What you probably saw as uncommon is the striped hyena, which is much more rare. Spotted hyenas are kept in approximately 20 AZA zoos, and a large number of non-AZA facilities as well (@TinoPup may be able to give a more accurate number of holders).
Rarities by Zoo
- Thread starter JVM
- Start date
Looking at my life list, here are some of the rarities I have seen (and are still held at the respective zoos). Note I only included mammals, birds, and a few select herps that I know are rare. Other than that, I'm not knowledgeable enough about number of holders to determine rarity. For mammals and birds, I essentially took a list of the species I've seen at only one facility, and then "weeded out" species that I wouldn't consider rare (especially with ungulates I've seen a lot of common species at only one facility just due to the type of zoos I've visited).
Roger Williams Park Zoo:
Giant River Otter
Asiatic Black Bear
Giant Wood Rail
Capron Park Zoo:
Blue Winged Kookaburra
Buttonwood Park Zoo:
Nancy Ma's Night Monkey
Western Pygmy Marmoset
South Georgia Pintail
Philippine Duck
Pink Footed Goose
Nene
Andean Goose
Magellan Goose
White Winged Scoter
Southern Lapwing
Crested Quail Dove
Sora Rail
Mystic Aquarium:
Steller Sea Lion
Northern Fur Seal
Spotted Seal
Beluga
Stone Zoo:
Bush Dog
Black Necked Crane
Whooping Crane
Jamaican Iguana
Franklin Park Zoo:
Ruwenzori Long-Haired Fruit Bat
Potto
Red Breasted Merganser
Wattled Crane
Hooded Crane
Kea
Northern Brown Kiwi
Southwick's Zoo:
Vicuna (only holder in US)
Rosamond Gifford Zoo:
Thorold's White-lipped Deer
Utica Zoo:
Striped Hyena
Transcapian Urial
The Wild Animal Park:
Coppery Titi Monkey
Red-backed Bearded Saki
Buffalo Zoo:
Black-capped Squirrel Monkey (only holder in AZA)
Green Backed Trogon
Dumeril's Monitor
Hawk Creek Wildlife Center:
Martial Eagle
Osprey
Spectacled Owl
Philadelphia Zoo:
Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew
Travancore Tortoise
Elmwood Park Zoo:
White-throated Woodrat
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo:
Golden-bellied Mangabey (only holder in US)
Southern Grey Gibbon
Chestnut Naped Green Imperial Pigeon
Disney's Animal Kingdom:
Eld's Deer
Lion-tailed Macaque
Harpy Eagle
Lappet-Faced Vulture
Black Collared Starling
Verreaux's Eagle Owl
Roger Williams Park Zoo:
Giant River Otter
Asiatic Black Bear
Giant Wood Rail
Capron Park Zoo:
Blue Winged Kookaburra
Buttonwood Park Zoo:
Nancy Ma's Night Monkey
Western Pygmy Marmoset
South Georgia Pintail
Philippine Duck
Pink Footed Goose
Nene
Andean Goose
Magellan Goose
White Winged Scoter
Southern Lapwing
Crested Quail Dove
Sora Rail
Mystic Aquarium:
Steller Sea Lion
Northern Fur Seal
Spotted Seal
Beluga
Stone Zoo:
Bush Dog
Black Necked Crane
Whooping Crane
Jamaican Iguana
Franklin Park Zoo:
Ruwenzori Long-Haired Fruit Bat
Potto
Red Breasted Merganser
Wattled Crane
Hooded Crane
Kea
Northern Brown Kiwi
Southwick's Zoo:
Vicuna (only holder in US)
Rosamond Gifford Zoo:
Thorold's White-lipped Deer
Utica Zoo:
Striped Hyena
Transcapian Urial
The Wild Animal Park:
Coppery Titi Monkey
Red-backed Bearded Saki
Buffalo Zoo:
Black-capped Squirrel Monkey (only holder in AZA)
Green Backed Trogon
Dumeril's Monitor
Hawk Creek Wildlife Center:
Martial Eagle
Osprey
Spectacled Owl
Philadelphia Zoo:
Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew
Travancore Tortoise
Elmwood Park Zoo:
White-throated Woodrat
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo:
Golden-bellied Mangabey (only holder in US)
Southern Grey Gibbon
Chestnut Naped Green Imperial Pigeon
Disney's Animal Kingdom:
Eld's Deer
Lion-tailed Macaque
Harpy Eagle
Lappet-Faced Vulture
Black Collared Starling
Verreaux's Eagle Owl
There's ~70 zoos with them. They've become hard to keep a definite number on, with how many are in and out of various non-AZA places. They're kind of a "beginner large carnivore". I've seen them 6 times this year, none AZA.
