Zoo Animals Populations that will Expand in the Future

My prediction is that it will be something small or medium sized, diurnal, attractive (either cute and fluffy or beautifully coloured), easy to keep and usually living in a group. It will help if it also has a link to the popular media or is generally known to the public in some other way.
Meerkats fill all these criteria, stars of TV natural history documentaries and advertisements in the UK. Red river hogs, oriental small-clawed otters and giant anteaters meet most of them. Unfortunately the CGI platypus in the HSBC ads is not going to follow the meerkat trend (too hard to keep and the Aussies are not going to let any out of the country either).
If the next Jo Rowling gives his/her hero/heroine a pet brush-tailed possum or a Top100 corporation features a terrestrial tree shrew or a black lemur in series of commercials we will see them in new exhibits in our zoos within a year :)

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
My prediction is that it will be something small or medium sized, diurnal, attractive (either cute and fluffy or beautifully coloured), easy to keep and usually living in a group. It will help if it also has a link to the popular media or is generally known to the public in some other way.
Meerkats fill all these criteria, stars of TV natural history documentaries and advertisements in the UK. Red river hogs, oriental small-clawed otters and giant anteaters meet most of them. Unfortunately the CGI platypus in the HSBC ads is not going to follow the meerkat trend (too hard to keep and the Aussies are not going to let any out of the country either).
If the next Jo Rowling gives his/her hero/heroine a pet brush-tailed possum or a Top100 corporation features a terrestrial tree shrew or a black lemur in series of commercials we will see them in new exhibits in our zoos within a year :)

Alan
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This illustrates just how the zoo community is fickle and subject to fashion, or more correctly consumer pressure.
 
Giant anteaters in Europe are breeding like rabbits now, mixed metaphor there surely, time to include Australasia in the population.
 
I think that giant anteater is already expanding (at least in Europe), since it is present in at least 67 zoos in Europe (wich can be considered as criterium for expanded in my opinion), but it's number of European zoo population stood at about 150 individual animals (in 2015, not 90-100) (78 in 2008), wich number would not be accepted as one of expanded species in zoos.

There is no official or objective definition for expansion of zoo animal species in zoos (in respect to distribution in zoos, and in zoos from different countries/regions, and in respect to number of captive population). But can we propose some definition?

Also meerkats would be expanded because they are well represented in many zoos.

With bonobos, although their population in Europe is more than 115 individuals (quite big number), and approximately the same number in United States of America, their distribution remains poor (only held in 10 zoos in Europe (6 German zoos) and in 5 European countries.

I think Carl Jones is right about giant panda; It has big potential to become wide spread species in zoos, only Chinese should soften their politics about giant pandas outside China; in China in captivity there are more than 300 animals.

Also some animals that I think will expand/(or are expanding) in zoos in near future:

-Cuban crocodile (currently held in 22 zoos in Europe)
-Great blue turaco (because of attractiveness and hopefully breeding successes will improve)
-Drills (16 holding zoos in Europe, approximately 85 animals)
-Gelada baboon (24 holding zoos in Europe, approximately 200 animals)
 
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gentle lemur said:
If the next Jo Rowling gives his/her hero/heroine a pet brush-tailed possum or a Top100 corporation features a terrestrial tree shrew or a black lemur in series of commercials we will see them in new exhibits in our zoos within a year :)

Alan
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Well then the answer is simple, someone here just needs to start a business selling things people need/didn't know they needed and make the mascot a Giant pangolin or something:D;)
 
kiang said:
Giant anteaters in Europe are breeding like rabbits now, mixed metaphor there surely, time to include Australasia in the population.
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Was the invention of proper captive diet a prerequisite for successfull keeping and breeding, I am wondering? As I remember reading EAZA nutrition conferences I think there were quite big problems about creation of appropriate diet for them in zoos?
I am so happy for them, so attractive fluffy animals.
Ah, how you mean about Australasia?
 
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Carl Jones said:
This illustrates just how the zoo community is fickle and subject to fashion, or more correctly consumer pressure.
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Rereading my post, I think that perhaps it seems more cynical than I intended.
Zoos depend on the income from their visitors, so they have to compete with alternative attractions in their local area, and to a certain extent, with any other zoos, public aquariums and farm parks nearby. Inevitably this means that zoo managements have to provide new attractions each year to attract the public to visit and then revisit regularly. The obvious way to do this is to build new accommodation and bring in new species, either something entirely new or refreshing an old exhibit. Incidentally there are other ways, such as new facilities like playgrounds or displays of animatronic dinosaurs etc. Ideally a zoo would like to have to several new features ready by Easter if possible, plus the obvious attraction of some baby animals.
I think it is inevitable that there will be fashions in new exhibits, a successful exhibit in one zoo is bound to attract attention and quite possibly imitation: good ideas are bound to catch on. Some years ago the trend was lemur walk-throughs; currently lorikeet walk-throughs with public nectar feeding are on the increase. There is nothing wrong with this, indeed anything that gives zoo visitors a better experience must be welcome.

