Animals that deserve inclusions in American Zoos:

Brayden Delashmutt

Brayden Delashmutt

Well-Known Member
So after a while of thinking about this, I wondered if there were any particular species not held in American zoos that, in theory, would be good candidates to be introduced to a few American zoos. As the species roster here in the USA is rather limited, are there any particular species not held in America that you guys could see coming here in the near future?
 
I don't realistically see any new species being phased in. Most discussion about species being phased out has been about making room for existing programs and expanding holders - the phase out of sun bears is opening room for Andean and Sloth bears, for example. New animal imports are famously difficult, especially for groups such as hoofstock, and it's well understood by now that all we can really do is work to expand existing captive populations to keep up long-term sustainability or on rare occasion, cooperation between the AZA and EAZA, which is a subject I'm not terribly versed with. Homogenization is the future.

The last phase-in species I remember getting some conversation and attention is Jaguaroundi and that was nearly a decade ago and last I'd heard they had declined in holders since then. There is some talk about Masai giraffe and Mountain zebra gradually displacing some of the captive hybrid giraffe and common zebra population but those are going to be take a pretty long time to happen. There was a period when I think Nubian ibex were expected to expand but now it looks like they may eventually be phased out. I know Lake Titicaca frogs have spread a lot.

The closest thing I can think of is that if Brookfield continues to have success breeding white-bellied tree pangolin, I could eventually imagine some of them becoming exhibits at other facilities.

If we're talking species that I'd like to see become common that are not? I think it's a shame that bush dogs have disappeared from major institutions, I think potto and kinkajou could be very popular if given another chance. Small mammals and small carnviores have seen a decline and a lot of them, I think, could stand to be popular with the right attention paid.
 
Devils were getting phased back in before COVID made Australia reluctant to export again. Platypus might be phased in more if San Diego does well and the Australian government is willing to export more. In general Australian species that aren’t kangaroos / lories / kookaburras (and similarly common species) depend on the whims of the Australian government. If they decided to export more I’m sure US zoos would want to phase in a species or two.

The age of mass founder imports is probably over for large species. Lake Titicaca frogs and other smaller ones (especially insects) could still see some success due to the relative ease of quickly breeding large numbers and lack of competition for limited exhibit space.

Maybe I’m wrong, though. Komodo dragons went from a few founder zoos to almost everywhere in a few decades. There are still a few institutions that import what they want regardless of AZA guidance. If they somehow had massive breeding success I couldn’t see other zoos saying no on principle. And aquariums get most of their larger specimens from the wild, anyway, so phase in / out doesn’t matter as much to them. The point is that there are paths for a handful of species becoming more common because of the actions of a few institutions or a foreign government. I just don’t see it being an intentional AZA policy anymore.
 
JVM said:
The last phase-in species I remember getting some conversation and attention is Jaguaroundi and that was nearly a decade ago and last I'd heard they had declined in holders since then.
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Thanks for the information. Do you know which zoos still have jaguarundis? They're a bucket list species for me and something I'd love to see.
 
JVM said:
The closest thing I can think of is that if Brookfield continues to have success breeding white-bellied tree pangolin, I could eventually imagine some of them becoming exhibits at other facilities.
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They would need to be a lot more prolific than they are so far, which is unlikely. Most pangolin births relating to the most recent import was females imported already pregnant. They have been steadily declining again of late here, and I don't expect them to stick around long-term.

JVM said:
I think potto and kinkajou could be very popular if given another chance.
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Potto is unlikely, they're difficult to exhibit well and have no real media culture presence like the Aye-aye. Afaik they haven't been the most successful breeding wise either and they are dwindling out.
Kinkajou is everywhere, AZA, roadsides, private trade. They are increasingly cropping up in rescue places, and there's even a kinkajou-only rescue or two. Due to their usually being held off-exhibit as animal ambassadors they sometimes seem less common than they are.

