Are there any animals NOT found in ANY zoo?
- Thread starter nanoboy
- Start date
Of course there are certain animals not found in captivity! I'm sure many bird species aren't to be found in zoo's (e.g. sea birds or the less colorful, small species of song birds). Also, I think the Indri from Madagascar is another mammal species cannot be kept in captivity due to its food specialization and sensitivity in any environmental changes. Well, of course there are further thousands of other such species. Hope this helps.
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Yeah I was thinking more along the lines of animals that CANNOT be kept for a particular reason like the indri that you mentioned, and the larger cetaceans (for obvious reasons!).
I read somewhere that platypus are only found in Australian zoos, and there aren't any (many?) African forest elephants in zoos, so I was wondering what other (more well known) species aren't found in zoos.
Too many to list, although some experienced travellers may submit a list of more popular animals not found it zoos. There are literally thousands. The statistic I think I remember reading somewhere years ago (I could be way off on this), was that all the world's zoos combined hold 17% of the known vertebrate species.
Yes, I think Arizona Docent is right! Of course we tend to overestimate the ability of zoo's to keep the world's flora and fauna, but zoo's merely present us with the more popular, larger, obvious species… I'm saying this as a zookeeper myself… ;0)
You can find Mountain Nyala's in several German zoo's, as the FZS (Frankfurt Zoological Society) organizes and supports most of the projects in Ethiopia and Congo. And true, I forgot about the Mountain Gorilla's which die in captivity due to their specialized diet! Even though Antwerp zoo (Belgium) used to have the only captive female of the eastern Mountain Gorilla in the world. I'm not sure if they still have her, she was already quite aged when I saw her about 8 years ago.
There are no mountain nyalas in German zoos; Berlin Zoo had mountain nyalas in the 1930s; I don't think that any zoo has exhibited the species since.
RowanGreen
Well-Known Member
I think it would probably be true to say that to preserve all the species on earth in a zoo we'd need the space of another earth, without all the humans currently taking the space up. In fact we'd probably need two: one to keep them on and one to grow/raise their food!
Pelagic birds and fishes are regarded as impossible to keep: I guess very few of the tube-noses have ever been kept - albatrosses, shearwaters, frigate birds, petrels etc and likewise swordfish, marlin, dolphinfish (although there are some photos in the Gallery of flying fish in a Japanese aquarium) plus leatherback turtles.
Likewise any species which feeds on flying insects is very dificult to keep long term - swifts, swallows and most small bats (although rescued wild specimens have been kept for varying lengths of time).
Finally burrowing species can be kept, but they hardly ever are - apart from naked mole rats and a few reptiles like sand boas and sandfish; there are lots of burrowing mammals, many other burrowing snakes and some lizards plus the amphisbaenians and caecilians (amphibians).
Alan
Likewise any species which feeds on flying insects is very dificult to keep long term - swifts, swallows and most small bats (although rescued wild specimens have been kept for varying lengths of time).
Finally burrowing species can be kept, but they hardly ever are - apart from naked mole rats and a few reptiles like sand boas and sandfish; there are lots of burrowing mammals, many other burrowing snakes and some lizards plus the amphisbaenians and caecilians (amphibians).
Alan
With the current knowledge we have on Mountain Gorillas we would be able to keep them in very healthy conditions in Zoos. The issue is do we want them in captivity. I m glad that this last part will be a no for most zoos in the world.
And Antwerp has Eastern Lowlands no Mountain Gorillas and both females are still alive.
Also several swallow or martin species are kept in captivity for long term and have been known to breed in captivity.
But most of the time food-specialists and small dull "boring" species will not be represented in captivity. And a species that is not in captivity is the Kakapo, although Sirocco is doing his tour now so if we're fair there is one bird of this species in captivity now.
There are quite a few parrot species that seem impossible to keep (at least in the present state of knowledge) Examples would be the Touit parrotlets of South America and some of the small specialist parrots of New Guinea. Some at least seem to feed on lichens or fungi, and are practically impossible to wean onto alternative diets in captivity.
DejaVuKatz
Active Member
I know you wanted to keep the list void of whales and such, but we do not have narwhals in captivity and have not tried to keep them since the 1970s, if I remember right. Vancouver Aquarium, which back in those days had a lot of deaths, brought in 6 to 7 to be kept and all died with in the span of about 3 months. From my understanding died of bacterial infections. In general there has been the same problems with belugas which are being over come. I think now a days with the progressed veterinary care and zoo standards they probably could be kept in zoo. Not sure i'd want them in zoos or aquariums unless the tank was expansive. I have never seen a tv documentary on these creatures but love finding info on them.
you've given contradictory statements here. Do you want species that cannot be kept (first sentence) or animals that can be kept quite easily but aren't in many zoos (second sentence)?nanoboy said:
nanoboy
Well-Known Member
Ah. You did say you were pedantic.
Let's try to keep it to more well-known species and apply both criteria. But then you might have an issue with the term 'well-known', because what is well-known for you might not be well-known for me.
However, hopefully all posters agree that narwhals, indri, mountain gorillas, Javan rhinos, and kakapos are 'well-known' and have more 'surprise value' for not being kept in zoos than an obscure subspecies of bird say.
Hmmm.... let's try to rein in the thread then.
Which mammals CANNOT be kept in zoos (and why)?
Which mammals ARE NOT kept in zoos (and why)?
Ah. You did say you were pedantic.
Let's try to keep it to more well-known species and apply both criteria. But then you might have an issue with the term 'well-known', because what is well-known for you might not be well-known for me.
However, hopefully all posters agree that narwhals, indri, mountain gorillas, Javan rhinos, and kakapos are 'well-known' and have more 'surprise value' for not being kept in zoos than an obscure subspecies of bird say.
Hmmm.... let's try to rein in the thread then.
Which mammals CANNOT be kept in zoos (and why)?
Which mammals ARE NOT kept in zoos (and why)?
As someone mentioned indris CANNOT be kept, because of diet.
Mountain gorillas were kept in zoos historically, but will likely never be again because the focus is on keeping them alive and increasing in numbers in the wild. Ditto Javan rhinos, Ethiopian wolves, etc.
To slightly digress from mammals, in another thread there was a discussion of why there are no Galapagos species other than tortoises in zoos and the answer seemed to be that experiments in keeping marine iguanas, Galapagos doves, finches, etc. had failed over time.
Meaghan Edwards
Well-Known Member
I believe there was only one Liberian mongoose ever displayed (at the Toronto Zoo). Since his passing I believe no more entered captivity. I was very young at the time but I do remember him and fondly. He was a beautiful animal, though very elusive.