Record Animals at Your Zoo

BeardsleyZooFan

BeardsleyZooFan

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Has your zoo ever exhibited an animal that broke a record, made history, or was the first of its kind to do something? For example, this is Beardsley's animal records;
Had the oldest Andean Condor in captivity (Thaao) until January 2010. Thaao still holds the record of oldest age for a condor at 79 years.
Currently exhibits likely the oldest howler monkey in the world (Zuele, a female at 26 years old)
Had the first group of Chacoan Peccaries in the Northeast USA
Had first baby Chacoan Peccary in Northeast USA
An Ocelot was born for only the third time in history through AI in October 2008, and was the first born for conservation purposes. Another ocelot was born in January 2011 and was the first wildcat conceived through oviductal artificial insemination (Note: 2008 kitten is now at Dallas Zoo, and 2011 kitten is now at Buffalo Zoo)
Currently exhibits, the first Ocelot to undergo oviductal AI, and the first to have multiple pregnancies and births through AI.
And Mystic Aquarium's claim to fame is Kela, the first Beluga Whale to undergo artificial insemination.
I'm not trying to make people brag about their home zoos, but I'm interested in hearing historical animals in the zoo world that might have lived at your zoo.
 
Taronga zoo had a spider monkey born in 1945 at Hogle zoo that died in 1993 at 48 years old.
Cheers
 
1. First giraffe, caracal, and white-breasted kingfisher birth in the western hemisphere.
2. Nikki, first Indian Rhino to be artificially inseminated.
3. First zoo in US with Przewalski's horses after the Bronx Zoo denied them.
4. First trumpeter swan hatching.
5. Martha and Incas (no explanation needed)
6. Possibly the oldest American alligator in captivity (died at 70)
7. First sand cat, aardvark twins, brown-hooded kingfisher, yellow-headed vulture, smooth-fronted caimans, Pampas cat, Panay cloud rat, royal Goliath beetle, crimson rosella, and crowned guenon birth.
8. First nonsurgical embryo transfer of an exotic species resulted in the birth of an eland.
9. First bongo calf born to a surrogate eland in the first inter-species embryo transfer of an exotic animal.
10. First frozen exotic animal embryo transfer. an eland calf was born following the embryo transfer of a frozen-thawed embryo.
11. First exotic animals born from a split embryo, and eland calf.
12. First rusty-spotted cat birth in North America.
13. First cat born from inter-species embryo transfer and the first cat born from in vitro fertilization. (Indian spotted cat to domestic cat)
14. 6 gorilla births in one year, most in captivity.
15. First test-tube gorilla.
16. US leader in gorilla births.
17. 3 Sumatran rhino births.
18. Only place breeding tayras. Currently 3 babies.
19. First Pallas' cats conceived from AI.
20. First banded linsang birth in the US.
21. Fastest cheetah in captivity.

Edit: Helped the Beardsley Zoo with the first ocelot conceived by AI. Most white lions born in a litter (4).
 
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Moebelle said:
7. First sand cat, aardvark twins, brown-hooded kingfisher, yellow-headed vulture, smooth-fronted caimans, banded linsang, Pampas cat, royal Goliath beetle, crimson rosella, and crowned guenon birth.
18. Only place breeding tayras. Currently 3 babies.
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For 7 for 18, do you mean in the US?
Also, in reference to Beardsley's records, they did a lot of their work with Cincinnati with the ocelot births.
 
Moebelle said:
7 no, 18 yes. As you can see, I just added that;)
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Then that doesn't quite make sense, as I'm sure Sand Cats, Aardvarks, Brown-Hooded Kingfishers, Yellow-Headed Vultures, Smooth-Fronted Caimans, Banded Linsangs, Pampas Cats, Royal Goliath Beetles, Crimson Rosellas, and Crowned Guenons were born before Cincinnati had them.:p
 
BeardsleyZooFan said:
Then that doesn't quite make sense, as I'm sure Sand Cats, Aardvarks, Brown-Hooded Kingfishers, Yellow-Headed Vultures, Smooth-Fronted Caimans, Banded Linsangs, Pampas Cats, Royal Goliath Beetles, Crimson Rosellas, and Crowned Guenons were born before Cincinnati had them.:p
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Most of them occured a long time ago. Plus it says aadvark twins, and I don't think a lot of zoos in the past have held most of those species.
Zoo reproductive expert makes breeding breakthrough

Check: Banded linsangs should be in the US category, and added Panay cloud rat to world.
 
Melbourne Zoo is the oldest in Australia and claims to be the 6th oldest in the world so likely holds a few records (it wouldn't be hard to hold the record for many first Australian breedings) but I don't really know of many.
The first gorilla born with AI was at Melbourne Zoo.
And Bong-Su, the male elephant, is said to be the most fertile in captivity :)

And Moebelle you might need to explain what Martha and Incas are. I've no idea and would guess at the heaviest hippopotamus and the hairiest spectacled bear.
 
