Are there any animals NOT found in ANY zoo?

Are Formosan rock macaques (Macaca cyclopis), or Taiwan macaques found anywhere in captivity? Now, I don't know when the last time ISIS was updated, but it says the Department of National Zoological Gardens in Sri Lanka has 3 males and 2 females, while Taipei Zoo has... (double-take) 51!? :eek: 25 males, 23 females, 3 unknowns... Can anyone confirm this???
 
Well... checked Taipei's website. They do in fact have Formosan rock macaques, but 51!?... Wow... I guess I still gotta investigate that.
 
Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for the comments.:) Can some one tell me why olingoes aren't kept in many zoos?
 
Pacarana said:
Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for the comments.:) Can some one tell me why olingoes aren't kept in many zoos?
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Uhmmm

Obscure (if cool)
Impossible to obtain from nature
Never bred in captivity (or certainly not at any level of success)
Nocturnal and shy
See number two above
 
carlos77 said:
Native species that have only been bred in Mexico:
Horned Guan Africam Safari - Puebla, ZOOLEON Guanajuato, ZOOMAT CHIAPAS, and EL NIDO Aviary.
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also bred by a M. Leal, a private keeper in Portugal. Walsrode has had it for years but don't think they have managed to breed it. With the imports to Saint Louis and Dallas we can hope they will manage to breed it.

Africam Safari Zoo in Pueblo also has good breeding program for rare Tuxtla quail dove. I think the only place that has it?
 
AnaheimZoo said:
Well... checked Taipei's website. They do in fact have Formosan rock macaques, but 51!?... Wow... I guess I still gotta investigate that.
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I was there in 2008. I don't know how many they had back then but lots. I suppose they're just as easy to breed as their relatives. But I don't know why a Taiwanese zoo would use its limited space on it because it is easy to see in the wild in Taiwan.
 
I have seen olingos in two zoos - Exmouth and Kilverstone. I had a talk with a keeper at Kilverstone, shortly before the zoo was closing. He said that the adult pair had produced a son and daughter. As no other zoos were prepared to cooperate in breeding from this pair, the male was placed with his daughter and the mother with her son to try and increase genetic diversity. Zootierliste had a bushy-tailed olingo in 1997. ISIS lists a male and female in Cali and a male in Peru - a total of 3 captive bushy-tailed olingos. Just over 20 years ago, Kilverstone had 4 olingos - another example of an animal that is neglected by zoos, while other animals arre kept increasinly. Do zoos really need 2,000 meerkats and 4,000 greater flamingos?
 
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Thank you for the information Dassie Rat. I was thinking that if olingeos were obtainable, which seems they are not, larger zoos could switch them out with Kinkajous. I think Pacas should be exhibited more. They could be very easily switch out.

I'm with you on the Meerkats. I don't know how many times people pass by mongoose exhibits and think they are Meerkats. If some exhibits holding Meerkats were switch with Banded Mongoose, Dwarf Mongoose, or Cusimanse, I don't believe the normal zoo visitor will know the difference. Its a win-win in my opinion. Zoos have a more diverse collection and the people get what they came for.

I not so with you on flamingoes. Zoos need flamingoes. There more of a scenery than a zoo animal that people spend time watching. Unless you mean there needs to be a different species of flamingoes, then I'm with you. Flamingoes are one of the few animals that you have to buy, so I guess it would be hard to obtain different species of flamingoes. Hopefully some larger (more wealthier) zoos can swing a pitch at some different species.
 
There are currently 4 species of Flamingo in NA zoos, and many zoos hold several species. I know San Antonio has all 4. A 5th species might be coming to another locale.
 
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Thanks for your feedback, Pacarana. I'd like to see more pacas and pacaranas in zoos, as well as other large rodents. I also agree about replacing meerkats with similar animals, such as various civets and mongooses.

My point about the greater flamingos is that there are too many individuals of certain species kept in zoos. I remember going around several zoos in the 1980s and most of them seemed to have a flamingo exhibit near the main entrance. I quite liked seeing all the species at Berlin and I've also seen several species at Slimbridge, but I get a bit bored seeing some species more than others.

A quick check on IBIS gave the following number of captive flamingos:
Greater: 5198; Chilean: 4641; American: 4575; Lesser: 1402; Andean: 25; James's: 1.

