Animals No Longer At Your Zoo You'd Like To See There Again

For Fota Wildlife Park I'd like to see the return of these mammals:
Dusky langur
Blue eyes black lemur
Grey mouse lemur
Guanaco
Mandrill
Parma wallaby
Southern white lipped peccary
For birds:
Any of their former ibis species
Victoria pigeon
Little grebe
King penguin
I have not seen any of these species at Fota.
 
Melbourne Zoo has lost a lot of species over the years. The ones that I would most like to see return are:
Tapir
Coati
Maned wolf
Leopard
Bear (any species)
Cheetah
Golden cat
Fishing cat
Caracal
African wild dog
Mandrill
Chimpanzee
Zebra

Soon there will be a big space to fill when the elephants move out to Werribee and it would be great to see it turned into an area for North and South American species.
 
Aquarium of the Pacific once had a female largetooth sawfish, and was known for that particular creature for almost its entire history. Shark Lagoon sadly is tiny and she easily outgrew it, and eventually was sent off to another facility for a breeding program (likely Ripley’s of the Smokies). I would love to see that exhibit completely remodeled to a large enough size for a new sawfish, so such an iconic creature could return!
 
New England Aquarium has a lot of big ones:

Sand tiger shark
Little blue penguin
Northern fur seal
Leafy seadragon
Lionfish
Stonefish
Blacknose shark
Red octopus
Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle
Nautilus
Zebra shark
Wolffish
They don’t have little blue penguins anymore??? That’s tragic! First place I ever saw them. And yeah their dearth of sharks is truly brutal for an iconic facility in a big city.
 
For Toronto Zoo, the roster that it used to hold contains many fascinating species, I may categorize them into the "likely" group and "unlikely" group:
Likely group:
  • African Wild Dog
  • Dhole
  • Mandrill
  • Aardvark
  • Wolverine
  • Gelada
  • Malayan Tapir
  • Pronghorn
  • Dall Sheep
  • Musk Ox
  • Kea
  • Caracal
  • Greater Bushbabies
  • Potto
  • Pygmy Slow Loris
  • Kinkajou
  • White-nosed Coati
  • De Brazza's Guenon
  • Rock Hyrax
  • Ringtail

Unlikely group:
  • Grizzled grey tree kangaroo
  • Tasmanian Devil
  • Koala
  • Eastern Quoll
  • Kowari
  • Cusimanse
  • Liberian Mongoose
  • Chinese Water Deer
  • South African Fur Seal
  • Zorilla
  • Hog-nosed Badger
 
I've visted the Los Angeles Zoo in 2019 and 2024 I missed the old collection and I wish they can come back
African Lion
Nubian Ibex
Fossa
North American Black Bear
Nile Hippopotamus
Squirrel Monkey
Bald Ukari
North American Porcupine
Chinese Water Deer
Japanese Serrow
Giant Eland
I can go on
my list I want Los Angeles to bring back or getting new ones
African Lion
Timber *gray* Wolf
Bear *most likey Grizzlies I hope for Sloth or Andean*
Hammadray's Baboon *hopefully if L.A Zoo makes a New african master plan*
Leopard *most likey Amur*
I can go on and on
 
For Beauval (France) I may think to the following species :
  • Fennec Fox
  • Golden Jackal
  • Pied Tamarin
  • Tonkean Macaque
  • Campbell's Monkey
  • Wolf's Monkey
  • Kinkajou
  • Springbok
  • Kafue Lechwe
  • Plains Zebra
  • Parma's Wallaby
  • Eugene's Wallaby
  • Sparkling Violetear
  • African Woodhoopoe
  • Chilean Flamingo
  • Tataupa Tinamou
  • Secretary Bird
  • Ural Owl
  • Great Hornbill
  • Nile Crocodile
  • Panther Chameleon
  • Yemen Helmeted Chameleon
  • Leopard Tortoise
  • Hermann's Tortoise
  • Greek Tortoise
  • White-lipped Mud Turtle
  • Coconut Crab
  • Seychelles Giant Millipede
I've never seen some of these species, I'm aware of their past presence thanks to old books and websites.
I've reported only the species I'm sure they aren't no longer displayed in the zoo (not the doubtful species that may still be present, although elusive, as some birds).
 
