Seldom Seen Zoo Residents

B

Blackduiker

Well-Known Member
This post is a survey of seldom seen animal residents of your local zoo. Though you pay numerous visits each year, these rarely put in an appearance for you.

For my just returned visit to the Los Angeles Zoo today, these are the usual no shows:

African Wild Dog
Bat-eared Fox
Royal Antelope
Steenbok(Exhibit Temporarily Closed)?
Yellow-backed Duiker
Calamian Deer
Tufted Deer
Slow Loris

Who plays hard to find at your oft visited local zoo? :confused:
 
I remember a similar topic like this in the Chester Zoo sub-forum a while back now. I think at that point the no-shows were often considered to be..

  • Sand Lizards (though im sure if you spent enough time there you'd find one eventually)
  • Maned Wolves (no longer at Chester...doubtful they ever were :p. Was anyone lucky enough to see one?
  • Bush Dogs (others seem to have no problem with these guys at all, bad luck on my part I suppose, I should try and visit them at a different time of day
  • Spectacled Bears & Coatis (the new Bears seem to be a lot more active than Loja and Strolch it must be said. The Coatis are a nightmare though.
  • Mountain Chickens (not sure if they're still on-show actually but i only managed a glimpse once)
  • Ring Tailed Lemurs - Huge island so what do you expect I suppose. I suppose it also comes down to knowing where to look aswell.
  • Babirusa - Not seen them since they moved to the new enclosure
  • Asian Bird Aviary - 4 species of rather small chinese birds put in a rather spacious aviary. They can be heard but not seen and seem to prefer staying at the back, out of site.

Those are or were the major culprits in my opinion. It will be intersting seeing if the same species will be mentioned by several collections...
 
Zoo Boise has a few no-shows as well, although most animals are usually visible.

Here are a few of the ones which occaisionally play hard to get:

  • Asian Black Bear - Zoo Boise's old female doesn't seem to come out if the weather isn't nice.
  • Binturong - He's pretty shy.
  • Red Pandas - They don't like the heat of summer, I see them more in the winter.
  • Bat-Eared Fox - I see them most of the time in the warmer months, only rarely in winter.
  • Swift Foxes - These guys are now off-exhibit, but they were usually no-shows, only visible when the zoo had evening hours.
  • Kinkajou - Not technically a no-show, I can usually see a bit of fur, but for a nocturnal animal in a non-nocturnal exhibit, this is not surprising.

After writing that list I see a distinct pattern. Small carnivores... I guess that makes sense doesn't it.
 
Blackduiker said:
For my just returned visit to the Los Angeles Zoo today, these are the usual no shows:

African Wild Dog
Bat-eared Fox
Royal Antelope
Steenbok(Exhibit Temporarily Closed)?
Yellow-backed Duiker
Calamian Deer
Tufted Deer
Slow Loris
Click to expand...

For the African Wild Dogs and Bat-eared Foxes you must be there early in the morning. I have yet to see the royal antelope and tufted deer as their exhibits are very lush. I'm not sure what's wrong with the steenboks and I also didn't see the calamian deer on my last visit. To see the Slow Loris you must go at the end of the day, almost at closing time, when the zoo turns the lights off in his (or her) exhibit.

Another animal that is very shy at the LA Zoo is the Channel Island Fox.
 
Growing up going to Chester Zoo I never once saw a beaver (in the enclosure which was filled in for coatis and I think is now a picnic area) or skunk (in a low walled enclosure near the old cat house).

At London Zoo I guess you would be lucky if you saw a giant anteater in their really very nice exhibit but you can usually catch a glimpse of them in their indoor area but it's not much of a view.
 
when i travel to melbourne zoo i rarely only get a glimpse of the following animals.

bongo
snowleopard (can see it but always sits in a difficult to see area)
puma
ringtailed lemur
red pandas
eurasian badgers
african crested porcupines
 
For Toronto Zoo . . .

Snow Leopards are very elusive, and I try to visit them at different times on my visits.

Same goes with the Clouded Leopards.

Cheetahs are very hit and miss with regards to if they want to be seen.

Up until recently, the Prehensile Tailed Porcupines were very elusive. At the very most, I saw a tail and once, a head peeking out of their box. Now that they're in a nocturnal display, they are very active.

Red Pandas, at the most I'll just see a bit of fur in a tree :P

Southern Ground Hornbills have been very elusive, during my past three summer trips, they have not shown themselves. In the summer of '07, I did get to hear their mating call, though!
 