It's not hard to see which species are under-represented in zoos. I also did a quick check to see alternative tall birds that could replace some of the flamingos in zoos:

Storks: Woolly-necked: 58; African open-billed: 44; Maguari: 27; Storm's woolly-necked: 18; Asian open-billed: 6
Spoonbills: Black-faced: 58; Royal: 20; Yellow-billed: 5
Ibises: Australian: 16; Bare-faced: 1.

At a time when habitats are being cut down and more species are becoming extinct, I think there's something wrong with zoos keeping thousands of individuals of some species, while other species aren't being saved at all.
 
Dassie rat said:
At a time when habitats are being cut down and more species are becoming extinct, I think there's something wrong with zoos keeping thousands of individuals of some species, while other species aren't being saved at all.
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I agree entirely but most of the species you listed have big wild populations and don't need to be saved. Keeping them is more for our pleasure than saving them (I have no problems with that but people are being mislead if they think a breeding program would make any difference for the wild population). The threatened Andean flamingo, black-faced spoonbill and Storm's stork are the only exceptions and I wish serious breeding programs were started for them. I don't remember if it already has been tried for the stork and spoonbill? They used to be kept in more places. A big obstacle for the flamingo is that you need a big group for them to really think about breeding and while you probably could convince the local governments to export a few I guess getting them to accept exporting 20+ would be difficult.
 
condor said:
I agree entirely but most of the species you listed have big wild populations and don't need to be saved. Keeping them is more for our pleasure than saving them (I have no problems with that but people are being mislead if they think a breeding program would make any difference for the wild population).

Yes of coarse, but since it doesn't seem enough zoos are only exhibiting animals for conservation purpose and having them for breeding programs, why not add new not so threatened species to a zoo and take away the more common ones. If they have no planes to switch there Greater Flamingoes with an endangered Andean Flamingo why just leave the Greater Flamingoes and not switch them with something that isn't as common?

For instance: The millions of Meerkats. If zoos aren't going to get Indian Brown Mongoose (VU) for a breeding program, why not switch them with Banded or Dwarf.
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I agree with Pacarana that zoos should be more discerning about the animals they keep. I have been to several zoos that pride themselves on how they are helping to conserve animals and what a tragedy it is that so many animals are in danger of extinction. You'd expect such zoos to have a high proportion of animals that are endangered or critically endangered, but it seems that most enclosures contain animals that are 'not yet threatened' and some of these species turn up in several zoos. The point about the 5,000 greater flamingos is the fact that many zoos seem to breed too many individuals of some species. To save a species, according to ISIS, requires a total captive population of about 80 distantly related individuals of a species. Do Zoo Chatters want to save 60 threatened species of large, long-legged water birds with a population of about 80 per species or have 5,000 individuals of one species and threaten the other 59 species with extinction? I know which side I'm on.
 
How about humans.....i can think of a few that deserve to be caged





nanoboy said:
Bar whales like the blue whale, species that are probably extinct, and newly discovered species, are there any species that are NOT found in zoos for whatever reason?

(To keep the list short(er), let's not consider insects and fish/whales.)
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jaguar78 said:
How about humans.....i can think of a few that deserve to be caged
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Well, there are millions of humans behind bars already, albeit in jails. I am not sure whether it's a viable business to charge the public to view them. I for one wouldn't pay a dime.

It does remind me of an old episode of The Twilight Zone where some astronauts landed on a planet and woke up in a weird house, only to realise that it was actually an 'enclosure' for humans and they were put there by 'aliens' in a 'zoo'. I recall the episode ending with alien zoo visitors observing them through the bars of the cage.
 
Humans have been kept in zoos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_...d this in the chat about Madagascar exhibits.
 
Taronga Zoo also exhibited Homo sapiens in the early 80's, in the gorilla enclosure after the gorillas were sent to Melbourne.

:p

Hix
 
Surely you guys jest? The human enclosure was located between the one with the dodos and the one with the blue whale? :p
 
Never noticed? Zoo visitors usually watch a keeper going about his/her routine almost as curiously as they watch animals. ;)
 
Jurek7 said:
Never noticed? Zoo visitors usually watch a keeper going about his/her routine almost as curiously as they watch animals. ;)
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And if the average Joe's "witty" comments are to be taken for truth, a zoo keeper is a strange species of monkey, and monkeys are quite the common animals to exhibit in a zoo. :p
 
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