Animals You've Seen That Few Zoochatters Have Seen

I only saw a few rare ones like spix's marcaw (Loro Parque) aswell as so many other species, I coudn't name in here
Baikal seal (Leipzig)
Chinese Pangolin (Leipzig)
Abyssinian golden wolf (Rheine)
Amazon Riverdolphin (Duisburg)
Blue-Eyed black Lemur (Appenheul)
San- Francisco Gartersnake (Münster)
 
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FunkyGibbon said:
I think it would be interesting, and useful, if we could pin down exactly what this thread means. Most lists being posted seem a little too broad, with many people laying claim to quite a lot of the species therein.
Possibly we could keep tabs on species claimed as seen by few, but subsequently revealed to be more commonly seen than thought?
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I think this could be summed up in part as the 'Baby Phenomenon'. Despite being the only one, basically any zoochatter in Europe with the means to do so has seen a river dolphin. Similarly although Berlin and Plzen hold countless rarities, most of those rarities have been seen by large numbers of zoochatters. Even the spotted linsang at Chengdu was seen by almost all Chinese zoochatters. What we are probably looking for are either rarities seen at small zoos nobody really visits, or stuff seen in the wild.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
I think it would be interesting, and useful, if we could pin down exactly what this thread means. Most lists being posted seem a little too broad, with many people laying claim to quite a lot of the species therein.
Possibly we could keep tabs on species claimed as seen by few, but subsequently revealed to be more commonly seen than thought?
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Indeed - if I had the time and spoons I'd be rather tempted to run through this whole thread to see how many species have been claimed by a single person, and moreover how many of these are species that we don't already know multiple Zoochatters have seen even if they haven't mentioned having done so within this thread.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Indeed - if I had the time and spoons I'd be rather tempted to run through this whole thread to see how many species have been claimed by a single person, and moreover how many of these are species that we don't already know multiple Zoochatters have seen even if they haven't mentioned having done so within this thread.
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I'm sorry.... I'm confused.....What does this say?? Spoons?? It's late....
 
AmbikaFan said:
I'm sorry.... I'm confused.....What does this say?? Spoons?? It's late....
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No worries - it's a relatively new turn of phrase pertaining to the way people with physical or mental disabilities (in my case, Aspergers and low-level anxiety) deal with everyday life:

The spoon theory or spoon metaphor is a disability metaphor (for a combination of ego depletion, fatigue, and other factors), a neologism used to explain the reduced amount of mental and physical energy available for activities of living and productive tasks that may result from disability or chronic illness. Spoons are a visual representation used as a unit of measure in order to quantify how much energy a person has throughout a given day. Each activity requires a given number of spoons, which will only be replaced as the person "recharges" through rest. A person who runs out of spoons has no choice but to rest until their spoons are replenished.

This metaphor is used to describe the planning that many people have to do to conserve and ration their energy reserves to accomplish their activities of daily living.The planning and rationing of energy-consuming tasks has been described as being a major concern of those with chronic and fatigue-related diseases, illness, or conditions. The theory explains the difference between those who don't seem to have energy limits and those that do. The theory is used to facilitate discussions between those with limited energy reserves and those without.

Because healthy people typically are not concerned with the energy expended during ordinary tasks such as bathing and getting dressed, the theory can help others empathize with the consequences of chronic illness or pain on daily routine
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Spoon theory - Wikipedia

In other words, as it's late and I'm tired, I don't have the mental or physical energy to write up the list I proposed :P
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Indeed - if I had the time and spoons I'd be rather tempted to run through this whole thread to see how many species have been claimed by a single person, and moreover how many of these are species that we don't already know multiple Zoochatters have seen even if they haven't mentioned having done so within this thread.
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Would be interesting to say the least. Given there's 6 groups (Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates - probably could just say herps here though), I wouldn't mind taking half if you wanted to do the other half. Would give us a rough idea of some of the rarest and least seen species among Zoochatters!
 
FunkyGibbon said:
Most of my travels have been in the footsteps of other zoochatters, but there is one place I am pretty sure I am the only one to have ventured to and which provided me with a fairly unique sighting, the circumstances of which will be revealed in an upcoming thread.....

Pig-tailed langur, Simias concolor
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So, given that you completed that thread with no mention of seeing a Pig-tailed Langur, I have some feelings of confusion...
 
