Unusual animals in UK zoos.

P

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
By 'Unusual animals' I mean ones uncommon in UK zoos, not necessarily rare. A deliberately broad subject so any species at any zoo is valid here without having to start a new thread.

For starters; Bongorob- when you last visited Flamingo Park, did you see a small herd of Wapiti still there? I believe they may be, or are descended from the ones that used to be at Chester. I don't know any other uk zoos that keep them nowadays (whipsnade used to) except perhaps on the odd deer
farm.

secondly- Mangabey Monkeys were at one time common in Uk zoos,then almost died out. Now they are returning. I know of them at the following;

Flamingo Pk. White-naped. 1.1 +1
Dublin. Whitenaped. was 3.2 +?
london. White-naped. new additions. number?
Colchester. Cherry Crowned. about nine animals inc. offspring bred there
Port Lymne. Golden Bellied. 1.1.

Penscynor in Wales at one time held a number of Sooty Mangabeys which I think came from ZSL(inc. some born at Chester) When Penscynor closed, these Sooty Mangabeys 'disappeared' from view. Location?
 
Magellenic steamer ducks Blackbrook 2.2
Black necked crane Blackbrook 1.1
Grey breasted Conure Chester 0.2
Wolverine Edinburgh 1.2
Red billed curassow Chester 2.2
Red bird of Pardise Chester 3.1
Writhed hornbill Chester 1.1 Paignton 0.1
Timor Sparrow Chester 0.0.8
Cabot's tragopan Belfast 1.0 Pheasant Association 2.0
Fiji Banded iguana Chester 1.1
Crocodile monitor Chester 1.1
Rhinoceras Viper Chester 2.0
Komodo Dragon Chester 6.0 London 1.1? Colchester 0.2
Jame's flamingo small group at the WWT centres
Galapagos tortoise Chester 1.3
Panay Cloudrunner London zoo
Tuatara Chester 1.5
Drill Edinburgh, Port Lympe
Sloth bear London 1.2
Mishmi Takin Edinburgh, Marwell
Chinese goral Edinburgh
Japanese Serow Edinburgh
Khul's deer Edinburgh
White lipped deer Edinburgh
Tarictic hornbill Chester,London, Bristol
Lesser antilles iguana Chester, Jersey
Temminck's hornbill London, Whipsnade
Bearded pig London 3.6
Negros island warty pig Chester 2.2, Edinburgh 1.1
Pallas cat Edinburgh, Port lympe+Howletts?
Woolly necked stork London 0.1
Abdim's stork London
Black spur winged goose Blackbrook, WWT centres?
Spur winged goose Blackbrook, WWT centres?
Kirk's dik-dik Edinburgh, marwell?

There are lots of Asian turtles and poison dart frogs that are only kept at a few collections.
Zhou' box turtles and golden coin turtles are examples
 
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Twycross's Aardwolf was a really unusual one for me, but they're kept at Hamerton as well I believe.

Whilst on the subject of Twycross the Bonobos too- they're the only ones in the country. I'm surprised these don't get talked about a lot more.

And Tuatara at Chester - I think there's only 7 zoos outside NZ with them.
 
I think it's even less than that for Tuatara. I only know of Chester, Berlin and San diego. San Diego has a different species to Chester's. They have Brother Island Tuatara I believe.

I've updated my list!!!
 
^Chris^ said:
Whilst on the subject of Twycross the Bonobos too- they're the only ones in the country. I'm surprised these don't get talked about a lot more.

And Tuatara at Chester - I think there's only 7 zoos outside NZ with them.
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Bonobos- Twycross's Bonobos have done very well since their arrival, starting with only about four animals they have bred a number and now have about 10 One was born there during one of my visits- I didn't know until I read about it later but the Common Chimpanzees were screaming and barking loudly and watching the bonobo enclosure- the mother apparently climbed a tree and gave birth to the baby up there.... The only thing I don't like about them is they are heavily plucked on their arms and heads- my guess is this is because they are a very nervous species and suffer from stress, as it doesn't only apply to those at Twycross.

Tuatara- during the 1960's I remember Chester already exhibited a Tuatara in a little individual glass fronted exhibit. I guess that one is probably still there?
 
Another interesting species that used to be quite commonly exhibited, but not anymore, is the Indian Nilgai Antelope. Howletts still have a group, which have been there(or their descendants) since the very early days of Aspinall's keeping animals in his park. (I believe they, along with the Blackbuck, Chital and Sambar deer, may have originated from Sir Garard Twyhrrit-Drake's private collection at Maidstone when it closed). Apart from them, the last group of Nilgai I saw in the UK were at Edinburgh Zoo but I suspect perhaps they no longer have them. Anywhere else?
 
The original female tuatara is still at Chester I think. She laid eggs several times in the old enclosure (now home to Mallorcan Midwife Toads), but the pair were too young to breed.

