Same or Different?

[Devi]

It has always struck me as odd that as soon as one zoo has an animal, every other zoo gets the exact same animal, coatis seem to be doing the rounds lately, but it's happened with a lot of things in the past.
My question is, why exactly do they just get the exact same species? If a ring tailed lemur is the current popular animal, why not go for a crowned lemur for example?
Is it because the general public will only go to one zoo and aren't bothered? Is it a supply issue? Or maybe a lack of knowledge on the less well kept animals?

 

[vogelcommando]

I guess it has something to do with avaibality. In earlier days zoos had to take what dealers had to offer ! Now-a-days easy to breed animals are offer on the zoos surplus-lists and thats why other zoos can obtain them.

 

[Parrotsandrew]

Zoos used to take pride in having something different, but these days many seem embarrassed about it. I know which policy I prefer.

 

[vogelcommando]

Another reason why many zoos display the same animal-species is because of the breeding-programms. For the general public it´s a big thing when the zoo they visit is involved in a programm ´to save the species´ ! That another 20 - 50 - or even more are doing exactly the same with exactly the same species is of non-intrest for the general public because they don´t visit different zoos that often !