Biodiversity hotspots & ecoregions you would like zoos to represent?

several I would like to see but I will go with Ethiopian Highlands. While this is now and then done with essentially geladas, three species I would love to see
-Walia ibex
-Ethiopian wolf
-Mtn Nyala

this area would be relatively easy to replicate in the US or Europe, though those species I presume would take a little work. The Mtn Nyala seems like it theoretically should not be so difficult as you can book an online reservation to go kill them.
 
Some niche ecoregions come to my mind:
1. Eastern Arc Mountains: the mountainous forest of Kenya and Tanzania, this theme may include Bongo, Serval, Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew, Jackson Chameleon and William's Dwarf Gecko
2. New Guinea: although many New Guinean species are common in captivity, they are rarely displayed in New Guinean theme, instead they often put into Southeast Asia or general Oceania themes.
3. Minshan Mountain of China, the theme can be aimed to show the different ecoregions of different elevations. Below the 1600m is evergreen broadleaf forest where you can have Rhesus Macaque, Reeves Muntjac and Golden Pheasant. From 1600m to 2000m is mountain mixed forest and its fauna is represented by Red Panda, Asiatic Black Bear, Tufted Deer and even, Giant Panda (if the zoo able to acquire). From 2000m to 3600m, the Sub-alpine Boreal forest where Sichuan Takins graze. From 3600m to 4000m, the Alpine Meadow can have Palla's Cat and White-eared Pheasant. Above 4000m, the Alpine Scree can be represented by Snow Leopard, Bharal and Vultures (like Lammergeier)
 
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Tropical Dry Forest and Temperate Rainforest maybe good ideas. The former may include Indochinese, South Asian, Central American and West Madagascar species. The latter can include Pacific Northwest, Southeastern Australia, Southern China and Far East
StellarChaser said:
3. Minshan Mountain of China, the theme can be aimed to show the different ecoregions of different elevations. Below the 1600m is evergreen broadleaf forest where you can have Rhesus Macaque, Reeves Muntjac and Golden Pheasant. From 1600m to 2000m is mountain mixed forest and its fauna is represented by Red Panda, Asiatic Black Bear, Tufted Deer and even, Giant Panda (if the zoo able to acquire). From 2000m to 3600m, the Sub-alpine Boreal forest where Sichuan Takins graze. From 3600m to 4000m, the Alpine Meadow can have Palla's Cat and White-eared Pheasant. Above 4000m, the Alpine Scree can be represented by Snow Leopard, Bharal and Vultures (like Lammergeier)
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Why I mention this idea is that, Himalayan themes tend to become popular in zoos probably due to the increasing popularity of Snow Leopard and Red Panda, but East Asian highlands are not just Himalaya, Minshan or other Sichuan mountain themes can also allow you to display Snow Leopard and Red Panda, as well as some other unique species.
 
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Dassie rat said:
This is awful Rohin. Mountain Nyala hunting trips - BookYourHunt.com shows that you can also hunt Cape mountain zebras, although I'm surprised this zebra is Least Concern (Equus zebra ssp. zebra (Cape Mountain Zebra) (iucnredlist.org)). It seems it may be easier to kill mountain nyalas than to capture some for captive breeding.
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I can't say I approve of it, but it might be useful in providing revenue to conservation. Although I too would rather prefer a captive population or national parks instead.
 
Part of the problem is that a large chunk of their preferred habitat is now farmland.
The hunting is a way of dealing with the surplus males. If it preserves the species, I'm certainly OK with it, but yes I would like to see a captive back up.
 
Daktari JG said:
hree species I would love to see
-Walia ibex
-Ethiopian wolf
-Mtn Nyala
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All species that are non-existent in captivity, and are likely to remain that way unless Ethiopia becomes more lenient with their animal export laws (which I don't think will happen anytime soon). Understandably, if this were to be done, zoos would likely used Nubian Ibex and generic Nyala as stand-in species.
 
