how accurate is Zootierliste?

Daktari JG

Daktari JG

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I happened to be perusing the species richest list and noticed that
Shedd Shedd Aquarium is listed at 731 species, whereas they claim to have 1500.
Then I noticed St. Louis which claims to have 450 (which I am certain is well down from what they used to have) is not on the list at all. 450 would put them at #30 out of the 100 listed.
 
Daktari JG said:
I happened to be perusing the species richest list and noticed that
Shedd Shedd Aquarium is listed at 731 species, whereas they claim to have 1500.
Then I noticed St. Louis which claims to have 450 (which I am certain is well down from what they used to have) is not on the list at all. 450 would put them at #30 out of the 100 listed.
Click to expand...

Zootierliste does not list invertebrates, which goed a very long way in explaining those numbers (and zoos tend to overstate the number of species they have in general, though that doesn't necessarily apply to St. Louis & Shedd).
 
Their accuracy can vary a lot, depending on a lot of factors. For big, high profile, mainstream zoos that at least a few dedicated zoo-nerds visit every week, the species lists can be almost 100% perfectly accurate. However for smaller, more obscure zoos that not many people have heard of and it's probably been a few years since any Zootierliste contributor went there, you may see a lot of inaccuracies. And as Lintworm mentions above, it's important to remember that Zootierliste doesn't do invertebrates, so almost every species list for every collection is going to have something missing.
 
Zootierliste is originally a German site. For a long time, only European zoos were included in the site. American zoos for example are only on there since 2023. That explains why there is still sometimes a lack in accuracy when it comes to non-european collections.

Second, zoos in some countries ( for example Czechia) publish annual reports which list which species are in the zoo, births etc. Zootierliste is way more accurate for zoos that have such reports, and in general the more information the zoo itself gives, the more accurate zootierliste is. Which is logical of course, as the main sources zootierliste refers to are visits ( and then adding everything you've seen etc.) And these annual reports, combined with some books, articles etc.
 
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As Lintworm mentioned, ZTL does not list invertebrates. And especially aquariums, which have a lot more invertebrates through corals, anemones, crustaceans, etc than "land zoos", will have a much higher number on their own list than on ZooTierListe.

In general, it's pretty accurate, but you have to keep in mind the popularity of the zoo and of the animals. Animals like Gorillas and elephants are tracked closely and are often known by name, while quite a few people don't bother to accurate write down which fish species are held. Which is completely fair, as a sizeable Great Barrier Reef aquarium can easily hold up to 50 different fish species, which most people won't be able to recognise with enough accuracy to be able to write down (seen and signed) on ZTL.

It's a fan site, just like ZooChat, and is held up by information input from fans. Mostly accurate, sometimes not.
 
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