Persephone said:
Platypus might be phased in more if San Diego does well and the Australian government is willing to export more.
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Highly, highly doubt it. Platypus are not tremendously common in Australian zoos, and for them to be exported they must be captive bred. San Diego got them because of their extensive collaboration with Australian facilities. They're also one of the few places capable of taking the cost of the expensive to feed little buggers. Especially now that one of the platypus's favorite foods is banned in the US due to invasive concerns, this being the Aussie crayfish Cherax destructor. I believe SDZSP got special permission to hold a colony of them specially for feeding to the platypus.
 
Well, that's incredibly disappointing about Brookfield's pangolin program. I was under the impression they had been breeding from the initial rescues, not importing already pregnant animals so they could brag about captive breeding. That seems incredibly scummy and is another mark against them in my book.

I said I don't realistically see any new species being phased into the AZA in the future, and that homogenization is not a distant future but it is where zoos are. I stand by that. It was maybe a little dumb of me to include some animals I'd have liked to see as opposed to standing firm on that I don't think any of that is realistic. I don't expect to ever see another big phase-in species in the AZA ever again.
 
JVM said:
Well, that's incredibly disappointing about Brookfield's pangolin program. I was under the impression they had been breeding from the initial rescues, not importing already pregnant animals so they could brag about captive breeding. That seems incredibly scummy and is another mark against them in my book.
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Brookfield's recent birth and a couple prior are full captive. But yes most pangolins born in the last several years were imported pregnant; not all, but most. Worth noting it is not on Brookfield or any of the other zoos re importing pregnant pangolins, it was chance re the importer. The large last batch was done rather sketchily by the importer (non-AZA) and was controversial already, and some zoos declined taking animals from the shipment because of this.
 
Great Argus said:
Brookfield's recent birth and a couple prior are full captive. But yes most pangolins born in the last several years were imported pregnant; not all, but most. Worth noting it is not on Brookfield or any of the other zoos re importing pregnant pangolins, it was chance re the importer. The large last batch was done rather sketchily by the importer (non-AZA) and was controversial already, and some zoos declined taking animals from the shipment because of this.
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I didn't know they were even importing up to this thread. I don't see why they would bother importing the animals in the first place, even.
 
As the thread is for "American Zoos" and not just AZA, I will add that there are some institutions outside of the AZA that still are involved in breeding/sales and importation, most notably Wildlife World in Arizona. While some of their sales are to dubious places, they are still actively involved in the trade, for better or worse. So, for unique species, often one needs to look outside of the AZA at this point.
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
More Australian wildlife wood be nice, phasing in Quokka, Tiger Quolls, Numbats, Thorny Devils, Sand Monitors, and other lesser known macropods and dasyurids that could benefit from captive breading.
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There are a *lot* of reasons why the numbats and thorny devils would be out of the question.
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
More Australian wildlife wood be nice, phasing in Quokka, Tiger Quolls, Numbats, Thorny Devils, Sand Monitors, and other lesser known macropods and dasyurids that could benefit from captive breading.
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Australia has been less than willing to export most of their species, that is one of the main reasons we don't see them more represented in US collections, or that our collections are pretty similar.
 
JVM said:
I said I don't realistically see any new species being phased into the AZA in the future, and that homogenization is not a distant future but it is where zoos are. I stand by that. It was maybe a little dumb of me to include some animals I'd have liked to see as opposed to standing firm on that I don't think any of that is realistic. I don't expect to ever see another big phase-in species in the AZA ever again.
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While this may be true for large mammals, AZA zoos do still occasionally import new birds, reptiles, or smaller mammals, often from zoos in other regions. One recent example is an import of Madagascar Sacred Ibises from European zoos, with the intent to establish this ibis species in US Zoos.

There also may be in the future some limited opportunities to import species into the US from AZA Zoos in other countries, such as Cali Zoo in Colombia.
 
Many TAGs do have species identified as Phase In, including the ibis example above. We’re not likely to see a lot of the species that members here fantasize the most of, but as some animals become less common, there are other species which will become more common, some entirely new to the scene. All dependent on a variety of factors, including budget, availability, institutional preference and interest, conservation status, and, of course, luck
 
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