You can bring back one extinct species to your local zoo

In spirit with the original intent of the thread, I'll stick to one animal per zoo, and stick to the Cenozoic, but I'm gonna stretch the definition of "home zoo" by a few kilometers; let's say zoological parks I can more-or-less easily travel to without taking a plane.
  • Barcelona zoo (real home zoo): A bit difficult to add anything to the cramped zoo, but if I think the area of the former Aquarama could make a good area to exhibit Chalicotherium goldfussi, a classic European extinct mammal that would cope well with the heat.
  • Bioparc Valencia: To enrich its Madagascar area, I think adding a paddock for the elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus) would be a great idea.
  • Oceanografic Valencia: There's no better animal to keep in the former walrus exhibit than the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) (Though I was also considering the dodo for the islands, and the Steller's sea cow in an outdoor exhibit)
  • Reserve Africaine de Sigean: The guide states they eventually want to phase out the Asiatic black bears to focus on African fauna. As sad as that is to me... Megantereon whitei would be a great substitute, being the premier African sabretooth cat.
 
Dinosaur - Triceratops

Before the year 0 - Sabre-Toothed Cat

0-1499 - South Island Giant Moa

1500-1899 - Steller's Sea Cow or Aurochs too hard to pick which one

1900-1999 - Carolina Parakeet

2000-2022 - Zanzibar Leopard
Forrest Galante Found undisputable evidence that there is at least still one Zanzibar Leopard in 2018
 
Let's see...for Detroit I would say one of these three species.

1. Beelzebufo: A giant frog from cretaceous Madagascar, renovating a portion of the amphibian house for these would wow guests.
2. Smilodon: A classic but popular choice, they would either go where the wolves are or a new habitat would be constructed for them on the American Grasslands picnic site.
3. Thylacine: My dad's choice, if they were brought back, I'd put them in the unused area by the cassowaries and Sloth Bear.
 
For the Los Angeles Zoo I would recommend the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) or Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) since the zoo seems to have a dedicated aviculture program and they were one of the contributors in saving the California Condor from extinction . Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) can be another bird option since it’s charismatic and has the potential to be a big ticket animal. I also picked the Passenger Pigeon to represent old native LA wildlife, or we can say screw controversy and add Mammoths into Elephants of Asia to showcase Elephantidae of CA/LA!
 
My local zoo is technically Baton Rouge Zoo, but I prefer Audubon Zoo and it is still close enough to visit regularly, so I'll go with that instead. That being said, I think I would go with one of the many extinct bird species from the La Brea tar pits. The zoo already keep whooping cranes as part of a conservation program, so I would expect that they could take other bird species, especially Grus pagei which is even in the same genus as the whooping crane. Other possible picks include the Californian turkey and the La Brea black vulture
 
Dreadnoughtus schrani to São Paulo zoo

Why? Cause it would be mad funny.



Slightly more serious, my answer would be Eremotherium laurillardi, a Giant sloth could still find it way in the modern world and cause positive impacts in the ambient, alongside the fact that Eremotherium was found all the way down on southern Brazil to Florida, which would probably mean a higher adaptability over other extinct animals and specially to Megatherium.
 
I'm going to go ahead and throw in an oddball, an animal very long extinct with no chance of being reintroduced into the wild: The Arthropleura Armata for Burgers' Zoo

BZ is famous for its greenhouses and replicated environments, and I think they'd make wonderful work of a high-oxygen habitat for this colossal millipede.

As an alternative I think the Dodo would also be great in BZ, they do love their pigeons and already have its two closest relatives, the Nicobar pigeon and the Crowned pigeon free-roaming in the Bush greenhouse
 
I would go with the largest of the elephant birds, Aepyornis maximus, from Madagascar for Zoo Planckendael and the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) from Mauritius for Zoo Antwerpen, because those are the two extinct species I would most like to be able to see.
 
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I could’ve gone the easy way and add some animals into Dinoland USA… However, since that part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is slowly going the way of the dinosaurs, I’m going to go with the Schomburgk’s Deer (Rucervus schomburgki) for the Maharajah Jungle Trek instead.

Not only would it pay homage to the Eld’s Deer that used to live in the enclosure where the Schomburgk’s would go; but it would also help revitalize the activity that’s currently lacking in that part of the trek.

Also, I’m certain that Disney’s got plenty of spare money to bring back extinct animals to life; though, I’m not sure if they would bring back the Schomburgk’s Deer as their first option. :p
 
Singapore zoo would be a perfect place to house Arabian ostriches, Saudi gazelle and Syrian wild ass. They can even be housed in the same habitat.

River Wonders can maybe hold a Sarcosuchus, but really just want Chinese Paddlefish and the baiji. Maybe a small javan stingaree exhibit

Night Safari can hold javan/bali tigers, kouprey would be amazing, Formosan Clouded lepoard, or any extinct South-east asian megafauna.

Bird paradise can just hold any of the extinct birds around. But imagine a free flight aviary with haast’s eagle. In fact, just have an aviary to the plethora of the (sadly) extinct new zealand/ australian birds

For rainforest wild asia just slap in Gigantopithecus.
 
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