Under served taxa

TinoPup said:
Rodents are rarely kept, considering they make up 20% of all mammals and, like amphibians, are usually small and easy keepers. Other than the binturong, there's almost no viverrids at all in north america, especially in AZA institutions.
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If I had to guess why some rodents are not often kept, I would say it’s because of their lifespan. Rodents, especially small ones (rats, mice, chipmunks) usually only live for a couple years, so I don’t think a zoo would want to invest their time and resources into something that won’t last that long anyway. However, larger rodents (capybaras, porcupines, maras, squirrels) live longer so these types of rodents are very common in zoos. Overall, usually only smaller rodents are poorly represented due to their short lifespans, but are way more common compared to other groups of mammals like elephant shrews and Prosimians.
 
EternalPigeon said:
If I had to guess why some rodents are not often kept, I would say it’s because of their lifespan. Rodents, especially small ones (rats, mice, chipmunks) usually only live for a couple years, so I don’t think a zoo would want to invest their time and resources into something that won’t last that long anyway. However, larger rodents (capybaras, porcupines, maras, squirrels) live longer so these types of rodents are very common in zoos. Overall, usually only smaller rodents are poorly represented due to their short lifespans, but are way more common compared to other groups of mammals like elephant shrews and Prosimians.
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You are relatively right in the short lifespan being an issue. You have to breeding them with good regularity to keep the population going.The other main reason is the average zoo guest doesn't really care about mice and rats that much.
However there are some zoos that do invest in small rodents, such as Plzen.
 
Great Argus said:
You are relatively right in the short lifespan being an issue. You have to breeding them with good regularity to keep the population going.The other main reason is the average zoo guest doesn't really care about mice and rats that much.
However there are some zoos that do invest in small rodents, such as Plzen.
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Doesn't really apply to the Malagasy giant jumping rat though as the average lifespan in captivity is listed as being a decade or slightly over (roughly the lifespan of more commonly kept small mammals such as the meerkat, Bennett's wallaby or Asian short claw otter in captivity).

This species is probably in greater need of ex-situ populations than many of the shorter lived and smaller rodents kept by zoos too.
 
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TARDIGRADES.

You can get them out of puddles in just about anyplace in the world. Invest in a decent microscope and projection system. Learn the basics of how to find, maintain, and interpret them. Get together a team of volunteers and education staffers to present them, and you have an exhibit of a creature as adorable and interesting as a koala or panda for a millionth of the cost.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Doesn't really apply to the Malagasy giant jumping rat though as the average lifespan in captivity is listed as being a decade or slightly over (roughly the lifespan of more commonly kept small mammals such as the meerkat, Bennett's wallaby or Asian short claw otter in captivity).

This species is probably in greater need of ex-situ populations than many of the shorter lived and smaller rodents kept by zoos too.
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True, the likely problem there is garnering enough interest. A lot of people dislike any rat, regardless of how endangered it is unfortunately. The black and brown rats have given all the rats a bad name to the general public due to diseases and destructive habits. This is unfortunate given there are many quite interesting rats, such as the pouched rats and the Maned Rat. It could be beneficial to set up some good education programs displaying how not all rats are bad, and seeking to draw interest to the endangered species.
 
Great Argus said:
True, the likely problem there is garnering enough interest. A lot of people dislike any rat, regardless of how endangered it is unfortunately. The black and brown rats have given all the rats a bad name to the general public due to diseases and destructive habits. This is unfortunate given there are many quite interesting rats, such as the pouched rats and the Maned Rat. It could be beneficial to set up some good education programs displaying how not all rats are bad, and seeking to draw interest to the endangered species.
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Yes, I have to agree with you on that, for most people a rat is a rat is rat and equal to vermin. It is hard enough with agoutis in zoos which are rodents but clearly not rats and yet often go mistaken for them by visitors. However, I do think that the Malagasy jumping rat does have a few characteristics in its favour that could increase its appeal to zoo visitors.

It is a monogamous species and humans tend to find animals that practice this mating strategy interesting / endearing due to us also being for the most part monogamous (at least socially monogamous in the case of humans). In addition to this the young stay with the parents for quite an extended period before maturity and dispersal which again is another characteristic that is somewhat "human-like" and could improve their PR image with people identifying with these traits.

