Famous no-shows.

The muntjac at London for me. I have visited 10 times since April 2021 and have only seen them (now just her) on 4 visits. Sometimes it's also the warthogs as well as sometimes they are not that showy even on warm weather days. I have also never seen the tenrec and southern three banded armadillo at the zoo.
 
I know some posts were talking about blue-legged mantellas at Chester Zoo being difficult to see, and I can say from experience the same was true of them at Colchester Zoo.

I assumed they were there (there was a tub of fruit flies in the enclosure every time I went), but I never saw anything resembling one in the couple of years they were at the zoo.
 
BerdNerd said:
I visited the Manatee Springs exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo back in mid-2021 and I don’t know how, but the manatees were the only animals in the entire exhibit that ended up being a no-show for me.
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Cincinnati is a rescue facility, so sometimes they have young manatees in smaller areas, and occasionally they don't have any at all. In 2021 they received three ~2-year-old animals in late March. They could have been up near the surface or in a shallower area.
 
ralph said:
When visiting a zoo, there's always a couple of species that will not show themselves.
Usually you are just having some bad luck. You might have more luck next time.
But when visiting a zoo multiple times and all of those times a certain species does not show itself, it might becomes a bit frustrating (especially when it's a rare species).

So.. do you have any examples of animals you NEVER of VERY RARELY see in a certain zoo even though you visit said zoo regularly? Have you visited a certain enclosure dozens of times without ever seeing the inhabitant(s)?

I would like to nominate...
The Rock Squirrels in Burgers' Zoo, Arnhem (The Netherlands).
by
I'm curious to find out if there's any more examples out there...
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The kiwi at the Toledo Zoo. The sign for it say it is in the pheasant exhibit, but I've been by there about a dozen times and haven't seen it. Probably because it is a nocturnal bird in a diurnal exhibit.
 
Natural Historian said:
The kiwi at the Toledo Zoo. The sign for it say it is in the pheasant exhibit, but I've been by there about a dozen times and haven't seen it. Probably because it is a nocturnal bird in a diurnal exhibit.
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I've been twice in the past year (last July and literally a month ago, March 27), and I never saw any signage up for the kiwis. Do you know which exhibit they were in? Or maybe where the sign would be located? I'm pretty confident I wouldn't have missed any signage but one never knows.
 
Years ago, Antwerp Zoo used to house a kiwi in a diurnal enclosure. I don't think anyone ever saw it.

Now Plzen zoo is doing the same thing. I doubt visitors will have better luck there.
 
ZooBinh said:
I've been twice in the past year (last July and literally a month ago, March 27), and I never saw any signage up for the kiwis. Do you know which exhibit they were in? Or maybe where the sign would be located? I'm pretty confident I wouldn't have missed any signage but one never knows.
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It's been over a year and a half since the last time I was there so it is possible they might not have them anymore. But the graphic was on the round bird exhibit that is behind the children's play area by the splash pad.
 
Lincoln Park Zoo's lone aardvark, Patsy, is known to be a shy individual. She often prefers to stay in an off-display area or hiding in a small shelter, according to what I've heard. There are signs telling you where to look for her, but based on conversations I've had at the zoo it sounds like she is just too shy to even really come out during visitor hours, which makes sense because her primary exhibit is in a day room.
 
The elderly black-backed jackal in Pilsen Zoo hasn't been seen in months, neither by visitors or staff. It stays in its underground den, and only comes out to eat the food the keepers left for it after dark.
 
JVM said:
Lincoln Park Zoo's lone aardvark, Patsy, is known to be a shy individual. She often prefers to stay in an off-display area or hiding in a small shelter, according to what I've heard. There are signs telling you where to look for her, but based on conversations I've had at the zoo it sounds like she is just too shy to even really come out during visitor hours, which makes sense because her primary exhibit is in a day room.
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That's odd, I've never failed to see her in one of the hiding spaces, especially the log.
 
Max Blundell said:
southern three banded armadillo at the zoo.
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Does the zoo even have armadillos on-show? There haven't been any in Rainforest Life for a couple of years now, but a keeper told me that some are held behind the scenes in the former Casson Elephant and Rhino Pavilion. I suspect that these are the pair of Larger Hairy Armadillos sometimes featuring in the presentations on the Display Lawn, although it could be referring to the male Southern Three-banded Armadillo from Plzen mentioned on ZTL.
 
ChunkyMunky pengopus said:
That's odd, I've never failed to see her in one of the hiding spaces, especially the log.
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That's interesting. During my visit in December, I was told she was in the log, but couldn't quite see anything. My subsequent visits, usually no sign, and both times I asked keepers for tips I was basically told if she's not in the log you won't find her, and there was no particular time of day best to look.
 
I've been lucky enough to see kiwis on-exhibit in a diurnal set-up twice. The first was at Smithsonian in 2012 in the old bird house. Keepers were doing ambassador training with a kiwi through a window into an off-exhibit area. The second was at Bronx some years ago, I don't remember the exact year. They used to have kiwi living on the floor of the toucan enclosure, and one day I happened to looked down and see one walking back into its nest box.

~Thylo
 
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CrashMegaraptor said:
The Grison at Hamerton Zoo. I swear I've only ever seen it once.

Also the possums, same deal. NEVER seen the Golden one.
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The Grison are normally always showing after around 3pm. Never failed to see them. The golden I've only been lucky to see when a keeper friend took me in to meet them. If it wasn't for that then I would never have seen them myself
 
Bubalus said:
The Grison are normally always showing after around 3pm. Never failed to see them. The golden I've only been lucky to see when a keeper friend took me in to meet them. If it wasn't for that then I would never have seen them myself
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I was today years old when I learned what a grison was.
 
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