Most “Complete” Animal Collection

Brayden Delashmutt

Brayden Delashmutt

Well-Known Member
As I haven’t seen any threads of this sort, I thought a thread like this would be a good idea.

Anyways, what zoo seems to have the most “complete” animal collection?

(good representation for different species, taxonomic groups and areas of the world)
 
I know you didn't say "most speciose", but due to being the most speciose zoo in the world, Berlin Zoo has a lot of diversity and probably comes close to the top spot. That said, I seem to remember that there are a few of the small mammal orders that lack representatives there: elephant shrews, cetaceans, hyraxes, monotremes, sirenians, tree shrews... Maybe another zoo like Beauval/Pairi Daiza/Wroclaw has more mammal orders represented?
 
If you're looking for the most complete picture of the animal kingdom, I'd reckon there are two questions you could ask to determine possible candidates for the most complete animal collection, based on where most collections have high diversity. These two questions are:
1. What zoos have either an aquarium as part of it, or at least has an extensive fish collection on display?
2. What zoos have a large invertebrate collection?

Just about every major zoo has good representation of mammals, birds, and reptiles- and most have at least decent amphibian representation. So you'd have to list the zoos that have good representation of fish and invertebrates (which combined make up the vast majority of animals), and find out which zoos are present on both lists. I'd reckon, at least in the US, the answer to that question is not very many.
 
Neil chace said:
If you're looking for the most complete picture of the animal kingdom, I'd reckon there are two questions you could ask to determine possible candidates for the most complete animal collection, based on where most collections have high diversity. These two questions are:
1. What zoos have either an aquarium as part of it, or at least has an extensive fish collection on display?
2. What zoos have a large invertebrate collection?

Just about every major zoo has good representation of mammals, birds, and reptiles- and most have at least decent amphibian representation. So you'd have to list the zoos that have good representation of fish and invertebrates (which combined make up the vast majority of animals), and find out which zoos are present on both lists. I'd reckon, at least in the US, the answer to that question is not very many.
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True. USA animal collections are very limited, and even places like Omaha which have designated buildings for marine life and invertebrates are quite lacking in other categories (animals from South America, Australia and North America)
 
Hvedekorn said:
I know you didn't say "most speciose", but due to being the most speciose zoo in the world, Berlin Zoo has a lot of diversity and probably comes close to the top spot.
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A larger number of species doesn't always correlate with having a broad representation of different animal familys/orders.Fish is often the case to why a institution is one of the more speciose,take shedd for example,they have very little bird and mammal representation yet they are one of the most speciose institutions on the continent.
 
Hvedekorn said:
I know you didn't say "most speciose", but due to being the most speciose zoo in the world, Berlin Zoo has a lot of diversity and probably comes close to the top spot. That said, I seem to remember that there are a few of the small mammal orders that lack representatives there: elephant shrews, cetaceans, hyraxes, monotremes, sirenians, tree shrews... Maybe another zoo like Beauval/Pairi Daiza/Wroclaw has more mammal orders represented?
Click to expand...

Plzen would be the most complete mammal collection in the world, with perhaps its only near contender Moscow. In terms of sheer diversity, Berlin is very, very likely the most diverse zoo in Europe, probably the world too - species from all continents, massive numbers of mammals, birds, herps, arthropods, fish, aquatic inverts...

Aquariums could yield a different story though, as of course vertebrate life only makes up a small proportion of eukaryotic life.

Lota lota said:
A larger number of species doesn't always correlate with having a broad representation of different animal familys/orders.Fish is often the case to why a institution is one of the more speciose,take shedd for example,they have very little bird and mammal representation yet they are one of the most speciose institutions on the continent.
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In this case it does. Berlin has a brilliant Aquarium and Terrarium (probably one of (if not the) most famous worldwide), complete with a large collection of terrestrial inverts as well as lots of aquatic inverts, plus a massively diverse collection of birds and mammals elsewhere in the zoo. I'd say Shedd is likely statistically speaking the most diverse collection on the planet, so yes, a speciose collection does often correlate with diversity. Not always though, particularly with specialist parks like Walsrode or Nockalm.
 
Lota lota said:
A larger number of species doesn't always correlate with having a broad representation of different animal familys/orders.Fish is often the case to why a institution is one of the more speciose,take shedd for example,they have very little bird and mammal representation yet they are one of the most speciose institutions on the continent.
Click to expand...

It's true that speciose doesn't necessarily equal broad representation, but broad representation usually equals speciose. The thing about Berlin Zoo is that while a lot of taxons are represented, hardly any of them seem overrepresented - compared to the Tierpark which is also very speciose, but seems to "collect" certain groups of animals much more than others, for example deer, pheasants and laughingthrushes. As you indicate, aquaria with 95 % fish and invertebrates are the typical example of overrepresentation.
 
Beauval has diprotodontans, elephants, sirenians, armadillos, pilosans, primates, rodents, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (11)
Berlin Tierpark has monotremes, diprotodontans, sengis, hyraxes, armadillos, pilosans, primates, lagomorphs, rodents, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (13)
Berlin Zoo has opossums, diprotodontans, afrosoricids, aardvarks, elephants, armadillos, pilosans, primates, rodents, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (13)
Pairi Daiza has monotremes, diprotodontans, elephants, armadillos, pilosans, primates, rodents, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (11)
Plzen has monotremes, opossums, dasyuromorphs, diprotodontans, afrosoricids, sengis, aardvarks, hyraxes, armadillos, tree shrews, primates, lagomorphs, rodents, eulipotyphlans, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (18)
Wroclaw has monotremes, diprotodontans, sengis, aardvarks, elephants, sirenians, armadillos, pilosans, primates, rodents, eulipotyphlans, bats, cetartiodactyls, perissodactyls and carnivores (15)

From this list, Plzen has most mammal orders
 
Hvedekorn said:
I know you didn't say "most speciose", but due to being the most speciose zoo in the world, Berlin Zoo has a lot of diversity and probably comes close to the top spot. That said, I seem to remember that there are a few of the small mammal orders that lack representatives there: elephant shrews, cetaceans, hyraxes, monotremes, sirenians, tree shrews... Maybe another zoo like Beauval/Pairi Daiza/Wroclaw has more mammal orders represented?
Click to expand...
Shedd Aquarium is actually the most speciose zoo in the world.
 
I think that the most varied collections of the zoos I have visited are in Berlin and Plzen, but they are very different collections: in Berlin there are many star species, line big mammals, while in Plzen there are many birds, small reptiles and small mammals. The impression you receive from both institutions is very different, buth both are amazing.
 
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