I am interested in island habitats because their diversity is truly different due to being isolated from civilized life like:
  1. Ryukyu Islands: I thought there would be an animal zone made with an Okinawan village theme and the animals there include the Ryukyu fruit bat (Pteropus dasymallus), Lidth's jay (Garrulus lidthi), Okinawa habu (Protobothrops flavoviridis), Sakishima habu (Protobothrops elegans), Sakishima grass lizard (Takydromus dorsalis), and sword-tailed newt (Cynops ensicauda).
  2. Eastern Africa Islands: This zone has a mixed-species enclosure set on a rocky beach similar to Le Morne beach at Mauritius and filled by Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea), echo parakeet (Psittacula eques), Seychelles magpie-robin (Copsychus sechellarum), Livingstone's fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii), and Rodrigues fruit bat (Pteropus rodricensis). Beside this enclosure, there are several terrariums containing reptiles native to the Indian Ocean islands which are designed to resemble a ship's cargo (inspired by the Age of Exploration). Later, these terrariums are placed in a tent/gazebo to maintain the temperature of the reptiles inside such as the tiger chameleon (Archaius tigris), Reunion Island ornate day gecko (Phelsuma inexpectata), Reunion Island day gecko (Phelsuma borbonica), Seychelles giant day gecko (Phelsuma sundbergi), blue-tailed day gecko (Phelsuma cepediana), and Robert Mertens's day gecko (Phelsuma robertmertensi).
  3. Atlantic Ocean Islands: This zone is not too large and has a colonial-era theme. The animals in this zone include Gran Canaria giant lizard (Gallotia stehlini), Gran Canaria skink (Chalcides sexlineatus), Tenerife lizard (Gallotia galloti), and Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria).
 
ZooBoy99 said:
Also, I believe a habitat based off the Madrean pine-oak woodlands would be great. Animals like jaguars, elk, ocelots, and coatis could be represented. Pulse, the opportunity to educate visitors about the annual overwintering of millions of monarch butterflies.
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Elmwood Park Zoo's Trail of the Jaguar sort of gestures in this direction.
 
I would totally love to see an exhibit based on the Forests, Islands, and waters of Scotland and like there’s tons of species that are found nowhere else and great examples are the Critically Endangered Scottish wildcat, The endemic Scottish Crossbill, st kilda field mouse, Orkney Vole, haddy char, powan, st kilda wren and the Orkney char but Scotland is also home to creatures that are found on the mainland of Europe like Scotland is the UKs stronghold of the European pine marten but there’s also the capercaillie, the Red deer which has its own subspecies in Scotland, the Golden Eagle, Osprey, White tailed eagle, The only population of the crested tit in the Uk however the islands off the coast of mainland Scotland are known for their seabirds like Scotland is home to about half of the world’s population of northern gannets, a third of the Manx shearwaters, 90% of the European population of the leaches storm petrel and there’s also other kinds of birds like the horned grebe which is called the slavonian grebe in Scotland however Scotland also has reptiles like the Smooth snake, the common European Adder and the Viviparous lizard but besides living creatures the waters and forests of Scotland are known for cryptological creatures like Unicorns, The Loch Ness monster and the
stronsay beast.
 
gerome said:
I never seen an north africa section before, that was more then some ungaletes
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Marwell has two.They have their Aridlands exhibit with addax and dorcas gazelles. The building for their indoor quarters also includes exhibits for starred agama and desert locust.

Last year they renovated their old tropical house into a North African scrubland exhibit featuring rock hyrax, Egyptian spiny tailed lizard, rough scaled plated lizard, more starred agama and sulcata tortoises.
 
While I know some zoos have done small-scale versions, I would love for a zoo to do a big section about the Mediterranean Biodiversity Hotspot. It could have a large aquarium as the centrepiece, and three zones around this aquarium to represent the European, African and Asian regions of the Mediterranean. There are certainly plenty of species, many of them pretty popular as well, that could fit into such a theme - even more so if you extended the theme to include recently extinct species, which could add animals like lions, tigers and hippos.
 
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