ThylacineAlive said:
So I'm just going to make a real long list and you guys can all go through it if you'd like :p Wild animals have an asterisk. For the most part I tried to leave out rare species that are at zoos such as the San Diegos and Berlins which will have been seen by a great many zoonerds by now, and most famous individuals (ie Baby at Duisburg) who are specifically sought out by many zoonerds.

Mammals
Common Opossum
Tiger Quoll
Feathertail Glider
Striped Possum
Sulawesi Bear Cuscus
Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat
Cape Hartebeest
Mountain Anoa
Japanese Serow
Spanish Ibex
Royal Antelope
Bay Duiker
Maxwell's Duiker
West African Bushbuck
American Moose
Calamian Deer
Bawean Deer
Formosan Sika Deer
Chinese Water Deer
Coues's Deer
Siberian Musk-Deer
Fin Whale
Short-Finned Pilot Whale
Grey Whale
Black-Backed Jackal
San Clemente Island Fox
Corsac Fox
Oncilla
Slender Mongoose
Brown Hyena
Greater Grison
Zorilla
American Marten
Beech Marten
Short-Tailed Weasel
Long-Tailed Weasel
Black-Footed Ferret
European Polecat
Siberian Weasel
Fisher
Marbled Polecat
African Palm-Civet
Guadalupe Fur Seal
Northern Elephant Seal
Harp Seal
Spotted Seal
Ringed Seal
Ussuri Brown Bear (Hokkaido)
Kodiak Bear
Syrian Brown Bear
Owston's Civet
Feline Genet
Haussa Genet
Banded Civet
Malayan Civet
Mexican Free-Tailed Bat
White-Winged Vampire Bat
Southern Long-Nosed Bat
Pale Spear-Nosed Bat
Gambian Epauletted Bat
Livingstone's Flying Fox
Lyle's Flying Fox
Little Golden-Mantled Flying Fox
Little Red Flying Fox
Ruwenzori Rousette
Pallid Bat
Little Brown Bat
Northern Short-Tailed Shrew
Eurasian Water Shrew
Eastern Tree Hyrax
Western Tree Hyrax
Antelope Jackrabbit** -AHH you got me here! I looked for these 1 night in Arizona but no luck!
Snowshoe Hare
European Mountain Hare
New England Cottontail
Daurian Pika
Sumatran Rhinoceros
Chinese Pangolin
Tree Pangolin
Nancy Ma's Night-Monkey
Three-Striped Night-Monkey
Spix's Night-Monkey
Guatemalan Howler Monkey
White-Bellied Spider Monkey
Peruvian Spider Monkey
Wied's Marmoset
Red-Mantled Saddle-Backed Tamarin
Spix's Moustached Tamarin
Lowe's Guenon
Blue Monkey
Common Mona Monkey
Heck's Macaque
Olive Baboon
Guinea Baboon
Sumatran Surili
Red-Shanked Douc
Tarai Grey Langur -Damn missed this at Ostrava- that's what I get for my rushed Czech day!
Fat-Tailed Dwarf Lemur
Ganzhorn's Mouse Lemur
Goodman's Mouse Lemur
Eastern Hoolock
Muller's Gibbon
Grey-Headed Lemur
Eastern Bamboo Lemur
Greater Bamboo Lemur
Red Slender Loris
Bornean Elephant
Ansell's Mole-Rat
Northern Mountain Viscacha
Woodland Vole**-was this difficult to find?
White-Footed Mouse
Alabama Beach Mouse -seen Perdido Key Beach Mouse- where did you see this, captive?
Mexican Dwarf Porcupine
Botta's Pocket Gopher
Asian Garden Dormouse
Desert Pocket Mouse
Tipton Kangaroo-Rat -captive? where was this one!?
Ord's Kangaroo-Rat
Hairy-Footed Gerbil -was this at Bronx Zoo's mouse house? I saw these signed many times, but never an animal.
Panay Bushy-Tailed Cloud Rat
Southern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat
Grandidier's Tufted-Tailed Rat
White-Tailed Antelope Squirrel** -again looked for these but no luck!
Plantain Squirrel
Gunnison's Prairie Dog
Yellow-Bellied Marmot
Red-and-White Giant Flying Squirrel
Franklin's Ground Squirrel
Abert's Squirrel
Arizona Grey Squirrel** -also looked for with no luck!
Yucatan Squirrel
Uinta Ground Squirrel
Round-Tailed Ground Squirrel

I'll carry out with birds, herps, etc. at a later date perhaps.

