Phase-In Species for the US?

ThylacineAlive said:
BeardsleyZooFan- I know that, I've been to the zoo recently, you've seen my pictures, if they still had them, there'd be pictures (a lot of commas in that sentence. Is that grammaticly correct). They don't have any Asian Wolves either, I was just talking about what it says on a board in the WOLF exhibit. Yes, the AZA is trying to phase-in Jaguarundis but that's about it as far as anyone knows.

Anyone- Didn't the Bronx Zoo bring in some species of bird over the summer that's like the first of its kind in the U.S. or something like that. Some kind of shore or wading bird I think. What's the chance that other zoos and aquariums will start holding Scaly-Sided Mergansers because, right now, only the Central Park Zoo holds them.
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San Diego Zoo has them in the Polar Bear Plunge aviary. Not sure who else holds them now, but it's more than just Central Park.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I would love to see Arabian and Indian Wolves in the U.S. but i doubt that's going to happen. I don't think there are any Grey Wolf subspecies not native to North America that are found in U.S. zoos but I'm not sure as most zoos don't list any Grey Wolf subspecies unless they're either Mexican or Red Wolves (many zoos just consider Red Wolves as a seperate species). The dabate on Grey Wolf subspecies also makes this difficult. Many European wolves are just considered all to be Eurasian Wolves by some and then several different subspecies (ex. Eurasian, Italian, Iberian) by others. The Beardlsey Zoo here in Connecticut splits the Grey Wolf species into three different species in their WOLF exhibit- Red Wolf, Grey Wolf (native to North America), and Asian Wolf.



True. The Hirola isn't the strangest thing said so far. I mean, I'm the one that brought up Dragons which got the thread moved to the Fantasy Zoos forum (sorry:(). Now I'm trying to get it moved back so let's all start talking about more realistic things that are based on fact instead of what we want.
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There is only one species of gray wolf, as you said, but it seems to me that Indian and Arabian wolves are rare enough and different enough they deserve a place in zoos. I have heard that there has been discussion of classifying Indian gray wolves as a separate species and looking at them they do look more like coyotes than wolves.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Anyone- Didn't the Bronx Zoo bring in some species of bird over the summer that's like the first of its kind in the U.S. or something like that. Some kind of shore or wading bird I think. What's the chance that other zoos and aquariums will start holding Scaly-Sided Mergansers because, right now, only the Central Park Zoo holds them.
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The Bronx recently got Western Capercaillie, through which I've heard through people came from Central Park. I think Central Park imported a bunch from Europe.
Central Park is the only place in the U.S. that has bred Chinese Mergansers.
 
My Bhutan takin statement wasn't facetious as the blue whale one was. They are actually being imported by the national zoo in the next few years.
 
loxodontaafrica said:
My Bhutan takin statement wasn't facetious as the blue whale one was. They are actually being imported by the national zoo in the next few years.
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That might not be true. It's been discussed in further clearity on the last few pages of the Smithsonian National Zoo News thread. I emailed the zoo but they have a tendency not to reply back for a while, plus, my email hasn't been working (which has made replying back to the many ZooChat threads I'm part of very diffcult) so I'll get back to you on that as soon as I can.

P.S.- Thanks to everyone who replied back to my Bronx and Central Park Zoo questions.
 
I don't think they are importing Bhutan Takins. Take a look at this:
Smithsonian Institution?s National Zoo to have Bhutanese Takin - - Bhutan Majestic Travel
Oblivious to what humans decide: Takins at the Motithang zoo

Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo 1 August, 2011 – The status of proposal on housing a permanent Bhutan Takin exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s national zoo in Washington DC continues to be up in the air.

The government claims they have yet to receive the proposal that Smithsonian Institution and the Bhutan Foundation submitted.

Officials of Bhutan’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York said they already submitted the proposal in March this year to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for considerations.

In an earlier interview with Kuensel, Bhutan’s ambassador, Lhatu Wangchuk, said he strongly recommended considering the proposal as it would, besides promoting Bhutan also serve as a gift from the people of Bhutan to the people of the United States of America.

The proposal was submitted after officials of the Smithsonian Institution’s national zoo expressed a strong interest in housing a Takin exhibit in a very prominent place – next to the giant pandas, as part of its ‘Asia Trials’ exhibit.

