Animals You Saw At A Zoo You Don't Remember

BerdNerd

BerdNerd

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Sometimes when I zone out, I think about memories of me going to a zoo as a little kid and seeing this really cool animal, but I can't remember what zoo it was. I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone else. Here are mine:

- Rhea sp.
- Ocellated Turkey
 
I was thinking about this the phenomenon the other day actually.

I visited Bristol zoo many years ago (in the early 2000's) and have what may well be a false memory of having seen spotted quolls and tree kangaroos (in their nocturnal / small mammal house). o_O

Hard to explain really, because I feel that I must have seen these animals but I don't actually have a vivid memory of it. :confused:

It could be that this hazy memory that I do have may actually just be suggestion / false memory or perhaps it is just wishful thinking as I would like to have thought that I have already crossed these off my life list.
 
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I have pictures of a Serval at Melbourne Zoo when I was younger, but I don't remember the memory.

I do remember, seeing White Nosed Coatis, Mandrills, Bongos, Mute Swans, Emerald Tree Boas, Forest Cobras, Rock Rattlesnakes, Plumed Baskilisk, Binturong, Brazilian Tapir and of course Honey the Syrian Brown Bear.

I have a hazy memory of a wild encounter at Rosebud beach with an echidna but it's so foggy it's likely my imagination so I don't count it. I'm still longing for a real encounter with a wild echidna to this day.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
I have pictures of a Serval at Melbourne Zoo when I was younger, but I don't remember the memory.

I do remember, seeing White Nosed Coatis, Mandrills, Bongos, Mute Swans, Emerald Tree Boas, Forest Cobras, Rock Rattlesnakes, Plumed Baskilisk, Binturong, Brazilian Tapir and of course Honey the Syrian Brown Bear.

I have a hazy memory of a wild encounter at Rosebud beach with an echidna but it's so foggy it's likely my imagination so I don't count it. I'm still longing for a real encounter with a wild echidna to this day.
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Is it fairly easy to see an Echidna in the wild in Australia ?
 
Somehow, I vaguely remember seeing a small carnivore of some sort. I think it was brown, and it was outside. I could almost say that it looked like a mongoose of some sort. I could be wrong though. Oh yeah, and I recall it being very bushy.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Is it fairly easy to see an Echidna in the wild in Australia ?
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Yes but no.

For most people seeing an Echidna is very easy, it's kinda like Hedgehogs in the UK, if you go out looking for them you'll never find them but instead you'll stumble across them by chance.

The Echidna is one of my major nemesis animals, my list of nemesis animals in order of fustration includes.

Tawny Frogmouth
Echidna
Pobblebonk Frog
Royal Spoonbill
Lowland Copperhead
Grey Shrike Thrush
Tiger Snake
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I don't think you are in a part of the world with mongoose are you ? So it could well be a mulestlid, perhaps a weasel or some kind of marten or mink ?
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No I am not in that part of the world. But I think it was at my First Omaha or columbus zoo visit. That could narrow it down.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Yes but no.

For most people seeing an Echidna is very easy, it's kinda like Hedgehogs in the UK, if you go out looking for them you'll never find them but instead you'll stumble across them by chance.

The Echidna is one of my major nemesis animals, my list of nemesis animals in order of fustration includes.

Tawny Frogmouth
Echidna
Pobblebonk Frog
Royal Spoonbill
Lowland Copperhead
Grey Shrike Thrush
Tiger Snake
Click to expand...

For some reason I always thought they would be the kind of animal that you might see in Australia in the suburbs of cities or in backyards.

It tends to be that way with most animals, when you want to see them they are elusive and then you run into them purely by accident.

It was that way with me with the first time I saw a lowland tapir in the wild, I had been looking for them and seeing traces of them everywhere but no luck in seeing the animal.

Then days later it just wandered nonchalantly and slowly past the field research centre window during a rainstorm where I was sat reading a book.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
For some reason I always thought they would be the kind of animal that you might see in Australia in the suburbs of cities or in backyards.

It tends to be that way with most animals, when you want to see them they are elusive and then you run into them purely by accident.

It was that way with me with the first time I saw a lowland tapir in the wild, I had been looking for them and seeing traces of them everywhere but no luck in seeing the animal.

Then days later it just wandered nonchalantly and slowly past the field research centre window during a rainstorm where I was sat reading a book.
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They are found in suburbs and backyards thats why its so fustrating, except only in the outer suburbs, I live in the middle areas about 11km away from the CBD.

Tawny Frogmouths are even worse, they are commonly seen all throughout Melbourne including just outside the CBD (Central Business District), I know people who have Tawnys regularly in their backyards, heck my sister has seen a Tawny Frogmouth outside her school window, the school I attend is nearly 20km away from the CBD in bushland and the one she attends is 5km away from the CBD in urban/suburban environements and she sees the Tawny. Even more frustrating is that if you look in Inaturalist or Ebird there are commonly reports of Tawny Frogmouths a few times a week to the reserves I commonly visit, places such as Banyule Flats reserve where i've been four times in a year sometimes have records of up to five individual birds per day....


We should probably not sidetrack this thread about me ranting about adorably expressive nocturnal birds.
 
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Yoshistar888 said:
They are found in suburbs and backyards thats the problem, except only in the outer suburbs, I live in the middle areas.
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Maybe its just bad luck that you haven't yet seen one then.

I suppose if you look on the bright side it means that when you finally do get lucky it is going to be a very special moment and with such an incredible and strange beast too.
 
A bit different than what has previously been talked about on here, but as a toddler I visited both San Diegos. I have only vague fuzzy memories of this. At the time they would have had Northern White Rhinos, but I have no memory of seeing them, even though I almost certainly did.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
No I haven't. This thread is animals you saw at a zoo that you don't remember, right?
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I always tend to think of seeing animals primarily in the wild over at zoos so just assumed this. :p

Yoshistar888 said:
I hope you find your nemesis animals too!
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I think there are most definitely a couple of nemesis animals out there, but I just haven't seen them because they are in zoos within the species range etc. :D
 
I have a vague memory of seeing a gorilla at Chester Zoo. The first time I went I guess I would've been between 3 and 5 years old (1983-1985), or at least that's the first memory I have of being there. My grandparents lived in Chester and I grew up just down the road in Wrexham, so I guess I may have been when I was even younger.

Anyway, I remember there being a gorilla in the tropical house, though it must have left soon after. I was a very regular visitor throughout the '90s and it was gone by then.
 
Indonesian whaler sharks. I didn't notice them while I was at Tokyo Sea Life Park, likely they looked too similar to the blacktip reef sharks in the same tank and I didn't notice they were different. I'm so annoyed at myself, AFAIK those were the only Indonesian whalers in captivity in the world! At least you can see them for a few seconds in a video I took!
 
I can clearly remember seeing the aviary for Mauritius kestrels at Chester Zoo but cannot remember if I actually saw the birds themselves.
 
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