ZSL London Zoo Animals kept at london zoo in the past

MikeG said:
Yes, the 'species' Lorius tibialis is only known from the single female specimen held at London Zoo. Most authorities believe it to have been a very odd specimen of Purple-naped Lory (Lorius domicellus) which lacked the black crown & purple nape.
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Thanks for confirming this, Mike.
 
MichaelC said:
I only ever saw Common Hippopotamus once at Regent's Park, it would have been either 1958 or 1959.
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My earliest childhood memory is seeing the hippos at London Zoo in the 1950s; I was only a very young child when they left the collection.

The last common hippos at London Zoo, “Neville” and ”Fifi”, were sent to Whipsnade in the autumn of 1960. Unfortunately, a few months after they arrived at Whipsnade, the female “Fifi” attacked and fatally injured the male “Neville”; “Fifi” was subsequently sent to Belle Vue (Manchester).

(About the same time as the common hippos were sent to Whipsnade, the pygmy hippo “Peggy” was sent to Paignton. The old Hippo House (adjacent to Decimus Burton’s Giraffe House) was demolished shortly afterwards.)

Of course pygmy hippos subsequently returned to London but common hippos never did. I’d love to see the species in Regent’s Park again.
 
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Hippos

Great information, Tim. You really know your stuff.
I only ever went to Belle Vue once, in 1970.I remember the Tropical Hall with Malayan Tapirs. I saw hippos there, I should imagine in the TH, perhaps I even saw Fifi.
I managed to gain access to the derelict Belle Vue site in 1979, even getting inside the monkey house which was still equipped with branches and other cage furniture. Even so it had obviously been vandalised, fairly broke my heart. The only other identifiable enclosure was that for giraffes.
Back to hippos, last year I saw the new (for me) house in Berlin -wow, I thought the old one was good, the new one, with Nile Perch (?) is fantastic.

MichaelC.
 
London zoo used to have a small collection of museum specimens of animals that were once in the collection. I remember examining some of these in 1980 and looking at a Lesser Mascarene Fruit Bat (Pteropus sunbniger), a species that is now extinct. I suspect this bat was in the collection in the late 19th century. Does anyone know anything about it?
 
Tim May said:
My earliest childhood memory is seeing the hippos at London Zoo in the 1950s; I was only a very young child when they left the collection.
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I remember them too, though it may have been more the smell in the house, as that was pretty indescribable.
 
ZSL..

Pteropus subniger. Checked in my 'List of the Vertebrates' (6th edition), confirms this species was not added to the collection during the years 1872 to 1875. Not a lot of help I know. During this period they had Huia, Quagga, Thylacine and Passenger Pigeon, not to mention Antarctic (Falkland Islands) Wolf. Other goodies from this period include Javan and Sumatran Rhinoceros.
 
Carl Jones said:
London zoo used to have a small collection of museum specimens of animals that were once in the collection. I remember examining some of these in 1980 and looking at a Lesser Mascarene Fruit Bat (Pteropus sunbniger), a species that is now extinct. I suspect this bat was in the collection in the late 19th century. Does anyone know anything about it?
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FBBird said:
Pteropus subniger. Checked in my 'List of the Vertebrates' (6th edition), confirms this species was not added to the collection during the years 1872 to 1875.........
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The centenary edition of the “List of the List of Vertebrated Animals Exhibited in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London 1826 – 1927” (Flower, 1927) does not list Pteropus subniger as ever being exhibited at London Zoo.

Not all the specimens in the old Zoological Society Museum were former inhabitants of the zoo.
 
Many thanks for all your comments on Pteropus subniger, it may of course never have been exhibited and they just had the skin. I will check the notes I made when I was researching this specimen.

London Zoo did have Pink Pigeons at the start of the 20th century, probably the first zoo ever to house this species, and they laid eggs.
 
Can anybody tell me where the Malayan tapirs were housed between 1959 and 1978 ? The guidebooks are not very helpful,only the guide 1964 mentioned them in the Cattlesheds, but where were they kept afterwards ? The elphant house, the Cotton terraces ? I think, the Malayan Tapirs were kept there since 1995.
 
London Zoo's Malayan Tapirs

Hi Bib,
I photographed Malayan Tapirs in the Old Cattlesheds in 1972. As I remember they had the northernmost paddock on the western side. At that time the enclosures held camels, bison and Chi-Chi. The other side held the wild dogs. Every other dog seemed to be a New Guinea Singing Dog!

My next memory is of them being kept in the Camel & Llama House on the Cotton Terraces in 1984. they had the enclosure first encountered on coming out of the tunnel.
Hope that is of some use!

Best Wishes,
Michael Cherry
 
Yes, it is. Thank you, Michael.

Are you sure you have seen Malayan tapirs in 1984 ? According to the European studbook London hasn't kept them between 1978 and 1995...But otherwise, even the Indian tapirs of Basle Zoo are missing in the studbook....
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Can anybody tell me where the Malayan tapirs were housed between 1959 and 1978 ? The guidebooks are not very helpful,only the guide 1964 mentioned them in the Cattlesheds, but where were they kept afterwards ? The elphant house, the Cotton terraces ? I think, the Malayan Tapirs were kept there since 1995.
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I can remember Malayan tapirs being kept in the old Deer & Cattle Sheds at the opposite end of the building from where the giant panda “Chi-Chi” was housed (i.e. the tapirs were in the end nearest the old Birds-of-Prey Aviaries).

More recently the Malayan tapirs were kept on the Cotton Terraces in the old Camel House (now the Pygmy Hippo House) before being moved to the Casson Building (the former Elephant & Rhinoceros Pavilion).

Bib Fortuna said:
Are you sure you have seen Malayan tapirs in 1984 ? According to the European studbook London hasn't kept them between 1978 and 1995...
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There were no Malayan tapirs at London Zoo in 1984.

Checking the ZSL Annual Reports, London Zoo’s male Malayan tapir died in 1977 and the female was sent to Chester Zoo in 1978.

There were certainly no Malayan tapirs listed in the ZSL Annual report for 1984 (or for any other year during the 1980s) although there were Brazilian tapirs at London Zoo in 1984.
 
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Thank you Tim, that's excactly what the studbook says. So the Indian tapirs were kept until 1978 in the Cattle sheds and later since 1995 in the former camel enclosure on the cotton terraces.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Thank you Tim, that's excactly what the studbook says. So the Indian tapirs were kept until 1978 in the Cattle sheds and later since 1995 in the former camel enclosure on the cotton terraces.
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Not quite right, the cattle shed was demolished around 1974/5, to make way for the New lion terraces. The tapir were in the old camel house in the mid late 70s, on the cotton terraces. The first enclosure you saw on leaving the tunnel, as someone posted earlier (but the year was wrong).
 
Bib Fortuna said:
So the Indian tapirs were kept until 1978 in the Cattle sheds....
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Not quite:-

The Malayan tapirs were kept in the Deer & Cattle Sheds but this building was demolished in the mid 1970s to make way for the Lion Terraces (which opened in 1976).

Edit:-sorry "Pipaluk" our almost identical posts crossed....
 
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