“A pair of Bhutan Takin would be an excellent addition to the exhibit as animal ambassadors of Bhutan,” Lhatu Wangchuk said. “They’d represent a unique hoofed mammal well adapted to the mountains of Asia, and the national animal of Bhutan.”

Director of Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington DC Dennis W Kelly said they had already designed and designated a specific part of the zoo for Bhutan’s national animal.

“We’ve even mobilised some funds for the Takin exhibit,” he said in June.

The government, however, claimed to be unaware of the proposal.

Agriculture minister Dr Pema Gyamtsho said without looking at the details of the proposal the government was unable to make a statement of its stand. “I haven’t receive the proposal nor I have seen it,” he said during the 15th meet the press session on July 28.

Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley said there were many issues and questions that required consideration.

Expressing his concern, Lyonchhoen said in the case of transfer of wildlife from one country to another and in the case of leasing or selling or gifting animals by one country to another, many legal as well as medical considerations had to be taken.

For instance, he said the Chinese had arrangement to supply Pandas to certain zoos, but the terms and conditions governing the importation and the transfer were such that, among others, if there was a birth, the zoo could not keep it.

“It has to be returned to China,” Lyonchhoen said. “Right now, I think the foot and mouth disease is a major concern.”

For these very reasons, the national zoo also indicated that animals can be sourced from other zoos in the US and Europe, which already have the Bhutanese Takin.

“This is also preferred because of lesser bureaucracy related to quarantine issues, permits, and concerns for diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease,” the Smithsonian Institution and the Bhutan Foundation proposal stated. “Bhutan only has to agree in principle to be connected to the exhibit at the National Zoo in Washington DC.”

Bhutan Foundation officials said more than 3M visitors pass through the zoo every year, and most people came to view the giant Pandas.

As the Takin exhibit will be right next to the Pandas, they said, it would also gain significant traffic and exposure.

They also said if Bhutan was uninterested, the exhibit could also be on Chinese Takins, which were readily available.

Bhutan Foundation’s conservation adviser at Washington DC Tshewang R Wangchuk said the Bhutan Takin, found only in Bhutan, was one of four sub-species of Takins that existed in Asia.

“They are geographically isolated from the other Takins,” he said.

The Mishmi, Szechuan, and Golden takins are the other sub-species, and are found in north-east India, Myanmar and China.

Meanwhile, Bhutan Foundation office in Thimphu will follow up on the proposal with the foreign ministry this week. Source: Kuenselonline
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It says essentially that Bhutan will be sponsoring a takin exhibit in conjunction with a conservation program in Bhutan. The takin will be sourced from animal already in the United States (Sichuan).
 
That source was from a Bhutanese media source. Perhaps they refer to all takin as Bhutan takin since it's their national animal, like many people feel the need to say American bald eagle.
 
As for wolves, I did see a pair of mongolian wolves (Canis lupus chanco) many years ago at San Diego, but that will likely never happen again.

As for jaguarundi, the current issue of the journal of the Feline Conservation Federation has an article on the recent Felid TAG meeting. It makes this statement: "The Nashville Zoo has a permit to import three. Other facilities, such as Bear Creek Feline Center, are obtaining pedigreed cats from European zoos for eventual breeding."

Nashville is already one of my favorite zoos. If they get jaguarundis, it will only get better.
 
I didn't bother to look at the back cover of the journal I referenced above until just now. It has a large photo of a jaguarundi at Bear Creek and contains this caption.

Hagar, one of a pair of brother jaguarundis that were imported from Zoo Dortmund in Germany. Bear Creek Feline Center houses Hagar and three others of this species. Jim Broaddus, facility founder, plans to breed Hagar with a newly arrived female imported from Zoo Novosidirsk in Russia.
 
For a different phase-in species, what about Persian Fallow Deer? There are plenty of fallow deer in the US but are any Persians?
 
Phantom Gaur said:
@Thylacine- The bird at Bronx(the only ones outside their native homeland) you might be thinking of are the Maleo.
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No I know of the Maleo. I don't exactly remember what species I was talking about when I posted that but I believe it was a species of stilt or something of the sort. I think it was the first in the U.S.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
No I know of the Maleo. I don't exactly remember what species I was talking about when I posted that but I believe it was a species of stilt or something of the sort. I think it was the first in the U.S.
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I suspect you are thinking of the African spur-winged plovers which bred at the zoo recently? Not the only ones in the US but not at all common there.
Rare Birds Hatch at Bronx Zoo | NBC New York
 
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