Zoobat Collections (N. America)

Another update for this list, with some structural modifications. From this point forward, all bats at public animal facilities in Canada and the U.S. count; doing this for the sake of completeness and consistency. I'll try to mark bts bats where I can for now. I might also start including Mexico in subsequent drafts, depending on info availability.

Since people are still posting about insectivorous bats with some frequency on here, I'm thinking I might as well incorporate them into the list somehow. If I can get a confirmation of which places are currently keeping insectivorous bats on-display, that seems like a good starting point. I still think counting bts rehab bats is more effort than it's worth, but that's a topic for later discussion.

Rodrigues flying fox (Pteropus rodricensis) - 16 holders
Akron Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Lincoln Children's Zoo
Louisville Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Moody Gardens
Oregon Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Prospect Park Zoo
Pueblo Zoo
Riverbanks Zoo
San Diego Safari Park

Large/Malayan flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) - 7 holders
Busch Gardens Tampa
Columbus Zoo
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Lowry Park Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
National Aviary in Pittsburgh
Oakland Zoo

Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) - 12 holders
Baton Rouge Zoo
Boise Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Houston Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Metro Richmond Zoo
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Sedgwick County Zoo
Topeka Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo

Island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) - 5 holders
Brevard Zoo
El Paso Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Oakland Zoo
Turtle Back Zoo

Little golden-mantled flying fox (Pteropus pumilus) - 3 holders
Columbus Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

Grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) - 2 holders (1 BTS)
Lubee Bat Conservancy
National Aquarium in Baltimore (bts)

Spectacled Flying Fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) - 1 holder
Lubee Bat Conservancy

Straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) - 27 holders
Akron Zoo
Brevard Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Busch Gardens Tampa
Calgary Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Detroit Zoo
Elmwood Park Zoo
Franklin Park Zoo
Hogle Zoo
Houston Zoo
Jacksonville Zoo
Kansas City Zoo
Lake Superior Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Lowry Park Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Metro Richmond Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
Minnesota Zoo,
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Oregon Zoo
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Racine Zoo
Sacramento Zoo
Saint Paul's Como Zoo
Toronto Zoo
Tulsa Zoo

Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) - 18 holders
Bird Kingdom
Blank Park Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Capital of Texas Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
GarLyn Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Lubee Bat Conservancy
Lupa Zoo
Memphis Zoo
Minnesota Zoo
Moody Gardens
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo
Oregon Zoo
Rosamond Gifford Zoo
Timbavati Wildlife Park
Toronto Zoo

Ruwenzori long-haired fruit bat (Rousettus lanosus) - 8 holders
Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary
Bear Creek Sanctuary
Boise Zoo
Franklin Park Zoo
Lincoln Children's Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
Minnesota Zoo
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo

Common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) - 13 holders
Audubon Zoo
Buffalo Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Denver Zoo
Louisville Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
North American Wildlife Park (Hershey, PA)
North Carolina Zoo
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Texas State Aquarium

Greater bulldog bat (Noctilio leporinus) - 2 holders
Memphis Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

Greater spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus) - 3 holders
Assiboine Park Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Peoria Zoo

Pale spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus discolor) - 1 holder
Miami Zoo

Pallas's long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina) - 3 holders
Houston Zoo
Mesker Park Zoo
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo

Lesser long-tongued bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) - 1 holder
Fort Worth Zoo

Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) - 11 holders
Cameron Park Zoo
Detroit Zoo (bts)
Edmonton Valley Zoo
Houston Zoo
Miami Zoo
Miller Park Zoo
Potawatomi Zoo
Roger Williams Park Zoo
Tulsa Zoo
Vancouver Aquarium
Wildlife World Zoo

Seba's short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) - 29 holders
Akron Zoo
Assiniboine Park Zoo
Audubon Zoo
Busch Gardens Tampa
Catoctin Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Denver Zoo
Detroit Zoo (bts)
Elmwood Park Zoo
Gladys Porter Zoo
Henry Vilas Zoo
Houston Zoo
Jacksonville Zoo
Lake Superior Zoo
Lincoln Children's Zoo
Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Memphis Zoo
Miami Zoo
Miller Park Zoo
Moody Gardens
Nashville Zoo
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo
Potter Park Zoo
San Antonio Zoo
Staten Island Zoo
Stone Zoo
Tulsa Zoo
 
Roger Williams' Jamaican Fruit Bats are bts now unfortunately, and I think Prospect Park exhibits Straw-Colored Fruit Bats now instead of Rodrigues but I'm not 100% sure on that. You missed Mexican Free-Tailed Bat at San Antonio as well.