I've visted the Los Angeles Zoo in 2019 and 2024 I missed the old collection and I wish they can come back
African Lion
Nubian Ibex
Fossa
North American Black Bear
Nile Hippopotamus
Squirrel Monkey
Bald Ukari
North American Porcupine
Chinese Water Deer
Japanese Serrow
Giant Eland
I can go on
my list I want Los Angeles to bring back or getting new ones
African Lion
Timber *gray* Wolf
Bear *most likey Grizzlies I hope for Sloth or Andean*
Hammadray's Baboon *hopefully if L.A Zoo makes a New african master plan*
Leopard *most likey Amur*
I can go on and on
The LA Zoo is just kind of…for lack of a better word, sad at the moment. There were so many empty habitats when last I went, and while I know a lot of it is probably due to desperately needed remodels I still felt the emptiness. It was particularly bad up by the old hippo enclosure, the hippos and pretty much all their immediate neighbors were gone. For my part, I’d love to see LA get what I believe was a Sumatran rhinoceros again - I just remember them having a really hairy rhino at one point and afaik that’s the only extant species with significant hair. I really liked how fuzzy he was lol.
 
I have very mixed feelings about the "big tank" in the Minnesota Zoo's Discovery Bay area- it currently holds a mix of Hawaiian monk seals and sea lions (they rotate)- but I really do miss the dolphins. There was a period a year or two ago when the MN Zoo was holding dolphins for another facility, and it was so magical getting to see dolphins there again.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about cetaceans coming back in the tank's current state. It just looks very.... well, sad. A big concrete tank. But I think that seeing cetaceans is such a magical experience, and I miss their presence.

I'd also like to see them acquire a new red panda. The red panda enclosure isn't massive but the absence of the animals is definitely felt when walking through the Tropics Trail.
 
As a massive canid fan, one of the biggest loses in term of animals the São Paulo zoo had IMO, were the African wild dogs and the european wolf, with both being present in my last visit on the zoo (march 2017) but dying a little bit before the pandemic, with the dogs being the ones that sadden me the most, considering that during my visit i didn't saw then and that all the four animals died from leishmaniasis on a short period of time.

There's also the giant otters and marsh deers, two species that I didn't see in the zoo, but know they had them at some point, and unlike the wolves and dogs I am optimistic that the zoo might get them back eventually.
 
ZooWorld in Panama City Beach (around a 2-hour drive so not really local, but it is the closest) has really changed in recent years. This has been mostly for the better, as many of the zoo’s poorer exhibits have been demolished/converted to more suitable species. On the flip side, ZooWorld has lost a lot of its species diversity, with only a few new additions and tons of phase-outs. I’d like to see species brought back such as:
Jaguar
Snow Leopard
New Guinea Singing Dog
Spotted-necked Otter
Red River Hog
Cotton-top Tamarin
Pygmy Marmoset
Diana Monkey
Mandrill
Yellow-headed Amazon
Cuban Amazon
Palm Cockatoo
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
 
There are sadly a lot of species in my local zoo's and aquarias that are taken off-display or fully phased out before I started documenting captive animals species and domestic breeds :(

Really wish to see them return, though some of these are highly unlikely.

Ragunan Zoo
  • Arabian oryx
  • Sumatran rhinoceros
  • Common wallaro
  • Black-crested Sumatran langur
  • Siau Island tarsier
  • Horsfield's tarsier
  • Bornean elephant
  • Booted macaque
  • Greta hornbill
  • Collared aracari
  • Javan warty pig
  • Syrian brown bear
  • New Guinea bronzewing
  • Sumatran serow
  • Indian sloth bear
  • Dwarf cassowary
  • Papuan eagle
  • Flores hawk-eagle
Taman Safari Bogor
  • Addax
  • Common crane
  • Black crowned crane
  • Bongo
  • Himalayan black bear
  • Sumatran porcupine
  • Malayan porcupine
  • Roan antelope
  • Flame-fronted barbet
  • Yellowish-streaked lory
  • Green imperial pigeon
  • Green junglefowl
  • Pagai Island macaque
  • Snow leopard
  • Bay cat
  • Steller sea lion
  • Eurasian eagle owl
  • Turkey vulture
  • Snowy owl
  • Spotted kestrel
  • Bald eagle
  • Blyth's hawk-eagle
  • Dwarf crocodile
  • Common spotted cuscus
  • Polar bear
  • Sumatran lar gibbon
  • Spectral tarsier
  • Sunda slow loris
  • Sumatran slow loris
  • Sulawesi palm civet
  • Red giant flying squirrel
  • Sulawesi dwarf cuscus
  • Sulawesi bear cuscus
  • Spectacled caiman
 
My nearest aquarium, the Lake District Coast Aquarium, has recently re-homed their red-bellied piranhas, a lot of them were getting too big for their tank so initially only the larger ones were taken away, but now they're all gone, and the area where their tank once was has been re-developed into an enclosure for a pair of Mississippi map turtles. While it's understandable that the piranhas were growing too big for their tank and it would've been wrong to just keep them there, it is definitely a shame that they're now gone from the aquarium completely, as they were one of y favourite species to see there (even if they are a dime a dozen in UK aquariums).
 
