Wild wild animals living on the zoo grounds

The most interesting wildlife species on a personal level I have seen on the grounds of a zoo is when I visited Woburn Safari Park back in April. There were a pair of Caspian gulls (Larus cachinnans) in the drive through within the African hoofstock area which were a complete surprise as this is still a relatively uncommon bird in the UK but are increasing year on year it seems.

Another interesting wild species in the grounds of a zoo was when a Black-throated thrush (Turdus atrogularis) turned up at Whipsnade in the winter of 2019. I heard many twitchers were not best pleased that the zoo still was charging admission for them as their soul focus was just to see the bird in question.
 
Apparently, Jerez Zoo has a large (about eighty strong) maternity colony of greater noctule bats on their grounds, which roost under the leaves of California fan palm trees.
Mentioned in this scientific study:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.171140598?doi=10.1073/pnas.171140598

There is also this scientific paper about the wildlife on the grounds of the National Zoological Gardens in Sri Lanka - found during the study were 12 species of amphibian, 22 reptiles (including Indian black turtle and both water and Bengal monitors), 53 bird species, 4 freshwater fish (all alien species), 52 butterflies and 10 mammals (including palm civet, two species of mongoose, painted bat and a six-strong troop of purple-faced langur):
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...ns-Dehiwala-and-its-Environs-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf
 
I thought heron's wild population would be commonly seen in zoos around the world, and from this thread it seems to be true.

In the Korean zoo, oriental grey heron and black-crowned night heron, especially grey heron, are often seen near waterfowl aviary, sometimes they build a nest on the aviary. And unfortunately and funnyly, it was only the zoo where I could see the wild night heron until now.

And it seems to many visitors who see grey heron pacing outside aviary often report to zoo it thinking it was escaped from aviary, maybe because of that, some zoos have attached an explanation saying, "The herons at outside the aviary are not escaped animal."

I could see such explanations at the Seoul Zoo and Dalseong Park Zoo, where the explanation of the Seoul Zoo says, "The grey heron is not an animal kept by our zoo," and the explanation of Dalseong Park says, "The grey heron outside the aviary is a wildlife that came during the breeding season."
 
I’ve seen a wild Red Fox at the Indianapolis Zoo and a wild Coyote at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Edit: I almost forgot but I also saw a White Tailed Deer by the elephant exhibit at the Maryland Zoo. The elephant vocalized and displayed aggressive behavior to the deer, which was a very interesting interaction to watch.

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The first example which comes to mind is Viviparous Lizards at Zoo Zurich. I must have seen five or six during my visit, having only ever seen them on a select few occasions before, as family members in the Southwest have a wall near their house where they can reliably seen, but that is it. However, at Zurich, I saw many in one day, including some venturing daringly close to a Spectacled Bear!

I also saw a Central European Red Squirrel for the first time while walking to Tierpark Hagenbeck, and saw another in the zoo's coati enclosure later that very day. On the topic of squirrels, I saw many melanistic Grey Squirrels at Woburn, which are a rare sighting. It is fitting, as the first one recorded in the United Kingdom was brought over to free-range Woburn Abbey, with the Safari Park lying in the Abbey's grounds.

A common sighting is wild birds gathering at captive bird's enclosures for feeding time. The best example is London Zoo's Penguin Beach, which almost always has Grey Herons gathering around it, but I also saw several Red Kites at the various flight shows at the Hawk Conservancy Trust. Wild Red Kites are also a common sighting at Whipsnade, and I even saw one fighting a Raven at Zoo Magdeburg.

I'm not all that fond of zoos wasting land on nature trails, but the one at Exmoor Zoo is excellent, with the zoo claiming that Slow Worms, Common Lizards and Dippers can all be seen, and even that European Eels breed there. Even though I haven't seen any of those, the setting is lovely.

The best example is a now closed zoo that is set to reopen fairly soon - the Zoo de l'Orangerie in Strasbourg, with both the zoo itself and the surrounding parkland being absolutely full of wild European White Storks!
 
Kalaw said:
I'm not all that fond of zoos wasting land on nature trails, but the one at Exmoor Zoo is excellent, with the zoo claiming that Slow Worms, Common Lizards and Dippers can all be seen, and even that European Eels breed there. Even though I haven't seen any of those, the setting is lovely.
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When done well nature trails at zoos can often be very good but often it's just a space that isn't used by the zoo or the site of a once former enclosure. A good example of a poor nature area is at the Reseheath College Zoo where the site is just a patch of nettles and elder bushes with little wildlife value.

However, a direct comparison is at Chester, where they have a good 10 acres for wildlife and is a genuinely good area that benefits a wide range of species. Tropical Birdland also has a nice woodland trail with carpets of wood anemones in early spring.

It just shows how time spent managing of an area directly for wildlife can bring in species and that leaving the land to its own accord can not always be the best course of action in the case of some areas.
 
Just realised that I have not outlined the wildlife at Colchester Zoo that I have seen before. They also have a nature trail, tucked away behind the tiger enclosures. For the most part, it is too busy to see much of interest, but on a particularly harsh winter I did manage to see a water rail on the reserve, from the road train queuing boardwalk around the bush dogs.
When I did my dissertation data collection on the reserve, there were a huge number of young common toads but they were only really visible off-path.
While I doubt you would ever see them, there are otters on the reserve and the 2023 conservation plan says there will be American mink trapping on the reserve to encourage the return of water voles.

Elsewhere on the zoo site, I have found that bullfinches can sometimes be found in the dense bushes planted around the Edge of Africa area, during winter the waterlogged areas of the Kingdom of the Wild paddock are a very good place to look for grey wagtails, it is now fairly common to see red kites over the zoo and there are currently surveys ongoing at the zoo to identify what species of bats are using the grounds.

