Popular animals in zoos

N

Nigel

Well-Known Member
Within NZ zoos the most popular are ;

Elephants ( anybody wonders why ? )
Lions and Tigers , Hippos and Rhinos ( charismatic megafauna )
Otters , meerkats , kangaroos , wallabies etc and capuchins , marmosets etc
( appearances to be cute, cuddly etc )
Brightly coloured large parrots ( most NZ parrots are dull colours , and our largest are keas and kakas )
Keas ( for their active , destructive intelligence )
Kakas in walk through aviaries ( tend to be happy to have close liasons with humans )
Gibbons etc ( highly active )
sea lions , penguins etc .
Anything that has never been displayed in the country before
( Chinese Pandas etc )

For the foreign visitor , the following apply ;
Kiwi , tuatara , kea
 
In England the most popular animal seems to be th Asian Lion. They have been bred so much that they seem to be more common in Brittish zoos than their african relatives. The last 3 zoos I've visited, London,Chester and Edinburgh all have breeding goups of the species.
 
So do Bristol, Paignton, Twycross, Dudley,Cotswold W.P. the list goes on. Each zoo that breeds them has to find someone else who will take the cubs...

Traditional Zoos(as distinct from Safari Parks)in UK with African Lions are now a minority- Whipsnade, Flamingo Park, Suffolk Wildlife Park are a few places.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Barabry lion populations are also growing from the group of 11 at port Lympe
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Yep, Belfast have a trio from PL, and Longleat have PL's old male Kabir, who has fathered cubs with an 'ordinary' lioness there.(Lngleat) BUT no one knows how pure any of these lions are- the ones descended from the Royal Lins at Rabat are now claimed from DNA testing not to have originated from North African lions at all, but from sub Saharan ones.....
 
Its likely that NONE are pure Barbary, its quite possible that even the best looking ones have other bloodlines too. The zoos that keep them prefer to ignore what the DNA research has recently found though.
 
The great apes and monkeys are always a good drawcard as are Elephants and the Big cats.
 
There would be even bigger crowds in front of the Gorillas- if Chester had them!

They are perhaps the biggest draw for the public, of all.. At Paignton, UK, the indoor Orang and Gorilla exhibit cages are same size, same glass frontage- ften yu can't get near the glass at the gorilla side, but no-one is looking at the Orangutans.

At zoos with Orangs but no Gorillas, the Orangutans take their place.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Chimps don't seem to be as popular. Do you know why?
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It's true and I don't know why. Not so impressive to look at and behaviour somehow not so (obviously) interesting a lot of the time? Chester's group is easily the best in the UK but even they can be very inactive at times.
 
Yes. I was doing A behavioural Survey of Boris the male chimp. Every minute we had to write down what he was doing.. We picked Boris as he was moving around. But that was only for the first six minutes. The last 24 we spent sat down writing on the sheet Sleeping on the climbing frame. How boring!!!
 
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