PAT said:
Melbourne Zoo is the oldest in Australia and claims to be the 6th oldest in the world so likely holds a few records (it wouldn't be hard to hold the record for many first Australian breedings) but I don't really know of many.
The first gorilla born with AI was at Melbourne Zoo.
And Bong-Su, the male elephant, is said to be the most fertile in captivity :)

And Moebelle you might need to explain what Martha and Incas are. I've no idea and would guess at the heaviest hippopotamus and the hairiest spectacled bear.
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Martha was the last ever known passenger pigeon that died at the zoo in 1914 and Incas was the last Carolina parakeet to ever live in captivity that died in 1916. Sorry about that;)
 
Moebelle said:
Martha was the last ever known passenger pigeon that died at the zoo in 1914 and Incas was the last Carolina parakeet to ever live in captivity that died in 1916. Sorry about that;)
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Oh, I did know that they were at Cincinnati but I didn't know their names. Thanks for that. :) This, sadly, is a kind of cool record because it will never be overtaken (unless by some miracle passenger pigeons have been hiding out with big foot).
 
Brookfield zoo:
-First American zoo to exhibit giant pandas.
-First fully indoor dolphin exhibit in the U.S.
-First captive-born black rhino (1941).
-First captive-born grey-headed kingsfisher (1980).
-First okapi born in U.S. (1959).
-First wombat born outside of Austarlia (1975).
-First southern hairy-nosed wombat imported from Australia to the U.S. (2012).
-Maggie (51-years-old) is the oldest Bornean orangutan living in an accredited North American zoo.
-Cookie the zoo's major mitchell's cockatoo is the oldest of his species in the U.S. at 79-years-old.
-Carver, The oldest southern hairy nosed wombat on record died on Oct. 1 2009 at 34 years of age. He beat his mother's record by 10 years.
-Aussie, the first polar bear born in Australia. He currently is still at the zoo.
 
TropicWorld54 said:
Brookfield zoo:

-First southern hairy-nosed wombat imported from Australia to the U.S. (2012).
-Carver, The oldest southern hairy nosed wombat on record died on Oct. 1 2009 at 34 years of age. He beat his mother's record by 10 years.

-Aussie, the first polar bear born in Australia. He currently is still at the zoo.
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So were the earlier SHNWs imported from Europe?

What zoo was Aussie born at, when, and when did he arrive in the US?
 
zooboy28 said:
So were the earlier SHNWs imported from Europe?

What zoo was Aussie born at, when, and when did he arrive in the US?
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I found this in a 2007 article talking about Hudson's birth: "Her mate, Aussie, was born in 1985 at Adelaide Zoo in Australia and the following year he came to Brookfield Zoo to be paired with Arki."

Article where I got the info from:PolarBearCub2007
 
TropicWorld54 said:
I found this in a 2007 article talking about Hudson's birth: "Her mate, Aussie, was born in 1985 at Adelaide Zoo in Australia and the following year he came to Brookfield Zoo to be paired with Arki."

Article where I got the info from:PolarBearCub2007
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I have had a look in the Australia/NZ forums, and this thread details the polar bears at Taronga Zoo (http://www.zoochat.com/24/polar-bears-taronga-21248/), and states that the first polar bear was born there in 1935, with subsequent breeding after that (at multiple Australian zoos).

So, Brookfield certainly does not have the first Australian-born polar bear, although it is possible that they have the last Australian-born polar bear, as I don't know of any born post-1985 (by this time there were none at Taronga, and probably only elderly animals at other zoos. Until Sea World imported new animals in 2004, I think polars were absent from Australia for ~10 years+).

Can you provide any more info on the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats, did the original stock come from Europe?
 
zooboy28 said:
Can you provide any more info on the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats, did the original stock come from Europe?
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I think TropicWorld54 might have been confused by misleading press articles. As far as I know all the southern hairy-nosed wombats in the USA (there haven't been many!) came from Australia originally although some were born in the US, the first being at Brookfield in 1975 (this was the first one to be born outside Australia). In 2012 "orphaned" southern hairy-nosed wombats were imported to the USA from Australia, and I think that's where the confusion lies.
 
zooboy28 said:
I have had a look in the Australia/NZ forums, and this thread details the polar bears at Taronga Zoo (http://www.zoochat.com/24/polar-bears-taronga-21248/), and states that the first polar bear was born there in 1935, with subsequent breeding after that (at multiple Australian zoos).

So, Brookfield certainly does not have the first Australian-born polar bear, although it is possible that they have the last Australian-born polar bear, as I don't know of any born post-1985 (by this time there were none at Taronga, and probably only elderly animals at other zoos. Until Sea World imported new animals in 2004, I think polars were absent from Australia for ~10 years+).

Can you provide any more info on the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats, did the original stock come from Europe?
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Th southern hairy nosed wombats were young orphans that were sent to Brookfield and underwent quarantine there. Then Brookfield sent them to Toronto because Toronto only had one ageing male.
 
For the Good Zoo...

-only AZA zoo in West Virginia
-a billion other West Virginia only records
-more that I can't remember at this moment
 
MrOkapi said:
For the Good Zoo...

-only AZA zoo in West Virginia
-a billion other West Virginia only records
-more that I can't remember at this moment
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This really is an excellent addition to this thread, totally surpassing all previously posted records. Well done. :D
 
Beardsley Zoo (BeardsleyZooFan pretty much already covered this, here's somethings I'd like to add)
-Only AZA accredited zoo in Connecticut.
-May soon be the first, as far as I know of, AZA zoo in New England to have Amur Leopards!:)
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Beardsley Zoo (BeardsleyZooFan pretty much already covered this, here's somethings I'd like to add)
-Only AZA accredited zoo in Connecticut.
-May soon be the first, as far as I know of, AZA zoo in New England to have Amur Leopards!:)
Click to expand...

Franklin Park has Amur Leopards.
 
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