Hello all. I hope you're all doing well. Anywho to get straight to the point, I'm trying to refine my life list when it comes to subspecies but I have some questions about things I can't seem to find on the web. So, here we go...
- Are there subspecies of African bush elephant and if so which ones are kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of African painted dog is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of arctic fox is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of binturong is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of black-and-white ruffed lemur is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of blackbuck is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of coyote is kept in AZA zoos? (specifically the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum)
- What subspecies of North American river otter is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of sloth bear is kept in AZA zoos?
- Is it true all wolverines in American zoos are actually the Eurasian subspecies?
- What subspecies of common ostrich is kept in AZA zoos?
- What subspecies of greater rhea is kept in AZA zoos?
I may have forgotten a couple but oh well I can always add those later. Thanks for any help you can provide!
Depending on whether you consider
Loxodonta africana nominate or not, the vast majority of the population comes from the southern African countries and therefore are the nominate subspecies. I know Jacksonville did/does have an East African,
knochenhaueri, though. Probably a couple others floating around.
To the best of my knowledge the entirety of the
ex-situ wild dog population is the nominate from South Africa.
As
@Great Argus said, probably nominate but officially unknown, if subspecies are even valid for this taxa.
The San Diegos and Virginia Zoo keep Javan Binturong (though SDZ uses the Bornean as the common name). Palawan Binturongs are currently kept at Nashville, Columbus, Bronx, Pittsburgh, Tanganyika, Dallas, Memphis, Cincinnati, San Diego, and The Creature Conservancy. Animal Adventure in Harpursville, NY, also claims to keep Palawan but I've yet to find any record of Nashville having sent animals to them unlike those other collections.
Nominate ruffed lemur is what's kept in the US.
Blackbuck is officially unknown but suspected to be primarily, if not entirely
rajputanae.
As mentioned earlier, Coyotes are generally wild rescues which are usually sourced from within the state, though this is not always the case. Since Coyotes are not often bred in captivity, the majority of the captive population will be pure, but rarely ever listed to subspecific status. As far as ASDM goes, they keep
mearnsi.
I think many otters will be pure due to wild local rescues, however these are also largely unspecified as such. The difference here is that river otters are commonly bred in captivity for both zoos and a little for the pet trade and therefore the majority of the captive population will be a generic mix of subspecies more likely than not. The only pure subspecies I've known of in the US are a handful of zoos within Kansas/Oklahoma who all have local rescues (Sedgwick, Tulsa, Toledo) and San Diego's old animal who died a good few years back now.
Sloth Bears are a mix of Sri Lankan and Indian subspecies. For a time the AZA was to focus on Sri Lankan while EAZA focused on Indian. Unfortunately, the AZA program has been a lot more stagnant than the European one, and therefore the TAG has decided to supplement the population with animals from Europe. Unfortunately I do not know which zoos keep what currently, except that Smithsonian keeps Sri Lankan, Omaha keeps Indian, and Philadelphia keeps a mixed pair as well as their cross-bred offspring. I would like to figure out who keeps what where one of these days.
Wolverines are another one I need to figure out. Not all of the animals are Eurasian I don't think, but I don't know where the American animals are. Columbus and Minnesota keep Eurasian I believe, and I'd imagine New York State Zoo probably keeps American, but I really don't know.
Ostriches are a big mess. All four ostrich taxa are currently present in the US, however as per AZA recommendation all bar Red-Necked are being treated as one generic population so most zoos with pure animals do not bother with labeling their animals to subspecies anymore. I believe Red-Necked is the taxa the AZA eventually wants to go with, but right now the population is pretty small; just Abilene, Maryland, Blank Park, Six Flags, Jacksonville, and LA afaik. Unfortunately I think most of these zoos only have one or two individuals, though, except Six Flags which keeps like 30-40 I think. South African will be the most common probably, though most zoos with them stop listing them beyond species level so it's hard to say who keeps them exactly. Phoenix, Niabi, and Bronx are the only US zoos I know of atm, but Calgary, Toronto, and Parc Safari also have them in Canada. Masai is limited is only a couple zoos I think, Riverbanks and Phoenix. Somali is the rarest of all, which only 0.2 that I know of being in the country. Both were at LA, but one has since been sent to Dallas.
Rheas are a bit unknown, though nominate is most likely.
I believe all of the Western Grey Kangaroos in the US are the black-faced subspecies,
melanops, but Gladys Porter does have a mixed group with some nominate mixed in.
Common Eland are one of the many common African hoofstock species kept in the US whose heritage is only partially known. We do know there are at least some Patterson's kept here, and probably no Cape, however the vast majority of animals are unknown at this time.
I hope this helped!
~Thylo
