Species you could have seen, but didn't

Back in the summer of 2018, I was unable to see ANY of the animals in the national zoo's bird house because the entire area was under renovation

I was also unable to see the fennec there because it was a no-show
 
Mr Gharial said:
I missed the last chance to see the Amazon river dolphin in Duisburg. We had a trip planned May 2020 but... Ya know...

We were planning to move it to, well, right now but... ya know...
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That is quite unfortunate, cus, you know... :(
 
Regarding beavers - I've been to 7 facilities with beavers - Minnesota, Lincoln Park, Detroit, Columbus, National Mississippi River Aquarium, Ochsner Park, and ASDM. Minnesota and Lincoln Park I have been at least five times each. Detroit, Columbus, ASDM and NMRMAA I have only been to once, and I have Ochsner Park many times but only once since they have gotten beavers. I saw beavers at NMRMA quite easily, though there was tons of glare. I've only seen the Lincoln Park beavers once, and only because they were introducing new beavers at the time and they were kept in small holding cages with no hides. I saw beavers at Ochsner but only after waiting in front of the enclosure for an hour. At ASDM I saw a few hairs belonging to a beaver sticking out of a corner, most visitors missed that and I could easily have done so, as well. I have not seen beavers at any of the other zoos I mentioned.
 
Mr Gharial said:
I missed the last chance to see the Amazon river dolphin in Duisburg. We had a trip planned May 2020 but... Ya know...

We were planning to move it to, well, right now but... ya know...
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Wait, Amazon River Dolphin? I thought it was an Orinoco River Dolphin.
 
birdsandbats said:
Regarding beavers - I've been to 7 facilities with beavers - Minnesota, Lincoln Park, Detroit, Columbus, National Mississippi River Aquarium, Ochsner Park, and ASDM. Minnesota and Lincoln Park I have been at least five times each. Detroit, Columbus, ASDM and NMRMAA I have only been to once, and I have Ochsner Park many times but only once since they have gotten beavers. I saw beavers at NMRMA quite easily, though there was tons of glare. I've only seen the Lincoln Park beavers once, and only because they were introducing new beavers at the time and they were kept in small holding cages with no hides. I saw beavers at Ochsner but only after waiting in front of the enclosure for an hour. At ASDM I saw a few hairs belonging to a beaver sticking out of a corner, most visitors missed that and I could easily have done so, as well. I have not seen beavers at any of the other zoos I mentioned.
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ASDM has viewing into their indoor den.

Personally I haven't had much trouble seeing them. I've seen them at 5/6 of the zoos I've been to that hold the species, though one (Omaha) has them in a nocturnal setting.

~Thylo
 
ChunkyMunky pengopus said:
When I visited the Brookfield zoo back in 2018, I either forgot or did not realise that habitat Africa!: the forest had a pangolin, and I certainly wanted to visit that area regardless. Somehow, I never got around to there, and I haven't been back to Brookfield, and now I desperately need to.
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ChunkyMunky pengopus said:
Another one that hurts is that I was rushed towards the end of my visit to Denver zoo (I think it was in 2016), so I hurriedly made my way past the primate building, and I remember looking in the aye-aye exhibit, but I don't remember the aye-ayes themselves, which makes me think I didn't see any. To add insult to injury, it turns out I didn't need to be rushed after all and spent some time waiting around the entrance later.
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Thankfully these misses have both been rectified by now, with a visit to Brookfield and Cincinnati respectively.
 
Giant Eland said:
From @zooman 's "How did I miss that!!!!" thread in Nov, 2012 I wrote:


1st the good news! 2020 Update: 9/15 have since been seen!

4. Hog Badger- Seen at Singapore Night Safari, Pata Zoo & Batu Secret Zoo
5. Bush Pig- Seen at Shadow Nursery
6. Richardson's Ground Squirrel- Seen at private collection in Michigan
8. Nigerian White-throated Guenon- Seen (albeit a different subspecies) at Monkey World
10. Plains viscacha- Seen at Temaiken & Schönebeck
12. Mechow’s Mole Rat- Seen at Peoria Zoo
13. Bolivian hairy armadillo- Seen at Huachipa
14. Colocolo- Seen at Sorocaba Zoo
15. Silky anteater- Seen at Huachipa

But of course I've added more near misses- here is what my current list looks like:

1.) Greater Glider (David Fleay WP) Waited a little for this guy to come into view, didn’t show himself. Was kinda in a time crunch to make a flight later in the day, and I was pretty sure Greater Glider’s were kept at some of the other Zoos I was going to. I was sorely wrong.
2.) Long-beaked Echidna (Taronga Zoo) Visited in 2007 while they were off exhibit. Spoke to a keeper about seeing them off exhibit, but it was pretty impossible because they’re nocturnal and sleep underground.
3.) Leadbeater’s Possum (Toronto Zoo, Healesville) Went to Toronto Zoo twice while they had them. First time I was too young to care/didn’t have a decent camera. 2nd time looked for it, but didn’t ask any keepers (turns out it was off exhibit). I regularly ask for off-exhibit species now. Also just missed these at Healesville Sanctuary, seems like they had them before 2007 and a couple years after.
4.) Long-nosed bandicoot (Taronga Zoo) Spent a lot of time in the nocturnal house when I visited in 2007 but this species never showed.
5.) Short-eared Rock Wallaby (Perth Zoo) Attempted to set up a behind the scenes opportunity for weeks before I arrived to no avail. Finally on the day of (my birthday, no less!) Spoke to a PR woman in person but couldn't manage to set anything up. I've always have better luck speaking with keepers directly.
6.) Makassar tarsier (Taman Safari) Off exhibit.
7.) Bornean Clouded Leopard (Taman Safari)- Normally on exhibit, but temporarily off exhibit for breeding purposes.
8.) Javan Warty Pig (Taman Safari)- Off exhibit. Didn't leave myself enough time in Indonesia to visit other zoos that feature the species. I'll definitely have to go back!
9.) Bay Cat (Taman Safari) As you can see Taman Safari- while providing some much welcomed additions to my life list has also dealt me the biggest blow. All 4 of these species were off exhibit when I visited, and apparently Indonesian collections are very wary of allowing any behind the scenes experiences. That mixed with the people I had contacted being on vacation at the time led to an unfortunate result.
10.) Siau Island tarsier (Ragunan Zoo) Off exhibit- requested but not allowed access.
11.) Gorontalo macaque (Ragunan Zoo)
12.) Natua Island surili (Ragunan Zoo) The biggest mistake I've personally made in a while. Both the macaque and surili were on exhibit at a different primate section of the zoo instead of the at the Schmutzer Primate Centre (were I spent the bulk of my time, hoping to get behind the scenes) Mix in extreme heat, lack of sleep, and limited time at this gigantic zoo (I had a flight to catch) I completely missed out on 2 lifers! Again gotta go back to Indonesia!!!
13.) Nilgiri Langur (Erfurt) Traveled to 3 Zoos in one day. Wildpark Leipzig, Leipzig Zoo, and Erfurt Zoo. I arrived at the later at about 5pm with hardly any time to spare and no one that spoke English. Desperately tried to find the Nilgiri Langur exhibit with no such luck. I think they were in a cage within the walk-through Barbary Macaque exhibit, but that was closed off. I contemplated climbing into it, but decided I probably wouldn’t be able to get back out haha.
14.) Greater dwarf lemur (Zurich) Same day I visited Mulhouse Zoo, I drove to Zurich Zoo arriving about 2pm. Tried to find a nocturnal exhibit for this lemur until realizing that the 1 specimen of this species outside of Madagascar is kept in a diurnal gigantic walk through Madagascan forest exhibit. Complete needle in a haystack. I wasted so much time looking for this that I didn’t leave time for the next guy on the list.
15.) Purple-faced langur (Singapore Zoo) Off exhibit, request denied.
16.) Thomas's pygmy jerboa (Beijing Zoo) Despite visiting this exhibit numerous times throughout the day, and even having a keeper put some food out- the animal never showed.
17.) Indochinese flying squirrel (Pata Zoo) Animal never showed out from its nest box.
18.) Key Largo Wood Rat (Disney’s Animal Kingdom) Off exhibit, request denied.
19.) Nilgiri Tahr (San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park) This species I've probably seen from the monorail at the Wild Animal Park back in the 80s or 90s but I don't have any photographic proof. Didn't realize they were kept off exhibit at the Zoo until long after they were gone. I've tried to set up a visit to the one private facility in the US that still keeps the animal but to no avail. May end up having to go back to India for them!
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More good news! 2022 Update: 5/19 Have now been seen!

7.) Bornean Clouded Leopard- Hilariously seen over and over at 3 out of the 4 zoos I visited in Java in June (Batu Secret Zoo, Taman Safari Prigen & Faunaland)
8.) Javan Warty Pig- Also seen numerous times at Taman Safari Prigen, PCBA and probably wild at Ujung Kulon NP
10.) Siau Island tarsier (Ragunan Zoo)
11.) Gorontalo macaque (Ragunan Zoo)
12.) Natua Island surili (Ragunan Zoo)- made up for a perilous first visit to Ragunan by ticking off all three of these misses from last time.
 
