Gutted!

Brookfield Zoo: Binturong (just smelled it and I saw a clump in the distance).
Buffalo Zoo: Grey necked wood rail (I wish I saw it more than one time).
Cleveland Zoo: Tamandua, fishing cat.
Columbus Zoo: Kiwi, wolverine.
National Aquarium: Tawny frogmouth (I felt better when I remembered I saw one at the Brookfield Zoo).
Pittsburgh Zoo: Baby seal otter
Toronto Zoo: Hippos off exhibit (I almost had a breakdown the second time, until they came out a few minutes later).
Virginia Zoo: Binturongs, Malaysian tiger, white rhino, and zebra off exhibit.
 
My one main failing on my zoo visits are armadillos- in the last few years I have visited no less than four zoos that house some species or another and in every case they have either been off-show or remained hidden.
 
I missed out on most of Antwerp's night exhibits when I visited in 2010. I went inside the building and saw the viscacha and aardvark exhibits, but I still have no idea where the other exhibits were because I couldn't find them. Fortunately, the viscachas are actually the only species in there I had not yet seen.

When I was in Planckendael the same year, I never saw the wombat or tinamou which I had looked forward to. I managed to see both of them at Hanover and Walsrode this year, however.

Then it is, of course, also annoying when a zoo doesn't update its website, and some of the species have left a long time ago when you actually visit. I went to the small Danish zoo Skærup Zoo a couple of months ago to see their mountain anoa, Altai lynx, South American porcupine, Brazza monkey and a few others. The porcupines and Brazza monkeys were no longer in the collection, the Altai lynxes were there but didn't show themselves, and I felt lucky to see the mountain anoa because it only went outside in the grey, rainy weather a short moment before I left.

And I have still yet to see kiwis. When I visited Berlin Zoo - their night zoo was being renovated. When I visited Antwerp Zoo - kiwis had just left the collection, only to come back a year later (but you never see them in Antwerp as far as I know, so maybe that's not too bad). When I visited Walsrode - I didn't see them (like Antwerp, probably impossible to see because they don't have a night exhibit).

In Walsrode, I also missed out on the Montezuma oropendolas, now that I think about it.
When I visited Hanover, it was right after the chimp escape, so the house of great apes was closed off. Not that they have any spectacular species in there, as far as I can tell.
 
Brum said:
But what about those species that you spend an eternity waiting for, yet you still never see them? I'm thinking things like the tamandau at Colchester, red squirrels pretty much anywhere and any nocturnal species in a diurnal exhibit.
I have a couple of dreaded no shows and I'll detail them first:-
Geoffroy's cat at Dudley, I've only ever seen hints of a tail or a bit of fur sticking up at the back of the enclosure. Last time I went he was off-show.
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I must admit, I've been very lucky with the red squirrels at Dudley - I think I've seen them on all but one visit this year (including a baby one). I've also had some really good views of the Geoffroy's cat - I found he tends to come out early-mid afternoon when the sun is on his enclosure. He's still off show at the moment (the European lynx is in his enclosure) and I'm not sure when he'll be back.

I did struggle to see the latest tapir arrival at Dudley - I think she was about 4 months old when I eventually saw her.

I never saw the bush dogs at Dudley or the maned wolf at Chester. I've not seen the giant anteaters at Chester yet although I've visited twice since their arrival.

However, my biggest no-show was when I was taken to Regent's Park Zoo back in the 1960s with the promise of seeing a giant panda. Unfortunately, when we got there, the panda had just been whisked off to America or Moscow (I forget which) in an attempt to get it to mate with their panda. I was very young and had been highly excited for weeks about seeing a panda - needless to say I was inconsolable (I think toys actually did get hurled out of pushchairs!)
 
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Angel said:
I must admit, I've been very lucky with the red squirrels at Dudley - I think I've seen them on all but one visit this year (including a baby one). I've also had some really good views of the Geoffroy's cat - I found he tends to come out early-mid afternoon when the sun is on his enclosure. He's still off show at the moment (the European lynx is in his enclosure) and I'm not sure when he'll be back.
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I've never seen a red squirrel at Dudley... Ever! :mad:
And the last visit to Dudley I had was about 2 or 3 months ago, lynx were also occupying the Geoffroy's enclosure when I visited.

Angel said:
I never saw the bush dogs at Dudley or the maned wolf at Chester.
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I never had any problems with the bush dogs, even towards the end when they were down to the one geriatric individual. I did spend a while looking in Febuary but established that they must've all passed away by then.
I never saw the maned wolves at Chester but did see Dudleys one several times around the same period.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
My one main failing on my zoo visits are armadillos- in the last few years I have visited no less than four zoos that house some species or another and in every case they have either been off-show or remained hidden.
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I have been quite lucky with armadillos. Went to London Zoo a few days ago, and one of the Large Hairy armadillos in the old elephant/rhino pavilion (now called something like Zoo Centre or something similar) was very active. The last time I went to Bristol Zoo, the armadillos there (housed with Howler monkeys if I remember rightly) were trotting about constantly.
 
Brum said:
I've never seen a red squirrel at Dudley... Ever! :mad:
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In the wild they tend to be most active in the first few hours after dawn.Then they rest in their dreys, have another shorter activity peak at mid-day, rest again, and then active again for a few hours before dark. The early morning peak is the longest one.

