Animals you'll never see in a zoo

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the queen of england got sent a stack of animals for her silver jubilee from a consort of aussie zoos, but that was along time ago.
london zoo did have devils, wombats (so did whipsnade, the first animal they ever bred actually) and up until recently koalas too.
up until about 2004 london also had striped and leadbeaters possum. in 2005 they ad potoroo, kowari and sugar gliders!
 
London Zoo also had two of the long-beaked echidnas for many years, but these were eventually sent to Taronga and introduced to their animal. Only two of the three survive now.
 
i think i read in a tim flanney book that one loved lying under the mist sprayers in its exhibit so much it got pnumonia and died!

would that be the same one zoopro?

and on that note are there currently import standards in place for monotremes and does taronga or any other australian zoo plan on having another go with these animals?

i was told by a taronga keeper that the male had a stupid-low spem count and that the female was well into her 30's....
 
oh how stupid of the male to have a low sperm count-dum arse animal, lol. always blame the male....
is taronga still proceeding with the PNG exhibit as planned? and what animals will be going in there? sorry if this is getting off track now
 
rare animals not in zoos

I am open to correction , but I doubt that there are any kakapo ( a flightless parrot ) or Yellow Eyed Penguin in any zoo
They are not on display in any NZ zoo .
 
us auusies can boast the only fiordland crested penguins and leopards seals in any zoo, anywhere. also, our region is one of only a few outside of fiji and the usa to have fijian crested iguanas.
 
No Fiji Crested iguanas are registered by ISIS to be in the USA. They have lots of Fiji banded iguanas though. San Diego has over 50.
 
thats what i said mate, lol. though im pretty sure the project was kicked off in the early 1990s between taronga and the fijian natural trust with an exchange of reptiles. the program has since expanded to involve us zoos, including san diego and other institutions in australia, such as melbourne, perth and australia zoo. i might be wrong but
 
Platypus - i was under the belief that none had ever survived any decent amount of time in overseas zoos. there certainly isn't any outside australia at the present and i doubt there will be anytime soon..(though i'm sure the japanese would swap just about anything for some!!)

Just that one shipment of three to the Bronx Zoo from Healesville all those years ago. They travelled in special haylined boxes I think. They surely must have flown?(Sea travel would have been near impossible foodwise?) Bronx Zoo designed a special 'Platypusary' for them to live in, with earth banks etc, nest chambers etc. THey had to hunt for huge supplies of earthworms daily to feed them but the Platypuses thrived. Later they even thought they had bred them as one of the two females- 'Penny'- disappeared into a burrow for several weeks and they were convinced she had young. Finally they dug her out- but no baby!
 
earthworms? i'm pretty sure our zoos mostly feed them freshwater crayfish (most of us call em "yabbies"). though i have no doubt they eat earthworms too.
 
they are also fed a large amount of fly pupae as well, and both of these feed items could have been kept for a long time on a ship. I don't know how the plats were trasported though.
 
Apparently the Bronx Zoo exhibited va Platypus once before- in 1922.

The three Platypus I mentioned above went to Ame3rica in 1947. They did travel by SEA - on a ship called the 'Pioneer Glen'- with David Fleay. They were fed on thawed FROZEN earthworms during the month-long journey from Australia. They had been conditioned for the journey over the previous 12 months. In the early part of the journey they refused to feed properly but once this passed, travelled well.(air travel was dismissed as unsuitable and possibly killing such nervous animals from shock). They nearly ran out of frozen earthworms but managed to radio ahead to Panama, a port of call, where fresh supplies were taken on board.

The three PLatypuses, named Cecil, Betty and Penelope, went on display at the Bronx Zoo in April 1947, to much publicity and even political fanfare, in the specially designed 'Platypusary'. It was in 1953 that courtship behaviour was noted, and later that year breeding was suspected, though it had not taken place. Oddly this doesn't seem to have been repeated in other years.

Amazingly, they(or one or two of the three) are recorded as having survived there for TEN years. This feat has not been repeated anywhere else.
 
I have also picked up rumours about yapok's and giant armadillo's that have been in Europe. The list has been impressive. Is there a zoo/aquarium that displays Dugong's in Australia?
 
Do you know which zoo these rumours came from? I wouldn't be surprised if it was London zoo. They have had lots of small mammals for years.

Have there ever been any elephant seals in zoos?
 
The yapok i believe might have been in the Grzimek house in Frankfurt and the giant armadillo if i remember correctly at Poznan Zoo in Poland.

Elephant seals have been kept by a number of zoos, usually just one or two combined with normal seals. Among others, Antwerp had a pair in the distant past but i can't remember exactly how long ago that was.
 
Yapoks were kept in Jersey, I think they had 2.1 in 1972 or thereabouts, they were eventually exported. I don't know where.

Flamingoland had a Southern Elephant Seal in 1970, he went to Dudley shortly after.
 
I've only seen the northern elephant seals in the wild in California. Wonderful animals!!

Have there ever been any James's flamingos in zoos?
 
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