Following the creation of my Colchester Zoo past animals thread, these are the species I'd love to see return (even if they left long before my time):
  • Feathertail glider
  • Dusky pademelon
  • Cape crested porcupine
  • Red-rumped agouti
  • Barbary striped grass mouse
  • Dourocouli
  • Talapoin monkey
  • De Brazza's and/or Diana guenon
  • Indian flying fox
  • One true small cat (erring towards rusty-spotted cat, fishing cat or margay)
  • Common dwarf mongoose
  • Zorilla
  • Malayan tapir
  • North Sulawesi babirusa
  • Lesser Malayan chevrotain
  • Lowland anoa
  • Mishmi takin
  • Chaco chachalaca
  • European turtle dove
  • Either red-crested or white-cheeked turaco
  • Kori bustard
  • Eurasian curlew
  • Pied avocet
  • Guanay cormorant
  • Bateleur eagle
  • Southern ground hornbill
  • Any of the four Ramphastos toucan species (toco, chestnut-mandibled, keel-billed or white-throated, erring towards the latter)
  • Salmon-crested cockatoo
  • Chattering lory
  • Any of the three macaw species, erring towards green-winged
  • Red-billed blue magpie
  • Common hill myna
  • Montserrat oriole
  • Java sparrow
  • Yellow-headed day gecko
  • Chinese water dragon
  • Mangrove cat snake
  • Burmese python
  • Puff adder
  • Home's hingeback tortoise
  • Indian star tortoise
  • Yellow-margined box turtle
  • Cane toad
  • Golden poison-dart frog
  • Fire salamander
  • Red-bellied piranha
  • Seahorses
  • Giant flower beetle
  • Fregate Island palm beetle
  • White-spotted assassin bug
  • Leaf-cutting ant
  • Butterflies
  • Ghana speckled-leg millipede
  • Mexican redknee tarantula
  • Imperial scorpion
Of course, I'd say 99% of this is wishful thinking - in fact, I think the only thing on my list with any official plans for a return are the butterflies.

Since I made my list, the red-bellied piranha has returned to Colchester Zoo's collection. One down, fifty-four to go.
 
New England Aquarium has a lot of big ones:

Sand tiger shark
Little blue penguin
Northern fur seal
Leafy seadragon
Lionfish
Stonefish
Blacknose shark
Red octopus
Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle
Nautilus
Zebra shark
Wolffish

The New England Aquarium used to have sea otters as well! Now there are no institutions in the entire New England region which have sea otters, and only two institutions in the states generally considered part of the northeastern/mid-Atlantic region have them (the New York Aquarium and the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium).

Compare that to the midwestern states, which have several institutions with sea otters: the Shedd Aquarium, the Detroit Zoo, the Minnesota Zoo, and the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium (and even Pittsburgh is arguably closer to the midwest culturally/geographically).
 
The New England Aquarium used to have sea otters as well! Now there are no institutions in the entire New England region which have sea otters, and only two institutions in the states generally considered part of the northeastern/mid-Atlantic region have them (the New York Aquarium and the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium).

Compare that to the midwestern states, which have several institutions with sea otters: the Shedd Aquarium, the Detroit Zoo, the Minnesota Zoo, and the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium (and even Pittsburgh is arguably closer to the midwest culturally/geographically).
What do you think of Detroit’s habitat every visit I never see them.
 
What do you think of Detroit’s habitat every visit I never see them.

Isn't that the case with many of the Detroit Zoo's large enclosures? Everyone I know says it's good as far as animal welfare and enrichment go, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium recently sent one of their retired females, Kit, to the Detroit Zoo. But sea otters are endangered and both the AZA and U.S. Government have strict requirements that zoos/aquaria must meet before they're allowed to receive the species, so all North American (and European) sea otter exhibits will be at least adequate.

The Detroit Zoo does have a sea otter cam, but it's not online 24/7:

Sea Otter Cam - Detroit Zoo
 
Stone Zoo has had lots of many species no longer though, though a majority are unrealistic/not plausible to bring back easily mostly due to their size. The animals I do think that could come back include;
  • Bald Eagle - Yukon Creek should have more inhabitants (maybe they can get an Arctic Fox too)
  • Inca Tern - The zoo should be part of more SSP programs too
  • Matschie's Tree Kangaroo - This species needs more holders in the US
  • Meerkats - Maybe an exhibit in Windows to the Wild as Zoo New England lacks meerkats
  • Penguins (unsure what species used to be there) - There can even be a whole exhibit themed around them in Windows to the Wild ( with heavy renovations )
 
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