What's the coolest species you've seen in 2023 so far?

[LiSom]

My list so far is just birdies! Blyth hornbill, great rhinoceros hornbill, palm cockatoo and red tail cockatoo.

I also saw a less than 24h old baby of common hippo, a very typical animal in zoos yes but seeing such a young baby was cute!

 

[AndyJ08]

While diving in the Gulf of Mexico, on a reef. I saw several species of fish that I haven’t seen in the wild before. They are:
Bermuda Chub
Blue Chromis
Bluehead Wrasse
Orangespotted Filefish
Stoplight Parrotfish
Striped Parrotfish

 

[Prochilodus246]

I think the coolest wild species in terms of looks I have seen this year may have been the Black arches moth (Lymantria monachal) It made it even better that it was a lifer, this species doesn’t occur in my home county and it made my friend who is a moth fanatic jealous as he hasn’t yet seen one.

Whereas the coolest captive species has to be the Purple x yellow tang in which I posted on the Animals You've Seen That Few Zoochatters Have Seen thread due to its super rare status and how it is the first time this hybrid has been created with only twelve in the entire world to date.

 

[DaLilFishie]

It's a tough choice to pick just one, but I think I have to pick my lifer Day Octopus!
https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/day-octopus-octopus-cyanea.668258/

 

[Slyhk]

The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) at the Beijing Zoo whilst on holiday.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

Nothing insanely rare here, but I was able to add quite a few really exciting species to my life list thanks to Brights Zoo a few months back.

• Tayra
• Black-backed jackal
• Lowland paca
• Gemsbok
• Azara's night monkey

All were great and impressive in their own way, but if I had to pick just one, I'd say the tayra truly stole the show.

 

[Nick van Eeuwijk]

I would say the Quokka's at Stuttgart Wilhelma Zoo, last weekend.

 

[MonkeyBat]

It's been a blessing and a curse being in the know about what species are considered rare in captivity, as some people have seen with my "zoo sadness" thread. 2023 has been a great year so far however with rare species!

• Bush hyrax
• Black headed trogon
• Great kiskadee
• Pale vented pigeon
• Morelet's crocodile
• White lipped peccary
  
• Jaguarundi (common elsewhere, rare in the US)
• Jabiru

I don't really have any other big zoo trips coming up, maybe Blank Park where I can see the rare birds there. Next year though I expect to have another huge trip

 

[The Jasmine Dragon]

Grauer’s gorilla, macaroni penguins, two huge cane toads in Antwerp and the aye-ayes in Dublin.

 

[BenFoxster]

American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)

• RatioTile
• 15 Mar 2023

Wild in Bryant Park, New York City. 03/2023.

I've seen some cool stuff so far this year, like brown-throated three-toed sloth, tuatara, paradise flying snake, and Guianan red cotinga. But my favorite accomplishment thus far was seeing a wild American woodcock (Scolopax minor) in Bryant Park, Manhattan, after nearly an hour of searching.

Wow, brown-throated sloth, tuataras, flying snakes!? This is an impressive list!

 

[BenFoxster]

The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) at the Beijing Zoo whilst on holiday.

Lucky, must have been a phenomenal experience!

I would say the Quokka's at Stuttgart Wilhelma Zoo, last weekend.

Awesome, these animals are on my bucket list, I'm still hoping quokkas eventually make it to the US like the platypus duo at San Diego Safari Park.

 

[BerdNerd]

For me, it would be the Northern Gannet. This particular individual was brought to the rehab center I volunteer at injured, and stayed for a few weeks before being released. Although a relatively common species in North Carolina, it was still such a great experience to see one so close up for the first time.




Honorable mentions:

Eastern Mole (Lakeside Nature Center)
American Oystercatcher (National Zoo)
Gray-Necked Wood Rail (Topeka Zoo)
Blackburnian Warbler, Golden-Crowned Kinglet, Snow Bunting (Wild)

 

[splendens]

This deep sea sole is probably one of the coolest captive species I have seen.

