the UK's private 'zoo'

johnstoni

johnstoni

Well-Known Member
I thought it would be interesting to share what little knowledge I have of some of the small mammal species barely seen in public in the UK, which are flourishing in private hands...

this site has springhares, silky anteaters, striped/brush-tailed opossums, genets, paca, civets, galagoes, fishing cats/caracals etc
http://www.thespecialistkeepersassociation.com/mammaldeluxeg.htm

on the same site there appears to be someone in yorkshire busy breeding and selling Tupaia minor (lesser Tree shrews, a species which, if ISIS was anything to go by, would appear at the end of the road in captivity).

I also know of NAPAK, whose members keep and breed hutias, raccoon dogs, and three-banded armadillos amongst others...

do members know of any other private keepers out there who are contributing to what is essentially a national private zoological bank of species here in the UK?
 
There are some very interesting species there - in particular the pygmy anteater - I've never seen one of these and there is only one listed on ISIS, which is in Peru. I wonder if any have been bred in the UK.

The for sale list makes interesting reading too - fishing cat for £2200 anyone?
 
Hello everyone, I thought I would introduce myself, Todd Dalton, I set up Rare Species Conservation Centre - and from the looks of it you all seem to be quite interested in it and it's species. Feel free to fire me any questions you may have in future.
All the best
Todd
 
NEOFELIS said:
Hello everyone, I thought I would introduce myself, Todd Dalton, I set up Rare Species Conservation Centre - and from the looks of it you all seem to be quite interested in it and it's species. Feel free to fire me any questions you may have in future.
All the best
Todd
Click to expand...

Is there any reason why the RSCC is closed during the week at this time of year? Would strongly suggest you kick the web designers butt and get it updated for next year as it really doesn't make clear the days you are closed, can't wait to get down there and explore in the next couple of weeks.

Must say I'm impressed to see that someone like yourself finds the time to get on here and be willing to answer questions - perhaps a reply in the RSCC thread would be more suitable to prevent derailing this topic too much.
 
It appears to be an organisation representing private animal keepers in the UK, similar to NAPAK, only these guys are more organised as a lobbying body in order to protect their interests with legislation that is passed, while at the same time they appear to be trying to raise the standard of how private animal keeping operates to ensure that their members remain distinct from people who just want exotic 'pets' or just fancy cuddling a monkey or some such other rubbish you see on exotic animal 'wanted' classifieds.

But what I was particularly excited about was the fact that Tupaia minor is still being kept and bred in the UK. I worked with this species many many years ago and the 2.1 listed on ISIS as the global population is extremely depressing. It would be great to see private keepers, which collectively make up one huge zoological collection in this country, able to contribute to the same database as public collections. We would see far greater cooperation I think and a more accurate picture of what is being held and bred where.

I don't think the animals photographed are for sale, this appears to be a gallery of some of the species that private UK keepers are breeding successfully. I can say I have never seen eight Nine-banded armadillos in one place at a zoo. The reason I found this site interesting is that these animals are not zoo surplus, many of them haven't been kept or bred in a UK zoo for many years. In fact, I would contest that it is the other way round, that UK collections are likely to only go back into these species through the contribution of private individuals in this country keeping various species represented (albeit off-exhibit) in Britain. A NAPAK member was doing well with Three-banded armadillos a few years ago when there were barely any armadillo on display in the UK, and supplied Edinburgh zoo at least, maybe others, with UK-bred animals.

On a less positive note, one of their links seems to be to a carribean-based exporter, owned by a dutch importer, that offer silky anteaters, tayra, grison, prehensile-tailed porcupines etc, and it may well be how the silky anteaters have managed to enter the UK. An interesting pointer as to why a zoo like Amazon Zoo World on the IOW has so many species it clearly didn't obtain from other UK zoos, as I think they have links with some large importers in this country, in fact (I'm not 100%, but I'm sure I read somewhere) they may have been set up by the owners of such a company.

Where more established charitable status zoos might not do business with importers for fear of a scandal, I am pretty sure this explains the array of unusual stock in a few of the smaller collections in the UK. These species are in many ways out of bounds for the larger collections until they are bred in europe.
 
Are brush tailed possums a big deal over there? because i have enough of them in my roof to last a lifetime.
 
PAT said:
Are brush tailed possums a big deal over there? because i have enough of them in my roof to last a lifetime.
Click to expand...

