Australian mammals in overseas zoos

Pygathrix

Pygathrix

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The bears in the UK thread contained a reference to Australian mammals so I thought I would start a new thread.

Mostly in zoos outside Australia the “Australian section” usually consists of a few Bennett’s wallabies and an emu. A lot of zoos don’t even have large kangaroos. I have had a quick trawl through ISIS looking at non-macropods outside Australia:

None: platypus, Numbat, bilby, phascogales

Quolls: 2 tiger quolls at 2 zoos in US

Koala: 90+ in 7 European, 9 US, 2 Japanese and 1 African

Woylies: quite a lot at many institutions

Tas devils: 4 in Copenhagen

Echidnas: 9 in Europe, 26 in North America

Wombats: SHN – 7 in US none in Europe
Common – 9 Europe, 1 US, 1 Japan

Not all of these are endangered, and most can be seen in quite small animal parks across Australia. Obviously there are husbandry issues such as provision of eucalyptus or termite substitute diets, and the monotremes in particular although not rare in the wild do not reproduce readily in captivity. I wonder if the general public is not interested in most of these creatures, although platypus and Tasmanian devils do have a very high profile and I’m sure many people would be keen to see them.

I would like to see more of these creatures and wonder in particular what the Australian posters think.
 
I agree completely there needs to a larger interest in this wonderful group of species! Aparently there are Tasmanian devils and yellow-footed rock wallaby available from oz to import to EAZA collections if interested! I had heard marwell where interested in getting devils! and we are looking at the yellow-footed rock wallabys!
 
There were rumours of Chester getting Devils werent there. I love to see a wombat in the UK, I Think they'd be quite popular
 
There is only one Leadbetters possum left outside Australia at Metrozoo Toronto, the groups there and at Brookfield, London and Poznan all bred but, for some reason they all died out, i believe there are none on display in Australia either, there is a breeding facility at a university somewhere i believe.
 
Yellow-footed rock wallaby: Omaha & LA Zoo
Grey Short-tailed Opossum: Plzen, Berlin
Kowari: Poznan, Frankfurt
Petaurus breviceps ariel: Rotterdam; other sugar gliders: Plzen, Praha, Stuttgart, Vienna...
Ground cuscus: Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Praha
Common Brushtail Possum: various zoos, f.e. Munich, Frankfurt, Praha
Striped Possum: Moscow
Feathertail Glider: Frankfurt, Poznan, Plzen
Kangaroos:
Kängurus
And don't forget the Australian Water Rat: Frankfurt, Poznan, Rotterdam (behind the scenes)
 
Kowari - Marwell
Ground Cuscus - Cotswold wp (i think this is the last one in Britain)
Common Brushtail possum - Marwell, South lakes and Long Sutton butterfly.
Striped possum - Cotswold wp? can anyone confirm this?
 
blackpool have ground cus cus off show still i think
 
Pygathrix said:
Tas devils: 4 in Copenhagen

and Tasmanian devils do have a very high profile and I’m sure many people would be keen to see them.
Click to expand...

I think there's a zoo in the US which claims that after their Tas Devil died a few years ago that there were no more outside Australia... Did Copenhagen get theirs recently..?
 
Copenhagen got their's due to their royalty marrying a Tamanian girl. There's a whole lot about it in one of the Austral;ian threads, and much debate about how devils being sent overseas
 
I'll look it up and see if I can remember the zoo, cheers...
 
Yellow-footed rock wallabies are cool! Not a mammal, but I would also gladly see thorny devil.

Might be not enough interest for a permanent breeding population, though.
 
There are always loads of ads in exotic dealer websites for people in the states trying to sell there wallabies. it's possible for US citzens to keep them, yet not possible for Australians, and I have been asked in the past on more than one occasion if it was true that Australian kids ride kangaroos to school... ridiculous
 
Jarkari said:
I have been asked in the past on more than one occasion if it was true that Australian kids ride kangaroos to school... ridiculous
Click to expand...

LOL... I do it when on holiday to make up for all of you asking me to say, "Fish and chips"...

j/k
 
NZ Jeremy said:
I think there's a zoo in the US which claims that after their Tas Devil died a few years ago that there were no more outside Australia... Did Copenhagen get theirs recently..?
Click to expand...

