SUMMARISING EXOTIC MAMMAL ORDERS
With over half of all mammal orders completed it is time for the first summarising post. While the orders treated until now come from all over the mammal tree, they have one thing in common: none of them has any native species in Europe currently (bar humans for the nitpickers). With the exception of some marsupial families they are also mostly very species poor lineages with often unique adaptations. These unique adaptations have probably saved them once rodents, carnivores, primates and hoofed mammals started to spread and take over. These mammals are often favourites among zoochatters in general, and the species hunters in particular.
While it might sound surprising, the interest from zoos in exotic looking smaller mammals has grown considerably this century, despite many of them not being crowd favourites or ABC mammals. There has been a ~20% increase in the number of species held in Europe this century and many of the families covered have gained a considerable number of holders. This was generally expected for marsupials, which have seen a significant increase in species numbers as well as a spread of some formerly rare species. Xenarthrans were also expected to have gained popularity and while there were no species gains a few of the xenarthrans have become increasingly common. Largely unexpected seems to be the rise of the afrotherians, with an increase from 10 to 14 species held and clear increases in holders for the majority of families. This was hardly picked up in the survey, though.
@JaxElephant The rise of the hyrax might have been a surprise
Increased understanding of husbandry of previously difficult animals such as anteaters and aardvarks has most certainly helped. Hyraxes, aardvarks, manatees, anteaters, sloths, armadillos, echidnas, dasyurids, wombats, koalas and pangolins are all more widespread than they used to be 23 years ago. The rise of the giant anteater is particularly remarkable, going from relatively uncommon to over 80 holders. Treeshrews and sugar gliders are the only 2 families bucking the trend, with both having a clear net loss in terms of species held.
There is also a trend that enough zoos are moving away from the most commonly kept species in favour of less kept similar species so that several previously rare species are now more common. This is most clear with macropods, where an increasing number of zoos that either replace their red-necked wallaby with a rarer kangaroo species or add a second species to their kangaroo exhibit. This has led to clear growth in the population of a few rarer macropods such as swamp wallaby and yellow-footed rock wallaby. There are still plenty of “superfluous” red-necked or red kangaroo holders which for diversity's sake would best switch to a different species. There are of-course plenty of zoos sticking with the easiest option, but enough aren't to make a difference. This trend is also there in other groups and we will see it multiple times this thread.
@Fat-tailed dwarf lemur A red-necked wallaby ripe for replacement
It seems a bit strange that all these animals have increased in popularity, while mammal diversity in many big zoos has decreased. Whereas the historical major zoos have almost without exception shrunk their mammal collection, this is at least partly counterbalanced by the growth of the number of zoos and the rise of new superstars like Pairi Daiza and Zooparc de Beauval which both were relatively unassuming places in 2000. While major zoos themselves have moved away from a post stamp collection, there still seems to be an interest in maintaining higher taxonomic diversity. So these more “obscure” groups do profit from enough zoos that take an interest in displaying new families and orders instead of rows of similar species. Many of the smaller species in these orders have the advantage that they can relatively easily be mixed with other species and with such mixed-species exhibits becoming ever more common, a place for species like hyraxes, bettongs and armadillos is basically assured in such setups
There are, like is always the case, a few zoos for which normal is not enough. Zoo Ostrava seems obsessed with tree hyraxes and Zoo Hamerton with marsupials. But their enthusiasm has in several cases spread to other zoos and a species like rufous bettong has gone from absent to 10 zoos in a matter of years. It remains to be seen whether most imports can be sustained as the rufous elephant shrew history shows that booms and bust can follow each other quite quickly.
@Alwaysevergreen Hamerton Zoo Park seems to have a insatiable love for marsupials and brushtail possums in particular
An interesting observation, which might stem from the rise of the geographically ordered zoo, is that Australian fauna is becoming more widespread than before. Echidnas, wombats, koalas, Tasmanian devils and the smaller creatures are all gaining popularity as more zoos make an effort to do an Australian zoo with more than a few parrots, emus and kangaroos. The animals are in recent years often (partly) sourced from Australia A highlight of that is the new Australia house in Wilhelma, Stuttgart, which houses 10 marsupials and with the import of quokka has managed to gain a new species for Europe, just a pity for us that the planned import of fat-tailed dunnarts to Stuttgart did not happen. I am not sure whether Australia has loosened its export policies or that more zoos are willing to do the paperwork? Back in 2000 it was probably Dierenpark Planckendael in Mechelen, Belgium with the most extensive Australian area. Nowadays there is plenty of competition for that prize from Duisburg to Copenhagen and from Stuttgart to Budapest.
Looking ahead it will be interesting to see whether this Australian craze will continue. I personally think it will and it isn’t impossible that we will have either platypus or long-beaked echidna arrive within 10-20 years, the latter either through confiscations or with purposefully wild-caught individuals. With smaller mammals there have always been surprises and I see no reason why that wouldn’t happen in the near future. These surprises seem more likely to come from non-EAZA zoos or from countries with a long history of importing new species, such as Czechia. But even household names such as Zoo Leipzig, Wilhelma and Zoo Copenhagen are active in the marsupial importing business.
@WhistlingKite24 Platypus as the next European target?
Next up are the primates, which are one of those orders which tend to be well represented in basically any mainstream zoo.
Progress
14/22 orders completed
24/106 families completed
50-51 species present in 2000
62 species present in 2023
33 species gained since 2000
21-22 species lost since 2000
. The taxonomic nitpickers will have noticed by now, that pangolins aren't actually close to the previous orders on the mammal tree of evolution. They are the sister group to the carnivores, but their placement here in the thread is solely due to their looks.