What are you kidding?! Send them immediately! Just give me a few months to recreate a naturalistic australian loft habitat for them.....
 
better to get them from NZ. They're a huge pest here, and I suspect most of the ones overseas originated from exported NZ ones. I know there used to be a big market for several smart people in shipping out live possums to southeast Asia (for pets ....apparently)

Oh, forgot to say, we've got about 80 million of the little blighters ruining our forests!
 
There are a fair few in private hands in the UK. They seem to breed like rabbits.

Marwell received a stray one a few months back. Long Sutton Butterfly and Falconry Centre keeps them, as does South Lakes (or it certainly used to) and what about Tropical World, Leeds?
 
that's the figure usually quoted, but its obviously an estimate (could be higher or lower). They have no predators in NZ apart for people and motor cars, so densities can be ten or twenty times higher than in Australia. They go through an estimated 20,000 tonnes of vegetation per night. That's why we don't like them over here.
 
Im sorry you found RSCC closed, we are open from March 21st to September 7th
every day, in winter only at weekends. If you want to get properly shown around email me and Ill be most happy to, and yes we will get onto the web designer.
 
amazon world IOW

johnstoni said:
It appears to be an organisation representing private animal keepers in the UK, similar to NAPAK, only these guys are more organised as a lobbying body in order to protect their interests with legislation that is passed, while at the same time they appear to be trying to raise the standard of how private animal keeping operates to ensure that their members remain distinct from people who just want exotic 'pets' or just fancy cuddling a monkey or some such other rubbish you see on exotic animal 'wanted' classifieds.

But what I was particularly excited about was the fact that Tupaia minor is still being kept and bred in the UK. I worked with this species many many years ago and the 2.1 listed on ISIS as the global population is extremely depressing. It would be great to see private keepers, which collectively make up one huge zoological collection in this country, able to contribute to the same database as public collections. We would see far greater cooperation I think and a more accurate picture of what is being held and bred where.

I don't think the animals photographed are for sale, this appears to be a gallery of some of the species that private UK keepers are breeding successfully. I can say I have never seen eight Nine-banded armadillos in one place at a zoo. The reason I found this site interesting is that these animals are not zoo surplus, many of them haven't been kept or bred in a UK zoo for many years. In fact, I would contest that it is the other way round, that UK collections are likely to only go back into these species through the contribution of private individuals in this country keeping various species represented (albeit off-exhibit) in Britain. A NAPAK member was doing well with Three-banded armadillos a few years ago when there were barely any armadillo on display in the UK, and supplied Edinburgh zoo at least, maybe others, with UK-bred animals.

On a less positive note, one of their links seems to be to a carribean-based exporter, owned by a dutch importer, that offer silky anteaters, tayra, grison, prehensile-tailed porcupines etc, and it may well be how the silky anteaters have managed to enter the UK. An interesting pointer as to why a zoo like Amazon Zoo World on the IOW has so many species it clearly didn't obtain from other UK zoos, as I think they have links with some large importers in this country, in fact (I'm not 100%, but I'm sure I read somewhere) they may have been set up by the owners of such a company.

Where more established charitable status zoos might not do business with importers for fear of a scandal, I am pretty sure this explains the array of unusual stock in a few of the smaller collections in the UK. These species are in many ways out of bounds for the larger collections until they are bred in europe.
Click to expand...

hi,im new to this site but i thought i would join as i saw a bit in this quote about amazon world!
iv visited there before and they have got far too many animals for the size of the place,it is quite clear to me that they just take the animals in for the sake of having them just 2 say they have got them!i 2 have heard that the owner has very good connections abroard and (dont quote me on this) but i am pretty sure they take alot of wild caught stock from customs.which is great for them,but not so good for the animals!i think they had 3 tapir that all died after being imported if i remember rightly.mind you,if i was the owner of any zoo in the uk,i would never give any of my stock 2 them because the place is horrible!
my rant over!:D
 
Pygathrix said:
There are some very interesting species there - in particular the pygmy anteater - I've never seen one of these and there is only one listed on ISIS, which is in Peru. I wonder if any have been bred in the UK.
Click to expand...

As far as i've found, the animal the the peruvian Zoo is a wild animal that lives on the zoo premises. It's able to leave the zoo if it wants, but it's being fed so it keeps hanging around. It'll snatch some ant's on the side from the wild for the extra needed proteins though. As far as i could find, there's no known working diet yet for this species, but it looks like private keepers do manage to keep them alive?

Weird...
 
Hi Johnstoni
I noticed you mentioned that Tupaia minor is being bred in Sheffield. I had a quick look on the TSKA website but couldn't seem to find them. Do you know how I can find them?

Thanks
 
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