Which zoo has the best / most diverse suid & peccary collection ?

[Batto]

The program was in German, indeed.

I didn't know about the significance of pigs in Germany or the duality of these animals, interesting, that has to be pre-christian in origin right ?

In medieval competitions, piglets used to be consolation prices that were nevertheless popular among the Germans (who, till this day, love their pork sausages, Eisbein, Kassler, Kotelett, Schweinebraten, Schweineschnitzel, Mettbrötchen etc... you get the drift). Hence the positive association:

However, Austrians and Germans also see pigs in a negative way as well, among others using different terms for suids as swear words, like Ferkel, Sau, Schwein etc.
Just take a look at the German dubbing of the Die Hard series:

The Berliner Schweinehaus doesn't look like much, but is nevertheless a building of zoo - historical importance.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The program was in German, indeed.


In medieval competitions, piglets used to be consolation prices that were nevertheless popular among the Germans (who, till this day, love their pork sausages, Eisbein, Kassler, Kotelett, Schweinebraten, Schweineschnitzel, Mettbrötchen etc... you get the drift). Hence the positive association:

However, Austrians and Germans also see pigs in a negative way as well, among others using different terms for suids as swear words, like Ferkel, Sau, Schwein etc.
Just take a look at the German dubbing of the Die Hard series:

The Berliner Schweinehaus doesn't look like much, but is nevertheless a building of zoo - historical importance.

Well I fully sympathise with the German culinary appreciation of the noble schweine as I'm rather fond of hotdogs, bacon, ham sandwiches / baguettes, fejoiada, carnitas, tortas, chicharron, chorizo etc.

"Yippee-ki-yay Schweinebacke!" even the title is hilarious, a lot of schweines in Hollywood films dubbed into German I imagine.

It occurs to me though that maybe one of the reasons for human uneasiness with pigs is that though we love to eat them they occasionally like to chow down on human flesh too so that inversion of predator / prey may at least unconciously unsetttle us.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

In the USA it has to be Miami, with babirusa, chacoan peccary, warthog, RRH, and visayan warty pig. The only species they're missing are collared peccary, wild boar, Bornean bearded big (only at Capital of Texas zoo), and possibly white-lipped peccary. I think even 3 species in the US is a high number.

Interesting, so it seems like Miami zoo would be the North American equivalent of the Berlin zoo in terms of its suid collection which does sound pretty impressive.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Marwell at one time held Collared Peccary, Vietnamese Pot Bellies, Babirusa, Warthog and a mysterious wild caught Wild Boar (long before they were farmed/reintroduced to the UK he was one of two rounded up by police the female died in capture but he lived for many years and was MASSIVE.

Sadly all 5 are now gone, which maybe proves your point....

I think it is sad that Marwell has lost so many of these species (from the forum I gather that the suid collection is not the only one at Marwell which has declined due to lack of interest).

Sadly according to their website they now longer have even a single peccary or pig species left which is a shame.

By the way tried to find a picture of the mysterious Marwell wild boar in the gallery but was unsuccessful.

In Europe, Chester has more suids than any other collection I believe. They have warthogs, red river hogs, babirusas and warty pigs. However, if you include peccaries into the category at hand, Berlin Zoo ties it.

Yes, Chester definitely have been one of the zoos which have done a lot with suids in terms of ex-situ and in-situ conservation.

I think to some extent this would have been down to Johanna Rode-Margono who no longer works at the zoo but did for a long time and was absolutely brilliant at her job.

Johanna is chair of the IUCN wild pig specialist group and as I understand it has been a driving force in moving conservation of these animals forward.

 

[Batto]

It occurs to me though that maybe one of the reasons for human uneasiness with pigs is that though we love to eat them they occasionally like to chow down on human flesh too so that inversion of predator / prey may at least unconciously unsetttle us.

... which got us the sub-subgenre of pig horror movies among the subgenre of animal horror movies, with "Razorback" as my favourite. And this educational scene in "Snatch" :

One of my best friends was killed by a wild boar, and I had some very close encounters with them. To the point that I do not underestimate them, at all.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

... which got us the sub-subgenre of pig horror movies among the subgenre of animal horror movies, with "Razorback" as my favourite. And this educational scene in "Snatch" :

and of course the film "Hannibal" (not even anywhere in the same league as "Silence of the Lambs" in my opinion) and this scene :

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The outdoor enclosures of the swine house don't look too bad actually and the exterior of the building looks quite architecturally charming

Photo credits to @Maguari.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Species i would Like to See in Zoos are the bornean bearded pig and Giant forest hog.

I would definitely like to see the Bornean bearded pig kept by a lot more European collections.

I am quite shocked that these are down to a single individual in Berlin and especially as I saw the London pair alive and well relatively recently.

The Wilhelma has domestic pig, collared peccari and Sulawesi babirusa and has kept european wild boar.

That is a great collection of suids indeed but I think they could (if they wanted to that is) potentially phase out the domestic pig or wild boar and replace it with Visayan warty pigs.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

The outdoor enclosures of the swine house don't look too bad actually and the exterior of the building looks quite architecturally charming

The inside of the house isn't usually open to the public, either.

 

[Rayane]

I would definitely like to see the Bornean bearded pig kept by a lot more European collections.

I am quite shocked that these are down to a single individual in Berlin and especially as I saw the London pair alive and well relatively recently.



That is a great collection of suids indeed but I think they could if they wanted to potentially phase out the domestic pig or wild boar and replace it with Visayan warty pigs.

The Wilhelma has the ugliest Babirusa exhibit I've seen though.