It isn't 100 % "ratty looking" having a better look in terms of its appearance and locomotion which with its large ears, sandy coloured fur, loping posture and hopping movement is a little more "rabbity" than a rodent of the size and colouration of a brown rat. When housed with lemur species like the aye-aye or mouse lemur (primates of course like us) as it frequently is in zoos it could appear to be less threatening / sinister.

Perhaps a little over-optimistic of me considering that we as a species seem to have a hardwired aversion to rats but hey some cultures like the Han Chinese (rat talisman in the Chinese zodiac etc.) and the Indians (Hindu temples that venerate the rat) seem to have somewhat overcome this disgust even towards the much maligned brown rat.
 
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Great Argus said:
You are relatively right in the short lifespan being an issue. You have to breeding them with good regularity to keep the population going.The other main reason is the average zoo guest doesn't really care about mice and rats that much.
However there are some zoos that do invest in small rodents, such as Plzen.
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Yeah this is the main issue I think, and combined with lack of interest from the average zoo guest it probably makes most zoos hesitant to want to invest all the time and effort into maintaining colonies. I know Bronx, for example, has colonies numbering in the 50s+ of many of their rodent species. Without high numbers and regular breeding, population collapses can happen fast. The then ties into another complication: having a high enough founding population/large enough established population that holders can all keep larger colonies.

~Thylo
 
ThomasNotTom said:
It's a shame about tarsiers... But I believe that have a tendency to "kill themselves" by jumping into walls and such in captivity... Hence so few collections having success with them.

If anyone knows any more about Tarsiers I'd love to hear what they have to say!
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I did a bit of reading on tarsiers in captivity (quite difficult as a lot of journal papers are behind paywalls and google books only shows excerpts). This is what I found :

It has been estimated that only about 50% of wild caught tarsiers survive in captivity.

It seems that one major factor is "suicide" (not actual suicide in the anthropic sense of willingly deciding to take their own lives but more the accumulated effect of stress induced behaviour which is harmful) which occurs when the animal leaps at hard surfaces and repeatedly causes blunt force trauma to its skull leading to cranial fissures and eventual death. This "suicidal" behaviour is believed to arise primarily in reaction to stressful stimuli like loud noises, enclosures that are too small, too many people surrounding them.

Perhaps these kinds of environmental conditions are very difficult to control in zoos or the tarsiers behaviour in response to what it may one day suddenly find stressful too unpredictable ?

Another major problem is that of effectively replicating their wild diet in captivity. There is believed to be a lack of some essential nutritional or mineral contituent in live insects offered to them in zoos which is present in their wild prey. This can lead to health conditions that cause the deterioration of the health of the animal and eventually lead to death.

Something that I didn't realise is that there are records of some captive tarsiers living up to 10-12 years in captivity (the longevity record is held by a Phillipine tarsier that survived for 12 years at the Philadelphia zoo and kept off-show). However, in most cases survivorship in captivity is typically under five years probably as a result of the factors I described above and the survivorship of offspring born in captivity is also extremely low (89% die before a year old).
 
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I would personally say crayfish are under served, as there are many endangered species. Some zoos hold these species, but very few. Their rivers are especially getting polluted, and I think more zoos need to take action with crayfish.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
I would personally say crayfish are under served, as there are many endangered species. Some zoos hold these species, but very few. Their rivers are especially getting polluted, and I think more zoos need to take action with crayfish.
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There are just as many invasive crayfish species however, some of which are causing quite a lot of damage. Also as far as I know it is very difficult to successfully breed and rear crayfish, which makes pulling endangered species into zoos not necessarily the best option for saving the species depending on the circumstances.
 
Great Argus said:
There are just as many invasive crayfish species however, some of which are causing quite a lot of damage. Also as far as I know it is very difficult to successfully breed and rear crayfish, which makes pulling endangered species into zoos not necessarily the best option for saving the species depending on the circumstances.
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Yeah, that is true. But I mean specifically the endangered species.
 
Great Argus said:
You're just making them more endangered if you can't breed them. Figure out how to do that successfully with common species first and then look at the endangered ones.
Very few crustaceans of any kind are successfully bred in captivity due to planktonic larvae.
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Alright, alright, you stand a point. Just let me type up my dream zoo, okay?
 
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