Jesse said:
when i travel to melbourne zoo i rarely only get a glimpse of the following animals.

bongo
snowleopard (can see it but always sits in a difficult to see area)
puma
ringtailed lemur
red pandas
eurasian badgers
african crested porcupines
Click to expand...

I've never seen the badger in dozens of visits. In fact, I've given up on looking to see if it's there. There are no crested porcupines at the Zoo at present.

I've never seen the orange-bellied parrot hen. I rarely see the Javan langurs. There's a kingfisher in the Great Flight Aviary I've seen twice in two years. The elderly white-nosed coati seldom leaves the barrel it uses for a nest. I've only recently started to have more luck with the Goodfellow's tree kangaroos.

At Werribee, I've never managed to spot an Eastern barred bandicoot in the Volcanic Plains walk.
 
it seems to be the same animals that shy away. but to be more specific nocturnal animals are probably the most hard to find in an outdoor exhibit situation
 
For Colchester:

Binturong- Benson likes to hide
Blue Duiker- Sometimes likes to come outside but very rarely.
Geoffory's Cat- You might just get a glimse of his tail!
Spotted Hyaena- Mbembe is mainly asleep in the corner!
Linnes Two-toed Sloth- Unless hot never outside just fast asleep in their box.
 
My local Zoo is Frankfurt, we have a lot of rare species here. Frankfurt was always a zoo of rarities :

Sloth bear
Sun bear
Fossa
Asian Lion ( pure breed ! )


Aye-Aye
Kiwi
Slender Lori
Australlian Swimming rat
Hoffmans Sloth
aardvark
Tamandua

Shoebill
Yellow-threated capuchin
Bonobo
African Wild dog

Southern black Rhino
Babirusa
Okapi
Mhorrgazelle
Klippspringer ( they will replaced for Red Forest duikers afther their death )
Sable Antelope

There are some rare species at the Exotarium and birdhouse also.

To name just a few. It were more a few years ago, but unfortuanetly, the new director has stopped keeping some rare species, clouded leopards for example, and he will stop keeping sloth bears and sun bears for spectacled bears and coatis...
 
From top of my head in Zoo Prague I had a hard time to spott these animals:

Brown Hyena - top place and is not even close
non-sleeping Porcupine - have seen once
Red Panda - it is getting better but it still looks like a matter of a dumbe luck
juvenile Komodo Dragons - no surprise here
Binturong - well planted exhibit
Small-clawed otters - an island well hided from visitors sight
Wild Boar - no big deal

and sometimes those

North American Porcupine
Cheetah - the hilly exhibit provides a dead corner/side with no path around
numerous birds
Manned Wolf
Caracal
Clouded Leopards - I see them every visit but has never seen a one outside (nor Caracal, nor Fishing Cat... - pretty much none animal in the new outside exhibits)

and of course animals which were temporarily or "permanently" off display; and some animals you can't see during winter conditions etc.

Bongoes, Coatis, Bat-Eared Foxes, Bush Dogs, Lemurs are pretty much a non-issues here - at least for me so far.
 
ZooLeopard said:
For Colchester:

Binturong- Benson likes to hide
Blue Duiker- Sometimes likes to come outside but very rarely.
Geoffory's Cat- You might just get a glimse of his tail!
Spotted Hyaena- Mbembe is mainly asleep in the corner!
Linnes Two-toed Sloth- Unless hot never outside just fast asleep in their box.
Click to expand...

Another for Colchester- Tamanduas- I've only seen them twice in the many visits I've had there, this being at two late night openings! :rolleyes:
 
My no shows are Madagascan Fody at Chester and Cloud Rats at London. Other perople see them regularly, but I'm not so lucky.

Shirokuma I often saw the skunks at Chester, after 5pm was a good time when the zoo was quieter, I think they were fed about that time also.I have a memory of one running around the enclosure several times with a piece of fruit in its mouth.
 
My no shows are Dudley Zoo

The Porcupines and The Badgers

at The Birmingham Nature Center are

The Beavers
 
At Chester, I have never, ever seen the jaguars, and yet people post lovely photos of them on ZooChat all the bloomin' time.

I'd also agree with Shirokuma, the coatis are now really difficult to see, you need some binoculars (they were a great exhibit in their former home).
 
I'm glad the skunks really did exist! In the Clore Rainforest I only ever saw a tamandua once. It was late in the afternoon and I'd been waiting for ages hoping it would appear. Just before I left it popped out of a nest box and ran around all over the place. Of course it was a day when I didn't have my camera.
 
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