When I first became a member of the Zoobeat community I thought about posting in the 'old species at Chester' thread. I soon realised that I could remember so many animals which I had either seen, (or knew about), being kept at Chester Zoo, it would be easier to make a list of all species known to have lived there. So here it is. I cannot claim it is accurate, early records are sometimes in error or missing and mistakes may have been made. I may have made mistakes in transferring the data. Nevertheless I enjoyed the task of compiling the lists, and had a few surprises along the way.
The information is from the North of England Zoological Society annual reports 1978-2006, my photographic collection, Chester Zoo News, International Zoo Yearbook and occasionally my memory.
Species in quarantine are not included until they arrived at the zoo. Species quarantined for other collections are not included, unless they were kept in the zoo.
Native species brought in from the wild for veterinary treatment are included.
The list includes species which were not on exhibit.
Unspecified means the species was not identified, or the record is not clear enough to identify at species level.
Where a year is given it does not necessarily mean that the species was exhibited throughout that year.
2007 means the species was held during the year but is no longer kept at Chester.
arrived 2007 means that the species arrived during 2007 and is still at the zoo.
The absence of a year does not imply that the species was not exhibited at the zoo during that year, but only that I have no record of it. Mammals and birds listed after 1978 are generally correct. Reptiles and amphibians records are sometimes suspect, the herpetology section's records show several errors. Fishes and invertebrates are recorded at the end of the year only, so specimens which arrived and later died or departed during the year are not always shown.
Confirmed means that the dates are the only years in which the species has been exhibited at Chester.
An asterisk denotes that the species has bred at Chester Zoo, but the years in which it bred are not recorded for the purposes of this survey.
An asterisk after a hybrid denotes that the hybrid specimens themselves produced young at Chester Zoo.
Bred in the zoo denotes that hybirds were produced at Chester Zoo, but the young did not breed themselves. Some hybrid specimens were bred in other collections.
Classification is from the following sources, (ammended to include recent taxonomical changes)
Mammals - Walkers Mammals of the World
Birds - The Handbook of the Birds of the World (up to and including Turdidae) & A Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World Second Edition (1991) by Richard Howard and Alick Moore (all other birds)
Reptiles - The Reptile Database reptiliaweb.org or reptile-database.org
Amphibians - reserarch.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php
Fishes -
www.fishbase.org, and various other web pages if the species was not included in fishbase
Invertebrates - several sources