If they mirror this in captivity then they are most likely to be most active before the Zoo opens! My own experince of seeing Reds in Zoos is they are usually invisible, but occassionally you will see them active- often showing very stereo-typed behaviour, as they are really too active to be kept in confined conditions.
 
Hello Brum

I went to Dudley Zoo two weeks ago and didn't see the red squirrels in their enclosure. It was a very cold day, but I think the staff were the friendliest I've met on my visits to zoos.
 
The legendary no show in Belgium is the kiwi in Antwerp Zoo. It is in a normal aviary, so it's always a sleep during opening hours. It is so elusive I even had keepers saying that suposedly they have a kiwi in the aviary but they're actually not sure as they never saw it themselves.
 
Pertinax said:
In the wild they tend to be most active in the first few hours after dawn.Then they rest in their dreys, have another shorter activity peak at mid-day, rest again, and then active again for a few hours before dark. The early morning peak is the longest one.

If they mirror this in captivity then they are most likely to be most active before the Zoo opens! My own experince of seeing Reds in Zoos is they are usually invisible, but occassionally you will see them active- often showing very stereo-typed behaviour, as they are really too active to be kept in confined conditions.
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I recently visited BNC and saw THREE active and none-stereotyping red squirrels. I was extremely happy with this sighting as I find them a very charismatic species. And this was in the middle of the afternoon. :p
Dudleys still evade me and from all acounts stereotype extremely badly.
 
If you want to see red squirrels, I advise going to Germany. I have seen them in Mannheim, Cologne and Berlin, where they are not shy and are easy to see.
 
Dassie rat said:
If you want to see red squirrels, I advise going to Germany. I have seen them in Mannheim, Cologne and Berlin, where they are not shy and are easy to see.
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Wild red squirrels?
I've seen two, a very long-distance away on a boat trip off Dorset. It was just a tour of the island in the middle of Poole harbour, and there was a pair on a tree branch close to the waters edge and the boats captain pointed them out with his binnoculars. I was young but it was still a great sight and these remain my only wild red squirrels. Thet even make up about 20% of all red squirrels I've actually seen.
 
Brum said:
Dudleys still evade me and from all acounts stereotype extremely badly.
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It does seem to vary depending on what Zoo you are at. I used to visit Banham quite regularly and nearly always saw them there, irrespective of the time of day.

Having said that, if I drive a quarter of a mile up the road from my house there is a bird feeder in a garden by the road and most mornings there's one to be seen feeding on there.;)
 
Brum said:
Wild red squirrels?
I've seen two, a very long-distance away on a boat trip off Dorset. It was just a tour of the island in the middle of Poole harbour, and there was a pair on a tree branch close to the waters edge and the boats captain pointed them out with his binnoculars. I was young but it was still a great sight and these remain my only wild red squirrels. Thet even make up about 20% of all red squirrels I've actually seen.
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Hello Brum
I saw a red squirrel running across a path on Brownsea Island.I also saw red squirrels in a forest in North Norfolk in 1977. I think they were in Holkham Woods. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holkham_National_Nature_Reserve]Holkham National Nature Reserve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] sys the squirrels disappeared from the woods in 1981.
 
Brum said:
I've never seen a red squirrel at Dudley... Ever! :mad:
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Saw quite a few of them on my first visit, but not at all on my second.

Get red squirrels visiting Hel's garden daily :)
 
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Dassie rat said:
If you want to see red squirrels, I advise going to Germany. I have seen them in Mannheim, Cologne and Berlin, where they are not shy and are easy to see.
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Edinburgh is good for seeing wild red squirrels also, Princess street gardens (?), and the royal botanical gardens are very good, and easy to see. Well as long there aren't any dogs:mad:

Luckily I get red squirrels in my garden, unfortunately there are also greys:(

epickoala123:)
 
epickoala123 said:
Luckily I get red squirrels in my garden, unfortunately there are also greys:(
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See, I find greys just as beautiful as the reds, unfortunately I think it's a shame that they can't co-exist. I know all the reasons why they can't but I still find them equally as stunning.
Just that reds are a lot rarer and I feel they should be cherished more.
 
My most gutting zoo experience was missing the Pangolins at the Singapore Night Safari, as the exhibit was closed for renovations. Then when I visited Leipzig Zoo they were impossible to see (except via video-feeds of their dens). They were a species I was desperate to see, and I was very upset to miss them at both zoos. At least it gives me a great reason to visit both zoos again.

Other things I missed were the Copenhagen Zoo nocturnal house (don't know how I missed it though), and the Berlin Zoo Bird House and Prague Zoo Cat House, which were both closed for renovation. I hate to think what I missed there.

I saw a few Red Squirrels though, there are plenty wild in Copenhagen Zoo and surrounding park, and also in Warsaw.
 
The most recent experience for me (although a very minor one) is not getting to look into the small enclosures at Bronx's Congo Gorilla Forest. It was around 4pm and the zoo closes its indoor exhibits in the winter at 4 so I didn't get to check for anything new. I've seen the exhibits before but they change commonly so I wanted to check them out again.

~Thylo:cool:
 
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