Brayden Delashmutt
Well-Known Member
Doesn't Memphis Zoo have bear cuscus and banded palm civet? Are there any other American zoos with the civets?
Yes, Memphis has both of those species.
San Diego, Nashville, and Brights should all also have Banded Palm Civets.
Caveat: not on exhibit at the first two, never seen at the third. Memphis is really the only place to go see them publicly.
I would not say Brazillian tapir is rare. If it was mountain tapir however...
Brazilian Tapir are funny. I wouldn't necessarily call them rare but definitely not common. On a recent trip I went a bit out of the way to see them when I had easily seen Bairds, Malays and Mt. In fact, I saw Bairds at 4 facilities, Malays at 2 with Brazilian and Mt. at one facility each.
Honestly, I wouldn't call any of the tapir species common, per say. I don't think any of them have more than 20 holders, I know personally I've only seen tapirs twice since I started to keep track- Brazilian at Southwicks and Baird's at Franklin Park. And this is out of 22 zoos in 8 states/provinces visited in the past three years. That being said, while I wouldn't call any of them common, I agree that malayans, baird's, and brazilians are not rare, as each is kept by a decent number of zoos.
Coincidentally Southwicks is one of the handful or so places I've seen Brazilians and absolutely spoiled by Bairds at FPZ (saw at least 3 watermelons over the years) while seeing the species at around a dozen facilities. If I recall I've only seen Brazilian at one AZA facility (Dallas)
I think the only true rarities that ZooTampa has right now are Shoebill storks and Manatees.
Do they no longer have bay duikers?
Ah yes, they sure do. I last saw it in October in the Okapi habitat.
@Neil chace lol I meant Tapir calves "watermelons".
@SwampDonkey shoebills I agree. Manatees....it's probably because I'm in Florida and seen hundreds in the wild I don't see them as rare. Does ZooTampa still have a Martial eagle? That would be one as well
@SwampDonkey shoebills I agree. Manatees....it's probably because I'm in Florida and seen hundreds in the wild I don't see them as rare. Does ZooTampa still have a Martial eagle? That would be one as well
Very disturbing in this context
Watermelons is code for baby tapirs, which are often called watermelons...
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I was interpreting the thread as "rare in zoos", but I agree, I have seen scads of them in the wild as well....pretty much any time we are out on the water over here.
Not on display that I am aware. It may be in the show, I have not seen the show for many years. I will be going in a couple of weeks, so I will see if I can find out.
Edit
I looked at the website and it looks like they may not have the bird show any longer...that is kind of disappointing (even though I rarely went).
Oops... I've never heard watermelons used for baby tapirs beforeVery disturbing in this context
Watermelons is code for baby tapirs, which are often called watermelons...
. I thought @PSO was implying he saw the tapirs eat watermelons on three occasions . Just to clarify- the bear was eating the fruit called a watermelon, not a tapir calf. Watching a bear rip open a tapir calf would've been very disturbing, whereas the fruit was just good, entertaining enrichment. In this regard, I'm even more jealous of the watermelons at FPZ. I visited twice when they had the most recent calves (2020), and the tapirs were a no-show both times. I did visit again in 2022, and saw both mom and the female calf, and they were the same size! So lucky that you've managed to see tapir calves on so many occasions.
@SwampDonkey a martial eagle was also on display at the beginning of the safari ride but may have been replaced by a shoebill
@Neil chace hopefully FPZ continues their breeding efforts. Incredibly they have had 6 calves (5 still surviving as far as I know) over the years
Another species (sub species) I saw recently was Siberian Eagle owl (L.A.). I don't ever recall seeing this sub species before
@Neil chace hopefully FPZ continues their breeding efforts. Incredibly they have had 6 calves (5 still surviving as far as I know) over the years
Another species (sub species) I saw recently was Siberian Eagle owl (L.A.). I don't ever recall seeing this sub species before