The inside of the house isn't usually open to the public, either.

It is not indeed but you can see how it looks from the outside, as the door is open right? I remember the interior really well.


Copenhagen is planning on getting Javan warty pigs, so there should be a new interesting species in European collections soon enough, a good replacement for the vanishing bearded pigs.

 

[RatioTile]

Some people in Arizona have Collared Peccaries visit their homes. I’d like to hear more about this.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The inside of the house isn't usually open to the public, either.

There are a lot of shots of the interior in the gallery though were these taken in some kind of event or something ?

The Wilhelma has the ugliest Babirusa exhibit I've seen though.

Couldn't find any pictures of the enclosure on zoochat though haven't looked through the entire Wilhelma gallery yet. I've only found pictures of the animals themselves.

Copenhagen is planning on getting Javan warty pigs, so there should be a new interesting species in European collections soon enough, a good replacement for the vanishing bearded pigs.

Sounds great , an endangered species too so would be good to see it kept ex-situ as long as it is managed well and not left to die out like so many suid species sadly have in recent years.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Some people in Arizona have Collared Peccaries visit their homes. I’d like to hear more about this.

I'm sure it leads to quite a bit of human wildlife conflict.

In São Paulo state, Brazil, peccaries are not present enough in high enough numbers for this kind of interaction to occur.

One suid that does occur a lot here though and causes a lot of problems is the introduced / invasive feral pig.

 

[Rayane]

There are a lot of shots of the interior in the gallery though were these taken in some kind of event or something ?



Couldn't find any pictures of the enclosure on zoochat though haven't looked through the entire Wilhelma gallery yet. I've only found pictures of the animals themselves.




Sounds great , an endangered species too so would be good to see it kept ex-situ as long as it is managed well and not left to die out like so many suid species sadly have in recent years.

You can see the interior of the Pig House as the main door is open but the path is closed with some kind of chainlink thingy.

Couldn't find any picture of the whole babirusa exhibit on google but it consists of two on-show outside pens, 5x5 meters maybe a bit more, between them a bridge that leads you into the Rhino house. Not sure if they have an-show enclosure, but what the visitor can see outside is bare and far from the exhibits in San Diego, in Jihlava or in Tierpark Berlin. The Zoo Berlin's exhibit isn't magnificient but it's part of an old complex and that makes it more pleasant. It is also larger than the ones in Stuttgart. Here is a picture that may help you imagine the exhibit.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

You can see the interior of the Pig House as the main door is open but the path is closed with some kind of chainlink thingy.

Couldn't find any picture of the whole babirusa exhibit on google but it consists of two on-show outside pens, 5x5 meters maybe a bit more, between them a bridge that leads you into the Rhino house. Not sure if they have an-show enclosure, but what the visitor can see outside is bare and far from the exhibits in San Diego, in Jihlava or in Tierpark Berlin. The Zoo Berlin's exhibit isn't magnificient but it's part of an old complex and that makes it more pleasant. It is also larger than the ones in Stuttgart. Here is a picture that may help you imagine the exhibit.

I'm sure that there are better videos than this, but this is one I was able to find of the babirusas and their enclosure at Wilhelma.

As the camera is mainly panning across the ground it still doesn't give the best idea on how big the enclosure is or what it looks like though.

The Berlin babirusa enclosure doesn't look too bad in terms of size though it does lack a naturalism and as these are forest animals it is quite a shame not to see them kept in more wooded paddocks.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

There are a lot of shots of the interior in the gallery though were these taken in some kind of event or something ?

I believe it's a case of one-part "photos taken before it stopped being open to the public", one-part "photos taken by people who have stepped over the chain blocking access to the indoors" and one-part "sometimes the door to the indoors is open, so people can get photos from afar with the assistance of zoom on their cameras".

 

[Rayane]

I'm sure that there are better videos than this, but this is one I was able to find of the babirusas and their enclosure at Wilhelma.

As the camera is mainly panning across the ground it still doesn't give the best idea on how big the enclosure is or what it looks like though.

It may actually be one exhibit, so twice the size of what I said, however, you see them from above, and they're surrounded by 4 concrete walls in a way.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I think that in terms of suid enclosures this one at the Woodland park zoo in the USA is perhaps the best I've seen in the gallery (never seen in person unfortunately).

I think it is really quite an amazing enclosure for Visayan warty pigs:

Another thing I would say is that I love the detail and care put into the signage and the educational content in terms of informing the visitors of the conservation plight of these suids which I think is very impressive indeed :

Photo credits to @Ituri.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

"photos taken by people who have stepped over the chain blocking access to the indoors"

I'm suprised that anyone does that, I suppose there are some hardcore zoochatters who do though.

It may actually be one exhibit, so twice the size of what I said, however, you see them from above, and they're surrounded by 4 concrete walls in a way.

Doesn't sound like such an attractive exhibit the way you've described it.

 

[Rayane]

I'm suprised that anyone does that, I suppose there are some hardcore zoochatters who do though.

Honestly you don't need to step over it to have a good look at the interior.

Other good exhibits, not sure if there is any picture in the gallery :
- Chacoan peccaries exhibit in Tierpark Berlin : spacious and very good looking, the gardening work is very well done. Chaco owls are also exhibited in front of it, completing the chaco feeling.
- The Visayan warty pigs exhibit in Basel, shared with Muntjacs and Indian rhinos. I am not sure the Asian small-clawed otters have access to this side of the exhibit but they share at least part of it with the rhinos. For a rhino exhibit, it looks really good and you have this kind of elevated "island" in the middle for the pigs and the muntjacs to hide from the rhinos.