos, and what kind of exhibits they are held in? I have seen common murres, tufted puffins, horned puffins, and rhinocerous auklets at Omaha, Saint Louis, and Lincoln Park. It is such a large and beautiful family of birds, it seems to be underrepressented in American zoos.
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I think that not many zoos have exhibits equipped for marine birds probably. They are my wife's favorite bird species, so we are always on the look out for them at zoos or aquariums. I've seen the ones at Omaha that you mentioned. These are the other places that I've seen them:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has tufted puffins in a decently size aquarium tank. They also have common murres (non-releasable rehabbed birds I think; there are wild common murres that you can see from the aquarium deck sometimes).

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach also horned puffins and rhinoceros auklets in an okay indoor aquarium.

The Bronx Zoo has tufted puffins in an exhibit in their aquatic bird house. The Central Park Zoo also has tufted puffins.

The Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington has tufted puffins in a nice large outdoor aviary.

The Oregon Aquarium has tufted puffins in an in a large outdoor aviary.

Sea World San Diego has tufted puffins in a nice large exhibit in the penguin area:

I think that the Cincinnati Zoo has puffins and alcids also?
 
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DavidBrown said:
I think that not many zoos have exhibits equipped for marine birds probably. They are my wife's favorite bird species, so we are always on the look out for them at zoos or aquariums. I've seen the ones at Omaha that you mentioned. These are the other places that I've seen them:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has tufted puffins in a decently size aquarium tank. They also have common murres (non-releasable rehabbed birds I think; there are wild common murres that you can see from the aquarium deck sometimes).

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach also horned puffins and rhinoceros auklets in an okay indoor aquarium.

The Bronx Zoo has tufted puffins in an exhibit in their aquatic bird house. The Central Park Zoo also has tufted puffins.

The Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington has tufted puffins in a nice large outdoor aviary.

The Oregon Aquarium has tufted puffins in an in a large outdoor aviary.

Sea World San Diego has tufted puffins in a nice large exhibit in the penguin area: Puffin Exhibit in SeaWorld San Diego - YouTube

I think that the Cincinnati Zoo has puffins and alcids also?
Click to expand...

Yes Cincinnati has horned puffins and three species of auks, crested, least, and whiskered. The least and the whiskered are the only one's in captivity. They also have pigeon guillemots.
 
The Seattle Aquarium has Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) in addition to Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Tufted Puffins and Common Murres.
The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward has Horned and Tufted Puffins, and Rhinoceros Auklets, in a large 'walk-in' seabird aviary which also holds King Eider, Long-tailed Duck, and Red-legged Kittiwakes.
 
Are there any Atlantic puffins on exhibit in any zoos or aquariums in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world? Seems strange that there wouldn't be seeing as there are many tufted and horned puffin exhibits.
 
In Europe several Zoos has them:


I've seen them in Lisbon, Tenerife and Rotterdam. For the rest they can be seen in Kopenhagen, Bern and Hamburg. Most birds came from legally gathered eggs that were hatched in captivity. The birds in Kopenhagen and Hamburg seem to be still off-show.
 
The Idaho Aquarium in Boise has horned puffins (apparently).

Also Point Defiance Zoo has Common Murres in with their Tufted Puffins.
 
The montreal biodome had puffins, auklets and murres according to a guidebook from 2000. I remember seeing puffins at the National aquarium in Batimore a few years ago, but no guidebook was available then.
 
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