Animals You Wish Your Local Zoos Would Acquire

Neil chace said:
Do they? I know it's signed, but I haven't seen it on either my 2020 visit or my 2022 visit. Irregardless, that point has less to do with specific birds and more just my desire for my aviaries that can be viewed year-round.
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Yeah I'm pretty sure they do, they're still listed on the zoo website as well. I seem to remember from back when I was volunteering that the tragopan used to hide in the northeast corner of the aviary, so that might be why you haven't seen them lately.

I definitely do agree though, that having more cold-tolerant bird exhibits would be a welcome addition to New England zoos. There might be a great opportunity for this once the construction on the flight cage at FPZ is complete; I found a news article from a few years back where the director expressed interest in using the flight cage as a walkthrough aviary with larger groups of smaller birds, like how the flight cage was used historically before the zoo got Andean condors.

Edit- found the link to the article: Zoo buying budgies, and hinting at master plan | Dorchester Reporter
 
I never feel great doing wishlisting here anymore, but I would like aardvarks to return to Brookfield. They were the highlight of my very first visit and hold a special place in my heart.
 
JVM said:
I never feel great doing wishlisting here anymore, but I would like aardvarks to return to Brookfield. They were the highlight of my very first visit and hold a special place in my heart.
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Do you think they could handle that much raw myrmecophagy if aardvarks returned? They’d be too powerful, hence why they got rid of the aardvarks before the pangolins arrived :p.
As for me, I’d like to see gorillas at Phoenix. They’re my second favorite animal, it’d be nice to have another great ape species in Arizona, and it would make the Phoenix Suns’ mascot make sense! I’d also like to see the return of clouded leopards.
Henry Vilas is a bit tougher because of their limited space, but I wouldn’t mind seeing red river hogs in the space between the camels and the wild asses. They’d add a nice splash of color to that area. Oh, and another bird species above the fish tank in the aviary.
 
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Philadelphia has lost a massive amount of species diversity in the past 15 years, and while some of them had to go (the elephants and the entire replacement of the pachyderm house), others feel like really unnecessary losses. Water in Life is probably the place that could use an infusion of new species; as of now it's pretty much just the otters, red pandas, and a temporary holding of the birds. As the de facto home of the small carnivores, I'd love to see the coatis make a return in some fashion, as well as the fossa. Pinnipeds might be more fitting for the nominal theme, though i don't know if the space is there.
 
Considering how the Barcelona zoo is going to redo their reptile house, here's my little list of animals I'd like to see there in the future.
- Philippine crocodiles; apparently they were about to acquire them back around 2010, until a last minute change. I'd love them to have this one, as it fits in with the Siamese and Saltwater crocs in terms of region, plus their conservation is imporant.
- Ratites; with the recent passing of the last ostrich, this zoo is ratite-less, and I really miss their presence. The inclusion of ostriches in one of the savannah paddocks would be wonderful, IMO, though any other species would be very welcome.
- More lemurs: as the theoretical plan was to include a larger Malagasy enclosure near the Wellington St. entrance, the discussed addition of a second lemur species (brown according to some sources)would be very welcomed, as primates have always been this zoo's strongsuit, and currently it only houses ring-tailed lemurs.
- More small mammals (rodents or otherwise); as they might (very debatedly at this point...) make a nocturnal house under the Sahel savannah pass, it reminds me that smaller mammals are very absent from the zoo, other than domesticated rodents in the farm, prairie dogs, mongooses and tamarins+marmosets. I'd love to see more rodents and prosimians especially, and an African nocturnal house would be a golden opportunity to include some.
- Any toucan/aracari/toucanet species; they're a group of birds I miss very much and I wish could return
Now for some more out-there suggestions;
- Dholes or striped hyenas; with the two spotted hyenas being rather old, their exhibit would be left empty; but for what? I think that, with its current layout and size, it would be best suited for a pair or small group of either dholes or striped hyenas, each of whom have their own advantages.
Sun bears or sloth bears; although the bear grottos aren't the best fit for their current 3/4 brown bears, I believe that this space, albeit with the right alterations, could make a great home for either of these smaller bear species, whose conservation level and heat tolerance makes them quite suitable for this collection.
Small cats and other smaller carnivores: this is something I've thought for a while; with the jaguars and Sri Lankan leopards being moved to a new exhibit and/or phased out, I still think the big cat complex could be usable... for smaller species. With two joinable cages per side, the inhabitants could range from clouded leopards, servals, ocelots, fishing cats, binturongs or coatis. It could be other species, but these would be the ones I'd be most excited to see included.
I may think of more down the line, or species I'd like to see in other familiar zoos.
 
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