Randomname0183
Well-Known Member
Japanese zoos do indeed hold a lot of rarities that you’ll almost never see in western facilities. From a marine mammal perspective, you see that captures still are pretty common, which bring in rare fauna that don’t live the longest of lives unfortunately (this brings in the likes of Risso’s dolphins, Pantropical spotted dolphins and striped dolphins are all sourced from Taiji in varying numbers per year and can be photographed in multiple facilities if you know where to look) and rescues too (there’s Pygmy killer whales and Common dolphins in Japan too!). Seals also are a speciality of Japan from what I’ve seen, with ribbon and spotted seals being commonplace. Until recently Japan still held Elephant seals as well.
Aside from marine life, Japan has the aforementioned native fauna kept readily, with species such as serrow and spoonbill standing out. Japan also has good ties with other Asian countries, which allows fauna like Pandas and Snub nosed Monkeys to appear.
China has also got a few rarities from other countries outside of Asia too, which have made their way into captivity through various means. Hiroshima keeps an African Forest Elephant that was presented as a diplomatic gift from Burkina Faso, Saitama keeps Quokkas, and IZoo keeps (or kept until recently) a marine iguana from a customs seizure.
I'd be happy to see some pictures of them, I didn't even know most of them are being kept in Japan. I like antelopes and other ungulates myself, so I was a bit disappointed that the last serow in Berlin had already died when I visited there for the first time. As far as I know, there never were that many of them here to begin with, the starting animals were an official gift from the japanese government I believe.
