Animals you'll never see in a zoo

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If You happen to find the article, would You please be so nice to write it down for me? Thanks a lot in advance. Well, Taipeh is the zoo Leipzig is getting their Chinese pangolin from; the world (when it comes to pagolins) is a small place. ;)

How long have You been keeping the pangolin so far?
 
sun wukong: definitely a pair of mountain gorillas, which are almost unheard of in zoos these days.
 
Well, beside of the alleged female in Antwerp they are actually not almost, but completely "unheard of"; no official zoo keeps them.
 
Chlidonias said:
the Kula Eco-park in Fiji has an orange dove
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Excellent; hmm, the only problem for me now is how to get to Fiji. And once I'm there, I'm pretty sure I can also do some bird-watching on my own and see them in the wild.:D
Ok, then at least one zoo (is it actually a zoo?) has Orange Doves...
 
depends on your definition of zoo. Its a collection of native Fijian wildlife. They have breeding programmes for various species, and send many captive-bred iguanas to Australia etc. I did a review of the place on here a few months ago.

http://www.zoobeat.com/2/kula-eco-park-fiji-8687/

They just have the one orange dove, a male with an injured wing.

Seeing them in the wild is an amazing experience. Seeing the one at Kula is also amazing in that you can observe it really closely as it is quite calm.
 
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I stuck a photo of the Kula bird on the following thread:

http://www.zoobeat.com/2/dream-zoo-8513/index2.html

On the computer I'm on now the photo actually looks pretty dull, but the bird is a vibrant absolutely-ridiculous bright orange while the head is sort of a mossy green colour. In the forest they look like glowing balls of lava sitting in the trees. Truly stunning birds. The Fijian golden dove is also spectacular but more in a beautiful way rather than a garish Las Vegas way.
 
Chlidonias said:
the bird is a vibrant absolutely-ridiculous bright orange while the head is sort of a mossy green colour. In the forest they look like glowing balls of lava sitting in the trees.
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I REALLY wanted to see these when I went to Fiji, but I had no real chance.: I saw their pictures in the bird books- amazing... I believe they only occur on one, or is it two of the smaller Islands? Is it easy to get to their habitat? We were staying on one of the two big islands and there was no chance to travel far...
 
Sun Wukong said:
If You happen to find the article, would You please be so nice to write it down for me? Thanks a lot in advance. Well, Taipeh is the zoo Leipzig is getting their Chinese pangolin from; the world (when it comes to pagolins) is a small place. ;)

How long have You been keeping the pangolin so far?
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Found the article! The components of the diet are listed there. Here's the link:
Taipei Times - archives

The pangolin at Night Safari has been kept for almost a year or so I believe.
 
Pertinax said:
I REALLY wanted to see these when I went to Fiji, but I had no real chance.: I saw their pictures in the bird books- amazing... I believe they only occur on one, or is it two of the smaller Islands? Is it easy to get to their habitat? We were staying on one of the two big islands and there was no chance to travel far...
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there are three closely-related doves in Fiji from the genus Chrysoenas. The whistling dove C. layardi is endemic to Kadavu to the south (only birders and divers go there).

The golden dove C. luteovirens is the colour of spun gold and has bizarre hackle-like feathers; it is found on Viti Levu (that's the big island where Nadi and Suva are) as well as the smaller nearby islands of Beqa, Waya, Ovalau and Gau.

The orange dove C. victor is on Vanua Levu (thats the other big island) and Taveuni just off Vanua Levu's east coast. On the next-door small islands of Qamea, Laucala and Matagi is the subspecies C.v. aureus which is even brighter orange!

All of them live in forest, mainly in the canopy. So long as you go to Taveuni the orange dove isn't actually difficult even with limited time. On the east coast is a village called Vidawa which is part of a collection of villages that have pooled together and established a series of forest and marine reserves.
Guides from Vidawa take people into the forest to see the birdlife or to explore the history of the area. The benefit of doing this, apart for finding the orange dove, is that it is also supporting the locals' efforts to protect their environment which would no doubt otherwise be turned into so many sawn-up logs. On this guided walk I saw two full-colour male orange doves, an immature male and two females. On the island of Vanua Levu I saw a female at the Waisali Rainforest Reserve about an hour out of Savusavu. I also saw both the other species (whistling and golden) on their respective islands.
 
spectacular doves. always been one of my favorite birds.

i'll have to google those goldens now...dont think i've ever seen a picture of one of those!
 
I just tried that. For key words "Fijian golden dove" and "golden dove" on both ways the first two pictures are quite good depictions
 
the Kula Eco-park in Fiji also has a golden dove on display. They had two males, "rescued" as chicks and hand-reared, but I believe one died at some point. Apparently they also have a wild pair on the property.
 
a while ago a private individual lodged an application to bring over some fijian red and masked shinning parrots to australia. don't know how successful they were though.
 
Chlidonias said:
All of them live in forest, mainly in the canopy. So long as you go to Taveuni the orange dove isn't actually difficult even with limited time.
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We were staying on Vitu Levu. I'll never get another chance to see this fantastic bird now...:( Still, its good to know that it appears to be still in reasonable numbers on the islands its found on.
 
so long as the forest remains they should be fine. They don't appear to be hunted to any real degree (but I could be wrong) and being canopy-dwellers they aren't affected by MOST of the introduced animals.

The shining parrots are also all still very common. Being legally protected I doubt a private individual would have any luck trying to export any. However despite their legal protection they are widely kept as pets all over the islands.
 
Where is the information about SD's forest hog coming from? I've seen the animal in person, doesn't look like a "hypermelanstic" river hog to me.

Also, Phoenix Zoo successfully cared for a Chinese pangolin for several years in the 90's. Really impressive looking animal.

Thought of another one, any ACTUAL giant sable antelope in captivity anywhere?
 
i've never heard of a "giant" sbale antelope before!

are they actually that much bigger than regular sable antelope?
 
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