~Thylo
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So I bolded ones I've seen in the wild, and made red the ones I've never seen.

Seems like you have at least 8 mammals on me! I have some work ahead of me haha.
 
Giant Eland said:
So I bolded ones I've seen in the wild, and made red the ones I've never seen.

Seems like you have at least 8 mammals on me! I have some work ahead of me haha.
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The vole was seen wild by coincidence. The beach mouse was seen at Noah's Ark in Europe of all places, who received one from a private collection. The kangaroo-rat was at CALM. The gerbil was at Bronx, yes, but long gone now.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The vole was seen wild by coincidence. The beach mouse was seen at Noah's Ark in Europe of all places, who received one from a private collection. The kangaroo-rat was at CALM. The gerbil was at Bronx, yes, but long gone now.

~Thylo
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Ah I actually tried seeing that same mouse at Noah's Ark, but I arrived on the one day of the week they're closed (and no sneaking in this time lol!) I even spoke to an employee I saw there to try to convince that an exception be made- but no luck!

What year did you see the kangaroo-rat at CALM? Did you have similar troubles seeing the gerbil at Bronx- ever get a photo?
 
Giant Eland said:
What year did you see the kangaroo-rat at CALM? Did you have similar troubles seeing the gerbil at Bronx- ever get a photo?
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I visited CALM in January 2018. I don't remember the gerbil well, this was when I first started zoo-going so no photos.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The vole was seen wild by coincidence. The beach mouse was seen at Noah's Ark in Europe of all places, who received one from a private collection. The kangaroo-rat was at CALM. The gerbil was at Bronx, yes, but long gone now.

~Thylo
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Noahs used to have a group of them, never did manage a decent picture, the little buggers moved like lightning
 
I’ve seen...

Shoebills at San Diego zoo Safari Park
Tuataras at Dallas zoo
Hawaiian monk seals at both Minnesota zoo & wakiki aquarium
Kangaroo rats at Henry doorly zoo
Darien pika at Minnesota zoo
Transcaspian urial at both Minnesota zoo & saint Louis zoo
Goitered gazelle at Minnesota zoo
Kodiak bears at Lake Superior zoo
Bush dogs at Detroit zoo
Dholes at Minnesota zoo
Kagus at San Diego zoo
California condors at San Diego zoo
Rock wallaby’s at Henry doorly zoo
 
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Dhole dude said:
I’ve seen...

Shoebills at San Diego zoo Safari Park
Tuataras at Dallas zoo
Hawaiian monk seals at both Minnesota zoo & wakiki aquarium
Kangaroo rats at Henry doorly zoo
Darien pika at Minnesota zoo
Transcaspian urial at both Minnesota zoo & saint Louis zoo
Goitered gazelle at Minnesota zoo
Kodiak bears at Lake Superior zoo
Bush dogs at Detroit zoo
Dholes at Minnesota zoo
Kagus at San Diego zoo
California condors at San Diego zoo
Rock wallaby’s at Henry doorly zoo
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Pretty sure a lot of people have seen all of those... most of them are easily seen.
 
I'm probably a poor judge of what's a true rarity by zoochat standards, as I've never had the financial ability/time for traveling that a lot of zoochatters seems to have had. I think there's a bit of a gulf between serious enthusiasts and the more average folks, in terms of what's considered particularly difficult to see, aka "rare". Not that I begrudge anyone that, as y'all have a habit of taking great pictures for me to check out :D

With that said, I can come up with a short list of species that I've seen people mention in various threads. Or species that are, as far as I know, not super accessible.

Black-footed Cat - Fresno Zoo
Bush Dogs - Sequoia Park Zoo
Great White Shark - Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mountain Tapir - LA Zoo
Speke's Gazelle- Fresno Zoo
Walrus - Marine World (now Six Flags Discovery Kingdom)
Yellow-billed Magpie - LA Zoo (these were also common backyard birds for me growing up in Merced County, CA)

If we're talking wild animals:

Falcated Duck - (a wild vagrant from Russia/Mongolia, in Colusa Wildlife Refuge)
2, maybe 3 subspecies of Ensatina salamander here in California and Oregon
Fisher - rural Humboldt County
Giant Kangaroo Rat- Carrizo Plain National Monument
Kit Fox - Carrizo Plain National Monument
Phainopepla - Tulare County

Likely several other bird species I've seen would be considered rarities too, but I'm not up to trawling through my old eBird records right now.
 
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