Nilgai can be seen at Knowsley 32, West Midlands 5.15 and Whipsnade 0.4. I remember seeing them at Howlett's around 10 years ago. Whipsnade used to have a huge herd, but they seem to be scaling things down. Perhaps they intend going into more endangered ungulates. I have heard they would like to keep Indochinese Sika Deer, and considered Philippine Spotted Deer before Chester had them.
 
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Another species are the Grey, Germain's and mountain peacock pheasants
Blyth's tragopan
The world pheasant association holds many rare and unusual species.

I've updated my list!!!!
 
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Seems like the Nilgai is becoming more of a Safari Park species- that's usually a sign the mainstream zoos have passed on their stock and don't intend to keep that species anymore. I forgot about Whipsnade, their Nilgai are in the Asian Plans area- sounds as if they're on the way out there too but a pity if they do let them die out(not 'endangered' enough?) Do you know if Whipsnade still have that small herd of unusual Sika deer that were nearly black in colour- I think they were called Kerama deer- I haven't seen them in recent years.
 
Don't know about the Sika, I'm going in the autumn, I'll have a look.

One animal which is unusual in the UK and which some people may not know about is at Blackpool Zoo. The largest tortoise was originally identifed as an Aldabran Giant Tortoise, but it has now been classified as a Seychelles Giant Grazing Tortoise (Dipsochelys hololissa), a species though to be extinct.

He can be seen in the enclosure by the main entrance, along with a 'real' Aldabra tortoise and African Spurred Tortoises.

Re Wapiti, I last visited Flamingo Park in 1996, I can't remember any wapiti there then. This collection now reports to ISIS, but they apparently do not hold wapiti.
 
This thread seems to be straying away from the original idea. So I propose to name two species which are very common, but are rarely seen in Britain anymore. The Arabian Camel and the Puma.

0.2 camels at West Midlands and 1.1 pumas at Shepreth. Of course there may be more specimens kept at non ISIS institutions, but about 20 years ago both species could be seen regularly all over the place.
 
First post, hello all!

I've just written the wikipedia article for Cotswold Wildlife Park (I have no affiliation to it). Haven't been there since I was a kid but planning a return trip soon.

They have Morelot's crocodiles and white-lipped peccary (recently bred) neither of which are in any other UK collections afaik.
 
The last pumas I saw in Uk were at Newquay Zoo, but I think they have died out now and there are Lynx in the enclosure.

Another place that may still have them is Dartmoor Wildlife Park?
 
Chris79 said:
First post, hello all!

I've just written the wikipedia article for Cotswold Wildlife Park (I have no affiliation to it). Haven't been there since I was a kid but planning a return trip soon.

They have Morelot's crocodiles and white-lipped peccary (recently bred) neither of which are in any other UK collections afaik.
Click to expand...

Cotswold Wildlife Park do have the only White-Lipped Peccaries in Uk. Its a good collection though not that large- the Walled Bird Garden/Marmosets/lemurs area is probably the best part- I also think they have the most informaie website as far as news of their own collection goes. They added wolves last year(from Longleat)- another species not very common in mainstream zoos nowadays- also at Whipsnade, Port Lympne, Highland WP, Dartmoor WP(?) and in several safari parks.
 
They have a small herd of wapiti at Whipsnade, near the chimps.
There is also a pack of five (I think) wolves at colchester.
 
lumpy326 said:
They have a small herd of wapiti at Whipsnade, near the chimps.
There is also a pack of five (I think) wolves at colchester.
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They USED to have Wapiti at Whipsnade as you describe but their enclosure nowadays has Reindeer in it. I haven't seen the Whipsnade Wapiti for many years(am I wrong here? ... hope so)

Colchester wolves- yes, I forgot them, they added a couple recently, I think from Port Lympne? as they were dwindling, and they have bred again since.
 
I visit Whipsnade every year, I can't remember seeing Wapiti. Colchester has Grey Wolves and Iberian Wolves. Unfortunately the latter can only be seen from the train.
 
lumpy326 said:
Sorry, my bad, I was getting wapiti and wisent mixed up!
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Yes, the Wisent are near the Chimpanzee enclosure at Whipsnade. The Wapiti used to live in the wooded enclosure further along on the side of the hill which now has the reindeer. It was always a bad enclosure- just a mess
of trampled mud. At least the reindeer, being smaller aren't so hard on the paddock. I'll bet the Wapiti were either destroyed or sold to a deer farm....
 
I don't like Wapiti. Their wierd sound makes them unlikeable, if that makes sense.

Another few species are:
Chestnut backed thrush Chester Bristol Waddesson bird Garden
Jersey
Chestnut capped thrush (Was kept at Chester)
Andean Flamingo WWT
Gaboon Viper London Chester West Midlands Safari park
American White Pelican Blackbrook
Brown Pelican Blackbrook
Siberean musk deer Edinburgh
Indian Rhino Chester Whipsnade Edinburgh
Persian Onager Chester
Echo Parakeet Jersey 2.0

I'll update this list, like the other one
 
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