Definitely the most unusual wildlife sighting I have had at Colchester Zoo was from May last year - for around nine months, a white stork thought to be a genuinely wild bird (it had no colour rings or feather damage to indicate it was an escaped bird) was hanging around in the area. I saw it in the Kingdom of the Wild paddock, and at first thought it was a new arrival to the zoo's collection. That changed very quickly when it picked up a stick and flew away with it.

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Kalaw said:
The first example which comes to mind is Viviparous Lizards at Zoo Zurich. I must have seen five or six during my visit, having only ever seen them on a select few occasions before, as family members in the Southwest have a wall near their house where they can reliably seen, but that is it. However, at Zurich, I saw many in one day, including some venturing daringly close to a Spectacled Bear!

I also saw a Central European Red Squirrel for the first time while walking to Tierpark Hagenbeck, and saw another in the zoo's coati enclosure later that very day. On the topic of squirrels, I saw many melanistic Grey Squirrels at Woburn, which are a rare sighting. It is fitting, as the first one recorded in the United Kingdom was brought over to free-range Woburn Abbey, with the Safari Park lying in the Abbey's grounds.

A common sighting is wild birds gathering at captive bird's enclosures for feeding time. The best example is London Zoo's Penguin Beach, which almost always has Grey Herons gathering around it, but I also saw several Red Kites at the various flight shows at the Hawk Conservancy Trust. Wild Red Kites are also a common sighting at Whipsnade, and I even saw one fighting a Raven at Zoo Magdeburg.

I'm not all that fond of zoos wasting land on nature trails, but the one at Exmoor Zoo is excellent, with the zoo claiming that Slow Worms, Common Lizards and Dippers can all be seen, and even that European Eels breed there. Even though I haven't seen any of those, the setting is lovely.

The best example is a now closed zoo that is set to reopen fairly soon - the Zoo de l'Orangerie in Strasbourg, with both the zoo itself and the surrounding parkland being absolutely full of wild European White Storks!
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The lizards in Zurich will have been common wall lizards, which are a commonly seen lizard in many zoos in its range, the Alpenzoo and the Wilhelma are also particularly good for them.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
I’ve seen a wild Red Fox at the Indianapolis Zoo and a wild Coyote at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Edit: I almost forgot but I also saw a White Tailed Deer by the elephant exhibit at the Maryland Zoo. The elephant vocalized and displayed aggressive behavior to the deer, which was a very interesting interaction to watch.

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Deer are all over the place there if you look around! I've seen dozens, groups of 6+ sometimes. The one time I tried to go on the train, it couldn't run because of deer on the tracks.
Smithsonian has deer too, but they're much more shy and I don't always see them. The best spots are that open area to the right (if you're heading downwards) in Asia, or behind the gorilla yard.
 
I saw wild Cape rock hyraxes, Procavia capensis capensis, and southern vervet monkeys, Chlorocebus pygerythrus pygerythrus, while visiting the Moholoholo Animal Rehabilitation Centre in South Africa. (The facility is admittedly not a traditional zoo, but a large portion of it functions similarly to one.)
 
Omaha has Franklin's ground squirrel on its grounds, a nice species.

Brookfield used to have a visible population of Thirteen-lined ground squirrels, but I think they are no longer around.

As noted elsewhere on this forum, Shamba Safari has an escaped population of Black-tailed prairie dogs.

While not quite living on 'zoo grounds', Monterey Bay Aquarium has a large population of harbor seals and sea otters visible from the back decks, along with Pelagic and Brandt's cormorants.
 
RonBurrgundy said:
Recently I also saw a video from Zoo-Erlebnis on Youtube at Safaripark Knuthenborg where apparently Ring-necked phesants are very common. In the video a tiger managed to kill one of the wild pheasents.
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Knuthenborg Safaripark is part of a huge manor estate with several other industries/businesses such as forestry and wildlife management, and pheasants are bred there to be used as game birds, which explains why there are so many of them around the zoo grounds. Not that pheasants are a rare sight in the rest of Denmark and temperate Europe, so there are probably many European countryside zoos where they can be spotted.
 
CMP said:
While not quite living on 'zoo grounds', Monterey Bay Aquarium has a large population of harbor seals and sea otters visible from the back decks, along with Pelagic and Brandt's cormorants.
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MBA is certainly one of the best facilities for wildlife watching, even if the wildlife isn't technically on facility grounds for the most part. Not many facilities you can potentially see baleen whales from!
 
Another notable encounter that I failed to mention was at Marwell, where I saw a Water Vole under a raised wooden pathway near the entrance!
Rajang-GOAT said:
Apart from the regular stuff, I have an experience that stands out to me, similar to that shared by @Kalaw- I saw my (I think) first Red Squirrel in Zoo Mulhouse in 2018 or 2019 when I visited there, I was quite surprised by it.
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The only UK zoo that I know of with red squirrels (although a different subspecies to the continental ones) in its ground is Highland Wildlife Park, which have two spots in the zoo (one near the wildcats and one near the reindeer) where they can regularly be seen. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any on my visit, but I did open the kitchen window of my accommodation that morning to see two Red Squirrels, a Green Woodpecker and a Pheasant in our back garden, just a few inches and a pane of glass from where I stood!
 
Helsinki zoo being an island, hosts a variety of seabirds, especially during the mating season when large flocks of oystercatchers, mew gulls, black-headed gulls and barnacle geese nest on the cliffs of the markhor enclosure (and of course in other parts of the zoo). Other seabirds I've seen include great cormorants, common eiders and red-breasted mergansers. Additionaly, I know there are some reports of gray seals being spotted just of the coast of the island, though I've never seen one.
 
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