Other cool species I have seen are,
Candy basslet, Odontanthias katayamai, Bandit angelfish, Hawaiian deep water anthias, Peppermint angelfish, Neptune grouper, Hagaruchi's butterfly fish, Roa modestus, Undescribed anthias sp., Rose veiled fairy wrasse, Laysan albatross, Most of the deep sea species in Monterey, Socorro dove, Slender horned gazelle, blunt nosed leopard lizard, fiji banded iguana,
tomistoma and a few others in captivity.

Humpback whale, red-flanked bluetail, red headed woodpecker, mountain quail, pacific loon, red footed booby, yellow breasted chat, townsends solitaire, red crowned parrot, one of the ensatinas, douglass squirrel and swinhoe's white eye wild in California.

 

[aardvark250]

Surely Blakiston's fish owl, in terms of rarity.

Coolness though, bearded seal take the cake just look at those long beards.

 

[pachyderm pro]

Far and away the biggest surprise of the year was seeing my first and perhaps only fanaloka at Nashville last month. For those unaware, the zoo imported a pair last year who promptly gave birth to the individual pictured below. They are usually kept off-exhibit, but after politely asking some members of the ambassador team who were out walking some goats, one of them radioed the fanaloka's keeper who brought him out for a few minutes. To say it was a cool experience would be an understatement.

 

[King of Komodo Dragons]

In zoos This year I have seen Hamadryas Baboons, Binturong, Snow Leopards, Grizzly Bears, Indian Rock Pythons, Malayan Flying Fox, Amur Leopards, Chacoan Peccary, Halmahera Python, Diana Monkey, Black Tyrant Hawk, Maned Wolf and American Elk for the first time, also got to see some other species I really enjoy like Yellow-Footed Rock Wallabies, African Leopards, Anegada Island Iguana, Komodo Dragons, Perentie, Tuatara, Grey's Monitor, Spiny Hill Turtle, Giant River Otter, and more!

for the wild, I saw my first Wilson's Snipe, Sora, and Big-Headed Skinks this year and during my visit to the Galapagos got to see so many cool species, Galapagos Shark, Galapagos Sea Lion, Galapagos Land Iguana, Marine Iguana, Santa Fe Land Iguana, Blue-Footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, Swallowtail Gulls, Lava Gulls, Lava Herons, various species of Darwin's Finches, Several species of Lava Lizard and Galapagos Mockingbirds, Galapagos Hawks, Galapagos Fur Seals, Striped Galapagos Racer, Darwin's Carpenter Bee, Western Santa Cruz Giant Tortoise but the three species that I was super excited to see that I didn't during my 2021 trip was the Red-Footed Booby, Espanola Racer, and Galapagos Albatross

 

[Brum]

Big ones so far this year are Lear's Macaws (loads of them!), Pesquet's Parrots, (active) Eastern Quoll, and African Striped Weasel.

 

[Jakub]

Marbled cat in Al Bustan

 

[RonBurrgundy]

I've seen already some amazing species this year due to the fact that I was at Berlin Zoo already and saw species like the Tuatara or giant panda, ....
Another species I saw was the Island Collared-dove which is only kept at Saerbeck (Wildfreigehege Nöttler-Berg) and nowhere else according to (ZTL).
Seeing the Bornean gibbon at Tierpark Hamm was also nice.

But for me the species I saw outside of a zoo were more impressive. I visited the island of Madeira for two weeks and actually saw bottlenose and spotted dolphins (was even able to swim with the spotted dolphins). Moreover I saw pilot and beaked whales in the wild. Also some of Madeiras endemic species very insteresting to watch.
And I found a piebald roe deer near my home.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

and African Striped Weasel.

If you actually mean African Striped Weasel rather than (as I suspect) Saharan Striped Weasel, I may have to enact some form of unusual and inventive retribution