Your Best Lifeticks of 2024

Mine personally seems underwhelming in comparison to the ones I have seen here, but big highlights of my year:
- Polar Bear
- Shoebill Stork
- Steller's Sea Lion
- Lowland Anoa
- Arabian Oryx
- Gaur
- Snow Leopard
- Kea
- Mountain Goat
- Gabon Viper
 
Best new mammal: Saharan striped weasel
Best new bird: Hard choice, but I guess jabiru.
Best new reptile: Arboreal alligator lizard


I saw ''only' 5 new mammals in captivity in 2024:
- Saharan striped weasel (Nürnberg)
- Pine marten (finally) (Innsbruck)
- Lesser long-nosed bat (Karlsruhe)
- Styans red panda (Zoo Houston) (When considered a seperate species)
- Damara molerat (Zoo Houston)

Also saw 2 new mammals species in the wild in Nicaragua (and probably some bats that I wasn't able to ID)
- Big-eared climbing rat
- Unknown Proechimys sp

I saw 18 new bird species in 2024 in zoos:
- Croaking ground-dove (Nürnberg)
- Trumpeter finch (Nürnberg)
- Rock ptarmigan (Innsbruck)
- Lesser whitethroat (Innsbruck)
- Wallcreeper (Innsbruck)
- White-winged snowfinch (Innsbruck)
- Citril finch (Innsbruck)
- Tucaman amazon (Karlsruhe)
- Splendid glossy starling (Pakawi Park)
- Jabiru (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Collared forest-falcon (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Tropical screech owl (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Swainsons hawk (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Great black hawk (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Black hawk-eagle (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Double-striped thick-knee (Nicaragua National Zoo)
- Whooping crane (Houston Zoo) (my 15th and final crane species)
- Grey catbird (Houston Zoo)

I saw 60 new bird species in the wild, but that list may be too long to post here.
Some lifers include black skimmer, short-billed and long-billed dowitcher, scaly-breasted hummingbird, long-billed hermit, black-headed and gartered trogon, white-tailed kite, snail kite and white-collared puffbird (new bird family!)

I also saw a couple of bird species in the wild for the first time that I did see in captivity before, including ring-necked duck, blue-winged teal, fulvous whistling duck, southern lapwing, ferruginous pygmy-owl, crested caracara, white-throated magpie-jay and blue-backed grassquit. Ironically I saw a blue jay for the first time in the wild, and then in captivity about two hours later.

Reptiles: 17 new species in 2024 (13 captive, 4 wild)
Amphibians: 7 new species (6 captive, 1 wild)

Total numbers on 31.12.24:
696 mammal species (97 wild)
1822 bird species (705 wild)
699 reptile species (70 wild)
176 amphibian species (25 wild)
 
I had quite a good year for lifers in 2024.

Captive Highlights: Tasmanian Devils, Chinese Pangolin, Birds of Paradise, Brazilian Mergansers, Lear's Macaw, North American Porcupine, North American River Otter, Kiang, Himalayan Tahr (Prague Zoo).

Wild Highlights: Common Dolphin, Minke Whale (UK), Spinner Dolphin, Manta Ray (Maldives), Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Sri Lankan Leopard, Golden Jackal, Ruddy Mongoose, Toque Macaque (Sri Lanka)

Thanks to a couple of fellow ZC'ers for advice on some of the wild sightings!
 
I suppose that would be my journey to Suriname.

- Catching a wild Green anaconda
- Many tree frogs and small lizards not found in captivity, including Manaus spiny-backed frog, Red-snouted treefrog and a very rare subspecies of the Three-striped poison frog
- Leatherback sea turtle
- Guyana dolphin
- Various other animals common in captivity but still very cool to see in the wild (Cuvier's dwarf caiman, White-faced saki, Green iguana, Golden tegu, Cane toad, Turkey / American black vultures, Common squirrel monkey, Brown capuchin, Agoutis, etc)
- Various animals rare in captivity that were very cool to see in the wild (Giant ameiva, Blue-grey tanager, Great kiskadee, Rainbow whiptail, Guianan red howler, Great tinamou, Three-toed sloth, some form of Hummingbird which I couldn't recognise)
- Various fish and invertebrates that were mostly difficult to recognise, but the ones I could recognise include (Brazilian fiddler crab, Amazonian giant centipede, Banded leporinus, Krioba cichlid, Guppies, Four-eyed fish, Yellow-kneed skeleton tarantula, Megasoma beetle, Giant colonies of Leafcutter ants and Tree-dwelling termites)

Other than that there was also a zoo which wasn't much to write home about. Better than some Tropical zoos I've seen in the gallery, and clearly doing their best with very limited funds, but still not all that great. They did have Red brocket deer which are quite rare, as well as a few rarer fish but without signage I couldn't tell you which ones...

I also went to Zooparc Overloon but the two main rarities (Bloody Bay poison frog and Crab-eating raccoon) were both very well-hidden
 
I also went to Zooparc Overloon but the two main rarities (Bloody Bay poison frog and Crab-eating raccoon) were both very well-hidden

Interesting, I saw both species on both my visits last year.
The frogs are tiny, but with some patient you should be able to find them.
The raccoon was very active for me both times as well.

I guess you need to return to Overloon!

That being said, my 'would have been new species' misses of 2024 were African pied hornbill (Heidelberg), Madagascan big-headed side-necked turtle (Houston), Anegada rock iguana (Houston), Carvalho's Surinam toad (Karlsruhe), Lemur leaf frog (Karlsruhe), Demonic poison frog (Heidelberg) & Red-banded poison frog (Karlsruhe)
 
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