I'll base this on zoos I've visited within the last year or so, and break it down based on individual zoos:

Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, Milnthorpe, UK:
I've visited here twice in the last year, and there are two species that were no-shows during both of my visits: a Gambian pouched rat, which was tucked away in its nest box and couldn't be seen either time, and some cane toads, which share an enclosure with red-footed tortoises, but I've never been able to spot them in there.

Blackpool Zoo, Blackpool, UK:
I didn't realise until I looked at the map again after I left, but there was a whole area of the zoo that I missed, two enclosures housing sitatunga and red river hogs.
Also, at the time of my last visit, the zoo's lions and tiger had been temporarily moved to other zoos while construction work took place on their enclosures, and their Aldabra giant tortoise had recently died. If I had visited a few weeks earlier I might have seen them all.

Safari Zoo Cumbria, Ulverston, UK:
They supposedly have a giant anteater living in the same enclosure as their Linne's two-toed sloths and African spurred tortoises. I say supposedly because after two visits I still haven't caught a glimpse of the thing.

Exotic Zoo, Telford, UK:
There were a fair number of no-shows that I was really hoping to see but never could: common genets, kinkajou, striped skunks, three-banded armadillos, a mangrove snake and an African bullfrog. Since my last visit, the zoo has also acquired capybaras and Asian small-clawed otters, so I plan on going back at some point in either 2023 or 2024.

Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh, UK:
Far too many to list in one post. Unfortunately there were a lot of empty or temporarily inaccessible enclosures and no-show species on my last visit, including many I was hoping to see, like nyala and Visayan spotted deer. The building where the zoo keeps the majority of their reptile, amphibian and invertebrate collection was also closed at the time. I plan on visiting again at the start of next year with a checklist of everything I didn't see last time, see how luckier I am.

Chester Zoo, Upton-by-Chester, UK:
Unfortunately, I didn't get around the whole zoo during my last trip, there were whole areas I had to skip because I was running out of time, including the Indonesian Islands area where species such as Sumatran tigers, banteng and Sunda gharials are kept. Additionally the Tropical Realm building, where a lot of the zoo's reptiles and amphibians are kept, was closed due to an outbreak of bird flu, but it has since re-opened. There were also a fair number of no-shows such as okapi, babirusa and aardvarks, though there was some construction work going on with the aardvark enclosure at the time so they were temporarily off-show.
 
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Talapoins are my most disappointing miss. Here in the US they are only kept at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. I kept on coming back to the exhibit hoping they'd be out but they were no-shows that day. Apparently, San Diego Zoo has Lion Macaques, which I've really wanted to see for a long time but I never even knew they were present nor found their enclosure. Bush Dogs at Zoo Atlanta (now no longer there) were also a disappointing miss a few years back, but I finally got to see them at Stone Zoo a couple of weeks ago and am really grateful for that. I'm sure there are others, but those spring to my mind first.

If talking about entire exhibits, I've missed quite a few aviaries at several zoos due to time constrains and/or HPAI. Audubon and Philadelphia Zoo are two such exhibits I had the time to see but they were closed. At least I'll probably be able to see Philadelphia's eventually as I revisit the region often.
 
Mine are the dorcopsis in Plzen Zoo (aren't anymore there) missed them in the winter (maybe they weren't outside)

Prague holds them backstage and Bestzoo isn't the best zoo so I have to go to Skærup zoo!
 
Bush dog, maned wolf and marsh deer, Piracicaba Zoo. It was quite a sunny day as far as I remember, guess I just had some bad luck.
 
While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and share a few of my misses:

1.) The light-footed Ridgeways rails at the Living Coast Discovery Center. Afaik these are the only captive specimens in the world and even after swinging by the exhibit three times they never showed themselves.

2.) The Chinese goral at Omaha. Went by the exhibit twice on two different days and they never made an appearance.

3.) The false gharial at Saint Louis. This one is less brutal because I've seen this species in the past, but these are a favorite that I was disappointed to miss out on. The bottom level of the herpetarium where the species is housed was closed for maintenance both days I was at the zoo and I resisted the urge to hop the barrier to get a look.

4.) The musk ox at Minnesota. The last two individuals were euthanized just two weeks before my visit which definitely stung as I've yet to see this species in person.

5.) This one is more funny than disappointing, but seems worth sharing. Even after multiple visits to San Diego I have yet to find the pygmy hippo enclosure. I believe I saw the side only the guenons have access to, but never the proper viewing area for the hippo/crocodile. Side note, I never located the old, recently replaced hummingbird aviary either.
 
The San Diego lion tails were signed when I was there in January, though I didn’t see them. I do remember seeing them years ago, when they were across from the sun bears, where the langurs are now
 
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