What are the most common species represented in the zoos of the world?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
We spend much time here discussing what unique or unusual animals are at Zoo A, Zoo B, or Zoo X. That got me wondering if anybody here has ever figured out what the most commonly represented species are in the zoos of the world. Does anybody here actually know?

Meerkats? Macaws? I really have no idea, but would be fascinated to know if anyone does.
 
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Top ten in Europe (going by Zootierliste records):

1. European Fallow Deer
2. Blue Peafowl
3. African Pygmy Goat
4. European Eagle Owl
5. Red-necked Wallaby
6. Snowy Owl
7. European White Stork
8. Emu
9. Common Raccoon
10. Blue and Yellow Macaw

Meerkats in at number 14!

Source (including the full top 100, albeit in German): ZootierlisteHomepage
 
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Maguari said:
Top ten in Europe (going by Zootierliste records):

1. European Fallow Deer
2. Blue Peafowl
3. African Pygmy Goat
4. European Eagle Owl
5. Red-necked Wallaby
6. Snowy Owl
7. European White Stork
8. Emu
9. Common Raccoon
10. Blue and Yellow Macaw

Meerkats in at number 14!

Source (including the full top 100, albeit in German): ZootierlisteHomepage
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Number 14? I'm shocked and i'm pretty sure I won't be the only one...
 
Brum said:
Number 14? I'm shocked and i'm pretty sure I won't be the only one...
Click to expand...

I think in a UK-only list meerkats might come higher. The effect of dozens of central European Wildparks on this list is noticeable - Mouflon at number 12 for instance!
 
Maguari said:
I think in a UK-only list meerkats might come higher. The effect of dozens of central European Wildparks on this list is noticeable - Mouflon at number 12 for instance!
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Mouflon at 12? Now that's even more of a shock! :D
 
Yes, I think that is true regarding the wildpark effect. Although given the amount of stately homes - probably not listed - as well as zoos it wouldn't surprise me if blue peafowl were the most common species in the UK
 
I wonder what would be the most common species in Australian Zoos. Red Kangaroos? Red-necked Wallabies? Emus?

I presume that World's No. 1 is the Blue Peafowl.
 
Does anybody know the most widely spread species in American zoos? Is there any way to search ISIS for this?
 
tschandler71 said:
My guess

African Lion, Bengal Tiger, Brown Bear, Grant's Zebra, Retic Giraffe
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If all zoos are included, it's very unlikely to be as big an animal as those, because small animals are kept at zoos of all sizes whereas big animals only come with bigger zoos.

The highest-placed big cat on the European list is generic (African) Lion at number 37 - the only other animals bigger than the Fallow Deer to place above this are Bactrian Camel (26) and Central European Red Deer (27).


Of your other picks - their European placings are:

49. Amur Tiger ('Bengals' would be listed as generic by Zootierliste and do not make the top 100)
...
73. European Brown Bear
...
94. Grant's Zebra


No giraffe subspecies make the top 100.

As a further point of note, the list has actually changed slightly since yesterday, with Barbary Macaque replaced by Guanaco at #100. Not sure if Guanaco has surged or if another species has overtaken and pushed it down!

Obviously, European zoos are not going to show exactly the same patterns as American zoos, but I think it's unlikely a large ABC is top.
 
The most widely kept small carnivore globally is the Asian short-clawed otter, I suspect mostly because meerkats have not yet invaded all the zoos in South East Asia!
 
Free roaming squirrels! :D
I have never been to a zoo in my life that does not have them (and kids, of course, love them).

If you are talking about animals the zoo actually owns, a lot of zoos here in the U.S. have meerkats. And then again there are meerkats. Also, meerkats seem to be very popular.
 
About a year ago, I completed a search through all the species listed on ISIS. The top 10 species in each category are as follows:

MAMMALS: 1. House mouse 11,097; 2. Seba's short-tailed bat 9106; 3. Brown rat 5430;
4. Goat 5162; 5. Sheep 3792; 6. Red-necked wallaby 3010; 7. Fallow deer 2935; 8. Ring-tailed lemur 2501; 9. Jamaican fruit bat 2452; 10. Egyptian rousette bat 2434
BIRDS: 1. Budgerigar 7922; 2. Houbara bustard 5389; 3. American flamingo 4822; 4. Chilean flamingo 4807; 5. Greater flamingo 4662; 6. Common peafowl 3896; 7. Red jungle fowl 3570; 8. Mallard 2715; 9. Humboldt’s penguin 2624; 10. Zebra finch 2528
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS: 1. Kihansi spray frog 5070; 2. Common slider 4535; 3. Green and black poison frog 2553; 4. Oregon spotted frog 2017; 5. American alligator 1731; 6.
Blue poison dart frog 1607; 7. Houston toad 1443; 8. Yellow-banded poison dart frog 1402; 9. Mission golden-eyed tree frog 1247; 10. Boa constrictor 1244
FISHES: 1. Guppy 4,009,823; 2. Cardinal tetra13,635; 3. Goldfish 7547; 4. Common carp 7477; 5. Nile tilapia 7315; 6. Red piranha 5018; 7. White cloud mountain minnow 2525;
8. Glowlight tetra 2414; 9. Neon tetra 2358; 10. Scaled herring 2128
INVERTEBRATES: 1. Leafcutter ant 10,350,704; 2. Honeybee 409,815; 3. Madagascan hissing cockroach 75,103; 4. Three-colored hermit crab 16,487; 5. Clonal plumose anemone 12,875; 6. Strawberry false coral 12,355; 7. Red-lined cleaner shrimp 11,933;
8. Lightfoot snail 11,094; 9. Black boring sea urchin 10,287; 10. Sunburst diving beetle 10,284

There are quite a few surprises here, but I suspect many are due to a few zoos having large groups of some species, rather than some 'common' species being evenly distributed among collections. I can't tell if the house mice and brown rats include individuals destined to be fed to other animals. Some animals definitely seem to be over-represented, such as various domestic animals and the flamingoes. I have not included the 100,001 Amur tigers that suposedly exist in Seoul as I believe the figure is a typing error; otherwise the tiger would the fourth most abundant species in zoos (after the leafcutter ant, guppy and honeybee.

I compiled the lists using figures from species represented by at least 500 individuals, so I have additional data, if anyone is interested.
 
Dassie rat said:
About a year ago, I completed a search through all the species listed on ISIS.
Click to expand...

I see that is by numbers of individuals rather than numbers of collections holding that species. It is it possible to see how many collections hold a species with ISIS?
 
Hallo Shirukoma

The figures are the number of individuals in the collections listed under ISIS. For example, a colony of leaf-cutter ants can be very large, but the numbers of individuals are estimated. I don't expect that a zookeeper has the time to count every single ant in a colony.

It took me a long time to get these figures, but you are welcome to trawl through the ISIS lists to see how many individual zoos hold a species, but I think this could be even more time-consuming.
 
I would be quite interested in full list, can you PM me? (BTW, your mailbox is full).
 
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