Edinburgh Zoo Animals held at Edinburgh zoo in the past

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Following a trend here

Red necked wallaby
grey kangaroo
quokka
white fronted lemur
broad nosed gentle lemur
emperor tamarin
lion tailed macaque
stump tailed macaque
olive baboon
vervet monkey
Allen's swamp monkey
De brazza guenon
spectacled langur
lar gibbon
siamang
orang utan
western lowland gorilla
giant anteater
red squirrel
prairie dog
Canadian beaver
fat dormouse
mara
green acouchi
Canadain timber wolf
black backed jackal
European brown bear
American black bear
ring tailed coati
kinkajou
red panda
pine marten
Malayan civet
marbled polecat
meerkat
dwarf mongoose
spotted hyena
jungle cat
leopard cat
Siberian lynx
puma
clouded leopard
Amur tiger
African lion
Persian leopard
snow leopard
cheetah
Californian sea lion
grey seal
southern elephant seal
Asian elephant
African elephant
Grant's zebra
Brazilian tapir
Southern white rhino
babirusa
collared peccary
dromedary
Reeve's muntjac
Eld's deer
red deer
Bactrian wapiti
Pere Davids deer
Rothschild's giraffe
nilgai
lowland anoa
cape buffalo
European bison
American bison
Maxwell's duiker
red lechwe
Arabian oryx
scimitar horned oryx
blackbuck
springbok
Japanese serow
Mishmi takin
Turkmenian markhor

Avian highlights include
kiwi
shoebill
Caribbean flamingo
single wattled cassowary
chinstrap penguin
emperor penguin
adelie penguin
little penguin
macaroni penguin
African penguin

and a pair of Komodo dragon.
 
i think they also used to have a syrian brown bear (that used to be an army mascot)
 
Haven't they still got Meerkats?
 
i think they also used to have a syrian brown bear (that used to be an army mascot)

Was that 'Woztjek'- or similar spelling?

Edinburgh also had the very first orangutan births in the UK, though neither offspring survived for long.
 
Wojciéch maybe?
 
Haven't they still got Meerkats?

I think the soulisks took over their enclosure. I congratulate them on being the second zoo in the country (that I know of) who don't keep the critters along with Howletts. :rolleyes: (Not saying that I don't like them btw)
 
I think the soulisks took over their enclosure. I congratulate them on being the second zoo in the country (that I know of) who don't keep the critters along with Howletts. :rolleyes: (Not saying that I don't like them btw)
What about the Welsh Mountain Zoo they don`t have them i`m pretty sure there are a few more as well that don`t keep Meerkats
 
Asian lion were held at the zoo in the 1930's, also when the zoos first giraffe arrived.
Sumatran tigers were held in the 1920's
Giant anteaters, concolor gibbon and 3 species of bird of paradise arrived in the 1950's
3 red kangaroos and 3 grey kangaroos presented to the zoo in the 60's

source 2010 RZSS annual review
 
Also cotton topped tamarins and capybara.

I remember the elephant seal from my childhood, was a huge thing! (I was about 5 or 6 at the time!)

The meerkats moved out just a few days before Meerkat Manor hit the TV screens! I like the idea of being slightly different and sousliks are more endangered than meerkats.
 
The 1961 guide mentions that the zoo kept 5 species of bear at the time: Polar; Brown; American Black; Asiatic Black; & Sun.
The Polar Bears were kept in the enclosure that is now the Steller's Sea Eagle aviary.
The Browns were in Mercedes old enclosure.
The American Blacks were (in 1961), on the Barbary Macaque rock!
The Asiatic Blacks were in an enclosure behind the (old) Polar Bear pool.
The Suns were in an enclosure behind Mercedes old enclosure, that is now the site of the path up to the Carnivore Rock Dens.
 
Also in this years annual report, there is a picture of a black rhino being bottle fed, i never knew the zoo had kept one in the past, does anyone have any info on this individual?
 
Also in this years annual report, there is a picture of a black rhino being bottle fed, i never knew the zoo had kept one in the past, does anyone have any info on this individual?

In his book “Story of Edinburgh Zoo” (1964) Gillespie mentions a male rhinoceros, six months old, named ‘Bill’ who arrived in 1922 and was fed on three dozen tins of condensed milk every day. According to this book, the rhino died six months later “from a lacerated stomach caused undoubtedly by a sharp object he must have swallowed”.

Nowhere does Gillespie actually state what species of rhinoceros 'Bill' was!

However, in his book “The Rhinoceros in Captivity” (1998), Rookmaker records that ‘Bill’ was a black rhinoceros. Rookmaker states this animal was one year old when it arrived in December 1922 and gives the date of death as 20 November 1923. (Obviously there is some discrepancy between Gillespie’s and Rookmaaker’s information concerning the age of the animal and the length of time it lived in the zoo.) According to Rookmaaker this animal drank 12 gallons of milk daily and both the mounted hide and skull are in the Edinburgh Museum.

(Rookmaaker also lists two other black rhinos at Edinburgh Zoo in the 1950s.)
 
I know I’m bumping threads, but I decided to update the list a bit…


Amur leopard
Jaguar
Honey badger
Wolverine
Bush dog
Lesser Kudu
Vicuna
Sand gecko (?)
African wild dog
Hammerkop
Bongo
Egg eating snake
Blue poison dart frog (?)
Steller’s sea eagle
Hamlyn’s monkey
Patagonian sea lion
American tree porcupine
European souslik
Pallas cat
Guniea baboon
Long nosed potoroo
Red ruffed lemur
Ocellated turkey
Laughing kookaburra
Great grey owl
Dwarf mongoose
Polar bear
Dwarf crocodile
Coppery titi
Golden lion tamarin
Rock hyrax
Malayan tapir
Malayan chevrotain
 
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