The Zoo you are looking for is Fort Wayne's Children Zoo in Fort Wayne, Indiana (coïncidentally the city my aunt and uncle live :) ). At the time the devil died, it was the only devil outside australia untill a few years later Copenhagen Zoo received 4 from Tasmania because their prince married a Tasmanian Girl.

I'd love to see some more auzzie mammels outside Australia though, specially billby's (if they can be made properly visable), tree kangaroos, echidna's, wombats and perhaps platypus...
 
jwer said:
The Zoo you are looking for is Fort Wayne's Children Zoo in Fort Wayne, Indiana (coïncidentally the city my aunt and uncle live :) ). At the time the devil died, it was the only devil outside australia untill a few years later Copenhagen Zoo received 4 from Tasmania because their prince married a Tasmanian Girl.
Click to expand...

Their website is still claiming that now...
 
I think it's about time a live platypus made its debut in Europe. There is now a good well of expertise in Australia, with breeding in several establishments, and I think they are generally quite long-lived. If one of our zoos had the nerve to build a state of the art platypusary then I am sure it would be a real hits with visitors, as they are pretty lively animals (except in the Wollemi exhibit where I didn't see them) and most people the world over have heard of them and would want to see them.

Re bilbies - they are being bred in greater numbers now (although mostly for reintroduction) - it would be great if a few could find their way over to Europe. I suppose one of the difficulties with Australian mammals is that they are mostly nocturnal and a nocturnal house is the best way to display them.

I've no idea about the export of these animals - can anyone from Down Under tell us if it would be permissible/allowed? (We know what animals you'd like in return...)

Jurek - yep thorny devils are great little things, but hardly any in captivity, I don't know why. I was lucky enough to see some in Kalbarri NP, Western Australia, they are much smaller than I thought they were.
 
sun wukong, the grey short tailed opossum is not an australian species. in australia we have animals we call "possums" - in the americas there are "opossums". whilst both types are marsupials and look very similar inhabitaing similar niches, opossums and possums are not closely related and represent two disinct marsupial families.

unfortunately the australian versions were named after a bastardisation of "opossum" and it doesn't help that i have heard quite a few new zealanders 9where australian brush tailed possums were introduced) refer to their animals as "opossums"...

jarkari - australians can keep wallabies. i used to have a licence that allowed me too. not that you would know anything about that.

as i've said before i'm quite adamantly against exporting deviuls to europe due to their endangered status and non-established captive population in australia at present. in the future that can change.

likewise platypus are near impossible to breed in captivity and australian zoos are only just starting to have some success after a decades long hiatus. they seem very suceptable to environmental issues. is it worth sending animals to europe when the chance of breeding success is really, really minimal? probably not in my view.

i would suggest common wombats as a good candidate and am very supprised such a large mammal is not more common in northern hemispherian zoos. the tasmanian form in particular is very cold tolerant also.

grey headed flying foxes are great and are one of the worlds largest bats. they thrive hear in melbourne where it can get as low as a couple of degrees C

and stock up on kangaroos! they are great, hardy and australias national animal for good reason. they are quintessentially aussie and the best adapted animal to our great big harsh continent. kangaroos breed well overseas and there are plenty of them over there. tell your local zoo to get more!!!

and as for possums whilst brushtails do nothing for us - (but if you want some ask the kiwis), with those and sugar gliders on display (which are comon overseas) you pretty much have a good idea of the two extreme shapes our possums come in. you really don't need many more species than that, afterall even our zoos have little else.

the answer to why there are so few australian marsupials in overseas zoo might have less to do with australian being a bit "tight' so much as it may in fact be this:

unfortunately most of australias mammal fauna is noctournal, which makes them not so good zoo displays. in addition many are grey small furry things that don't look remarkably different from all the other grey small furry things that inhabit the earth. i suspect that may have something to do with it.
 
The reason the Platypus breed so well in Wollemi is because it hard to see them I've heard its supposedly as natural as possible...

Bilbys should be a hit, I think they are used to represent Easter in some parts of Aussie...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top