Alan
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
I think that giant anteater is already expanding (at least in Europe), since it is present in at least 67 zoos in Europe (wich can be considered as criterium for expanded in my opinion), but it's number of European zoo population stood at about 90-100 individual animals (78 in 2008), wich number would not be accepted as one of expanded species in zoos.
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Actually the population number was at least 151 in 2015. :) so happy for that
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
Was the invention of proper captive diet a prerequisite for successfull keeping and breeding, I am wondering? As I remember reading EAZA nutrition conferences I think there were quite big problems about creation of appropriate diet for them in zoos?
I am so happy for them, so attractive fluffy animals.
Ah, how you mean about Australasia?
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Actually the diet has been in place for quite a few years now, developed more or less by Dortmund Zoo. The reason for the "boom" in giant anteaters is that the growth curve is an exponential one.
 
gentle lemur said:
Rereading my post, I think that perhaps it seems more cynical than I intended.
Zoos depend on the income from their visitors, so they have to compete with alternative attractions in their local area, and to a certain extent, with any other zoos, public aquariums and farm parks nearby. Inevitably this means that zoo managements have to provide new attractions each year to attract the public to visit and then revisit regularly. The obvious way to do this is to build new accommodation and bring in new species, either something entirely new or refreshing an old exhibit. Incidentally there are other ways, such as new facilities like playgrounds or displays of animatronic dinosaurs etc. Ideally a zoo would like to have to several new features ready by Easter if possible, plus the obvious attraction of some baby animals.
I think it is inevitable that there will be fashions in new exhibits, a successful exhibit in one zoo is bound to attract attention and quite possibly imitation: good ideas are bound to catch on. Some years ago the trend was lemur walk-throughs; currently lorikeet walk-throughs with public nectar feeding are on the increase. There is nothing wrong with this, indeed anything that gives zoo visitors a better experience must be welcome.

Alan
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These are important observations and give us an insight into how zoo s work and what drives them.
 
Carl Jones said:
These are important observations and give us an insight into how zoo s work and what drives them.
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I think added to that process you will have the personal interest and commitment to certain species has an impact as well. Staff changes often have an impact on these parts of the collections.
 
DDcorvus said:
I think added to that process you will have the personal interest and commitment to certain species has an impact as well. Staff changes often have an impact on these parts of the collections.
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This is a very important point. Even though many zoos are meant to have a collection plan, curators have a major impact upon the collection composition. This is particularly true for some of the species that typically are lower profile. This can be a very good thing and many curators have developed wonderful conservation initiatives based upon their own interests. However we also see the good work done by one curator undone by a subsequent one.
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
-Drills (16 holding zoos in Europe, approximately 85 animals)
-Gelada baboon (24 holding zoos in Europe, approximately 200 animals)
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Both these species are definately on the increase. In the UK there are now several holders of each species, yet a decade or so ago there were none and neither species had been seen in our Zoos here since the 197O's

I think both have been limited by small initial numbers rather than any difficulty breeding them- they could potentially reach the same numbers in zoos as Mandrills and Hamadryas Baboons if their populations have reached the point where they now start to expand rapidly.
 
Pertinax said:
Both these species are definately on the increase. In the UK there are now several holders of each species, yet a decade or so ago there were none and neither species had been seen in our Zoos here since the 197O's

I think both have been limited by small initial numbers rather than any difficulty breeding them- they could potentially reach the same numbers in zoos as Mandrills and Hamadryas Baboons if their populations have reached the point where they now start to expand rapidly.
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As nicholas mentioned about giant anteaters, they are in exponential growth of the captive population.

But has any wild imports for both species occurred since 1970s from Africa, do you know Pertinax?
 
Nikola Chavkosk said:
As nicholas mentioned about giant anteaters, they are in exponential growth of the captive population.

But has any wild imports for both species occurred since 1970s from Africa, do you know Pertinax?
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Exponential growth was the term I was looking for.;)

I do not know if any fresh wildcaught animals have entered these populations during that period. I somehow doubt it. However I know that for Drill, at least one (captive) male was obtained from Rabat zoo in Morocco as new genetic input for the European population, some years ago, and similarly male Geladas have been imported from the USA into Europe.

There are now something like 60 Geladas in about 5 collections in the UK, and about 18 Drills in four collections in the UK. The first individuals of both species for about forty years appeared between ten and fifteen years ago.
 
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@Nikola, just a heads up, Ethiopia currently does not permit any animals to be exported from Ethiopia. That's why we have no Mountain Nyala, Simien Fox, Big headed mole rat, etc...
The geladas we have are descendants of geladas that were taken out of Ethiopia before the ban began
 
@savethelephant:
Actually, San Diego managed to worm their way into getting some Ethiopian mountain vipers. I don't know much about them but I think they've got eight, which are now breeding.

I'll post some animals that the AZA is phasing in soon.
 
@savethelephant

Also Poicephalus flavifrons has "suddenly" appeared in Europe. Even though it seems they have been within a very select circle for some years and have been breeding well. So if they keep continuing that they would be a nice addition to any Ethiopian exhibit.
 
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