Wildlife in Zoos - 2013

Pertinax said:
I'll bet their HQ is the Borneo longhouse/waterway area with those stagnant-looking ponds and the waterditch by the road. Sounds like Twycross is joining Colchester and SL as 'Zoo Rat capital' in the UK.
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There were only a few around the Longhouse aviary; the largest numbers were actually near the Bonobos and parrots. Huge rats, fighting noisily and coming quite close to us.
 
Hamerhaai said:
Apenheul in the Netherlands is a great place to see wildlife. Last year I've seen newts, an Eurasian nuthatch with a nest and a stag beetle. There are a few places in the Netherlands where stag beetles can be seen so I would consider this as my most special wildlife encounter in a zoo. The guidebook says there also live grass snakes, viviparous lizards, slow worms, Eurasian kingfishers, butterflies and many other animals.

In Burgers' Zoo I once saw a common raven in the lion exhibit. A few weeks later I heared one but I couldn't find it.

Artis is a great place to see ring-necked parakeets and grey herons. I don't think I have ever seen so many grey herons in one zoo.
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Years ago there was also a wild-feral population of Monk parakeets at Apenheul. Do you know if they are still there ?
 
Smithsonian National Zoo:
* Deer in American Trails.
* Mallard ducks in beaver exhibit (the keeper said they were wild, but come to get food and lay their eggs there every year).

Buffalo Zoo:
* Cat in the Addax exhibit.
* Rabbits in the Rocky Mountain big horned sheep exhibit.
 
At NZ zoos, there are a number of common native and exotic bird species, as well as rats, mice and rabbits, and probably also ocassional reptiles and amphibians, that are frequently seen in zoos.

At the Auckland Zoo I saw a wild White-faced Heron on the outside of an aviary containing a captive White-faced Heron, the two were quite close and clearly interested in each other.

I've also seen an Oran-Utan catch a wild blackbird, and seen a decapitated seagull in the Chimpanzee enclosure (both at Auckland Zoo). At Prague zoo I saw a pigeon that had been killed by otters.

Any other wild/captive animal interactions seen in zoos?
 
@vogelcommando, the monk parakeets are no longer there. They currently only have free ranging ara and rainbow lorikeets.

My best wilflife sightings apart from birds are: a smooth snake in Bojnice, a swallowtail in Bratislava and a striped field mouse in Berlin.

Both artis and rotterdam also have many night herons free ranging that could be called "semi-wild"
 
Disney's Animal Kingdom is where I saw the most native wildlife. I remember seeing gray squirrels, black vultures, white herons, mallards, ibises, and a cardinal. In Omaha I've seen cottontail rabbits in the aviary and thirteen-lined ground squirrels around Pachyderm Hill. I also remember a mallard hen outside of the aviary calling to one inside and one of them sounded distressed (I know this is anthropomorphizing but it's the best way to describe the sound). I have also seen plenty of mallards in the koi pond. I wouldn't be surprised if they had white-tailed deer or raccoons roaming around at night given their location. In the Hogle Zoo I saw Canada geese in the Elephant Encounter and in a little pond outside the primate house.

Hopefully in 2013 I will visit more zoos and see more wildlife in them.
 
devilfish said:
Is this thread limited to 2013?

I came across ridiculous numbers of brown rats at Twycross today, as well as a number of common garden birds.
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That would make me not want to visit a zoo if there were a bunch of rats running around. Isn't that a pretty big disease risk for the animals?
 
elefante said:
That would make me not want to visit a zoo if there were a bunch of rats running around. Isn't that a pretty big disease risk for the animals?
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I go all the time and I've only seen rats twice and I can't say I've noticed their presence there any more than anywhere else.

Wildlife sightings this year:

Woburn - red kites, black and grey squirrels, plus numerous native birds especially gulls, crows and robins.

Monkeyworld - rabbits, buzzards, robins and sparrows. (I usually see much more native wild life at Monkeyworld than this but it was very very cold).

Twycross - robins, starlings and a variety of other native birds
 
At the Dallas Zoo, I saw a squirrel sneak into the cage of the harpy eagle. Let's just say that it barely escaped with its life.

Plenty of bluejays and cardinals.

I never saw it, but there was once a bobcat. It found a home in the Wilds of Africa exhibit. It killed four antelope before it was finally caught. Instead of killing him, he was placed in quarantine, then placed in Cat Row. Still there today.
 
cleusk said:
At the Dallas Zoo, I saw a squirrel sneak into the cage of the harpy eagle. Let's just say that it barely escaped with its life.

Plenty of bluejays and cardinals.

I never saw it, but there was once a bobcat. It found a home in the Wilds of Africa exhibit. It killed four antelope before it was finally caught. Instead of killing him, he was placed in quarantine, then placed in Cat Row. Still there today.
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Why didn't they release him into the wild?
 
I saw plenty of bobcats, possums, raccoons, armadillos, and even a coyote in the Wilds of Africa.
 
elefante said:
Why didn't they release him into the wild?
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According to the DMN article that I read, the only other option was to kill the cat. And the keepers said that they didn't want to kill him. Of course, it could be that the zoo didn't have a bobcat, so why not take advantage of the situation.
 
cleusk said:
According to the DMN article that I read, the only other option was to kill the cat. And the keepers said that they didn't want to kill him. Of course, it could be that the zoo didn't have a bobcat, so why not take advantage of the situation.
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I have a hard time believing that. I think the zoo just took advantage of the situation.
 
elefante said:
I have a hard time believing that. I think the zoo just took advantage of the situation.
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Sounds like that to me, too. I'm sure there were plenty of places to release the animal back into the wild. According to your story the cat displayed no signs of agression towards Humans and only did what they do everyday- hunt prey animals. The zoo just wanted a Bobcat so they decided to keep it.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Haller Park in Mombasa(Kenya) has a troop(or troops) of Vervet monkeys running around the park, and I believe the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe has free-ranging vervets too. If i'm not mistaken, I think the Kisumu Impala Sanctuary(Kenya) has free-ranging vervets and baboons :eek:
 
I haven't seen them, but the water surrounding the primate islands at Naples Zoo has a family of North American River Otters. Keepers have to place food for the primates up high so the otters don't go and steal the food. In addition, there is an annual rookery of Great Herons in Alligator Bay, and several other bird species frequent that exhibit.
 
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At the Toronto Zoo I've seen lots of birds including goldfinches, swans, and lots of Canada geese. I've also seen groundhogs a few times in the Canadian Domain and Eurasia exhibits.
 
Has anyone ever seen the two American Beavers that live in the Bronx River just outside the Bronx Zoo? I'd think the monorail would give you the best opportunity to see them but there's a lot of liter around there.

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Sounds like that to me, too. I'm sure there were plenty of places to release the animal back into the wild. According to your story the cat displayed no signs of agression towards Humans and only did what they do everyday- hunt prey animals. The zoo just wanted a Bobcat so they decided to keep it.

~Thylo:cool:
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There's more to the bobcat story. A rather complicated situation, but needless to say, it did end up on display (though, I'd rather have had the Suni he ate).
 
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