~Thylo
 
Prospect Park Zoo did indeed exhibit straw-colored fruit bats when I visited in July this year. We didn't see any Rodrigues flying foxes.
 
I'm surprised on how many bat species are in captivity in North America (way more than I thought). Gotta visit Omaha for rare bat species in captivity.
 
drill said:
Does anyone know if Sulphur Creek Nature Center still keeps bats?
Click to expand...

I have been there several times over the last few years and have never seen any bats on exhibit. They are a wildlife rescue operation, so they may have bats in their wildlife hospital that are subsequently released back into the wild.

Did they exhibit bats in the past? It may be possible that they have bats as education animals behind the scenes, but they have no public bat exhibit that I have seen.
 
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DavidBrown said:
I have been there several times over the last few years and have never seen any bats on exhibit. They are a wildlife rescue operation, so they may have bats in their wildlife hospital that are subsequently released back into the wild.

Did they exhibit bats in the past? It may be possible that they have bats as education animals behind the scenes, but they have no public bat exhibit that I have seen.
Click to expand...
Do they have any special species (non-bats of course)?
 
Very interesting list! A little help:
  • Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, CA) keeps 1.0 Indian flying fox named Bacardi.
  • Sacramento Zoo's straw-colored bats are kept behind the scenes but are sometimes used in the stage shows.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
Is that the Leptonycteris yerbabuenae? The one that is otherwise only in Mexican zoos?
Click to expand...

A bit of further information on that particular Mexican colony and zoo. As far as I know , it is only a single Mexican zoo (Zoologico Los Coyotes) which keeps this species. I was present and spoke with staff from that zoo when they first arrived. They were originally captured by the famous "batman" Dr Rodrigo Medellin and there were quite a few obstacles to overcome in getting them settled into life in captivity. As I understand it a number of the original group of these bats consequently passed away but as a result of this lessons were learned and it seems knowledge about their husbandry has since been greatly improved.

That said as far as I know it has in the long run been a success and I think it is a very successful exhibit and novel concept to display these creatures to the Mexican public and increase awareness of their plight. The problem is that of the three zoos in Mexico city owned by the Federal government it is Los Coyotes which is the least visited by the public (and often the least appreciated institutionally).

Interestingly , around the time that the bat exhibit came into being I remember speaking to members of staff from Los Coyotes Zoo who told me that the long-term plan was to model it on several zoos in the USA such as Disney's animal kingdom and the Bronx zoo. This seemed to me at the time and still seems to me to be an unrealistic , unsustainable and ultimately a kind of silly idea given the chronic lack of funding to achieve this and the fact that Los Coyotes will always play second fiddle to Chapultepec in terms of prioritization (unless of course it is privatized and that in itself is a bit of a pandoras box).
 
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More Updates

Common Vampire and Seba's at Jacksonville and Seba's at Oklahoma City.

@TheMightyOrca posted a photo of what is probably an Egyptian Fruit Bat at Gladys Porter, anyone know if that is an on or off-exhibit species for them? I know that they have nocturnal species, but unclear about where they are kept.

Pittsburgh holds Jamaican in addition to the Seba's.

Palo Alto Junior Musem & Zoo holds Straw-colored and Egyptian.

@geomorph also posted in the Denver Zoo species list "Big Fruit Bat" which lives alongside Seba's. Having seen a video of the exhibit and bats inside, along with knowing it is a South American themed area, I've concluded that "Big Fruit Bat" probably means Jamaican, although I've never seen that name used for them before.

@ThylacineAlive: I went back and noticed that in this thread (Bat Diversity in Zoos) you noted seeing Pallas's long-tongued bats at Bronx. I assume this was either in the now-closed Primate House or also-closed World of Darkness; do you know if Bronx still has them off-show or were they sent to another colony?

And from this thread (List of rarest species in US?): @drill, can you confirm when you saw bats at those places and whether they were on-display or not? Don't need exact dates, just want to know if it was in the past 3 years or so.
 
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