The Africa Big 5 in zoos

Emanuel Theodorus

Emanuel Theodorus

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Does anybody knows any zoo that houses African Elephant, African Lion, African Leopard, Black/White Rhinoceros, and Cape Buffalo? Because it seems quite rare to see all of these animals in captivity at once. I think Johannesburg Zoo has all five of them, but anybody else knows any other place?
 
Well..Dvur Kralove "sort of" has it, as they currently hold:

Cape Buffalo
African Elephant
Barbary Lion
Both Rhino species
Persian Leopard

Obviously, Persian is not African leopard, so they are close, but not close enough :D
 
The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Pretoria also exhibits the Big 5, including both rhinos.
 
HOMIN96 said:
Well..Dvur Kralove "sort of" has it, as they currently hold:

Cape Buffalo
African Elephant
Barbary Lion
Both Rhino species
Persian Leopard

Obviously, Persian is not African leopard, so they are close, but not close enough :D
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Safaripark Beekse Bergen keeps the exact same and Lisbon had those as well minus Black rhino. Pairi Daiza has African elephant, White rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Javan leopard.
 
lintworm said:
Safaripark Beekse Bergen keeps the exact same and Lisbon had those as well minus Black rhino. Pairi Daiza has African elephant, White rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Javan leopard.
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Yeah I feel like Europe's biggest problem in this is finding the African Leopard :D
 
Pairi Daiza has also the big 5 - however also not with african leopard and with white instead of black rhino...
 
I remember when Jacksonville Zoo had a a pair of African Buffalo right next to the mixed species White Rhino enclosure. I don't know why they got rid of them and replaced them with Okapi. They were so unique!
 
Out of the zoos that claim to have African leopards [according to ztl] in Europe (though a lot if not all of those are dubious), none keeps every species of the big five. CERZA Lisieux in France comes close (which is to be expected as it's very safari-oriented) but doesn't have elephants.
 
I think these are even less common in US zoos. I've never seen an African leopard, and cape Buffalo only at SDZ, unless Disney had them and I've just forgotten. Where can these species be found stateside?
 
lintworm said:
Safaripark Beekse Bergen keeps the exact same and Lisbon had those as well minus Black rhino. Pairi Daiza has African elephant, White rhino, Buffalo, Lion and Javan leopard.
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I believe Safaripark Beekse Bergen does have black rhinos, but only in the Safari Resort area so they are not visible to "normal" visitors, only to resort guests. A system of animal holding which I must say I very dislike. I don't mind resort guests getting special views or something, but keeping species exclusively to them just rubs me the wrong way.
 
Emanuel Theodorus said:
Seems African Leopard isn't really that common in zoos, which is honestly a bummer since it is my favourite leopard subspecies. I was also wondering if any other zoos that houses this subspecies.
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African Leopards are really common in South African Zoos. I know of at least 7
 
ZTL lists the following:
36 zoos with African savanna elephants, 11 with East African bush elephants and 40 with South African bush elephants.
14 with Cape buffalo and 27 with forest buffalo.
22 with eastern black rhinos and 1 with South central black rhinos.
96 with southern white rhinos.
31 with 'Barbary' lions, 5 with Kalahari lions, 1 with Somali lions, 58 with Southeast African lions, 27 with Southwest African lions and 1 with West African lions.
2 with African leopards, 1 with Central African leopards.
 
Emanuel Theodorus said:
Does anybody knows any zoo that houses African Elephant, African Lion, African Leopard, Black/White Rhinoceros, and Cape Buffalo? Because it seems quite rare to see all of these animals in captivity at once. I think Johannesburg Zoo has all five of them, but anybody else knows any other place?
Click to expand...

Morelia zoo in Michoacan state in Mexico has / had all of those species.
 
Nix said:
African Leopards are really common in South African Zoos. I know of at least 7
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Could you maybe import some to the US? Because I'm really starting to get sick of only having Amur Leopards because they get put in jungle sections or labeled as African when zoos could be giving them Amur or Manchuria sections and giving African Leopards their spot and having Javan Leopards in Jungle exhibits.
 
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Possonovo Zoo has African leopards and Southwest African lions.
Sosto Zoo has African leopards and East African and South African elephants, as well as 'lions'
Olmen Balen has Central African leopards and African savanna and South African elephants
 
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