That seems to be quite common in North American zoos (very little European animal representation). I can't think of any zoos in the US or Canada with a dedicated Europe area... as "Eurasia" at the LA and Toronto Zoos are both mostly focused on Asia. I'd love to see a Europe exhibit at a North American zoo. I don't think Russia's Grizzly Coast at the Minnesota Zoo counts because 1) it primarily focuses on Asian Russia and 2) North American animals are used as stand-ins.
Zoos with animal species from all continents
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That seems to be quite common in North American zoos (very little European animal representation). I can't think of any zoos in the US or Canada with a dedicated Europe area... as "Eurasia" at the LA and Toronto Zoos are both mostly focused on Asia. I'd love to see a Europe exhibit at a North American zoo. I don't think Russia's Grizzly Coast at the Minnesota Zoo counts because 1) it primarily focuses on Asian Russia and 2) North American animals are used as stand-ins.
cloudedleopard611
Well-Known Member
I'm going to do a couple international zoos to compare to the US. We'll see if other countries have better European collections. They're very tedious but its rewarding and interesting to see the results.
See these threads in regards to why European species are rarer in US zoos:
European animals in North American collections
European Animals in US zoos
European animals in North American collections
European Animals in US zoos
The Antarctic continent includes a number of islands, and there are introduced cats, feral sheep, rabbits, reindeer and brown trout.
Kerguelen Islands - Wikipedia
Kerguelen Islands - Wikipedia
This is correct, it is supposed to be the Russian Far East, hence the presence of Amur Leopard and Tiger.
The only example of that in the exhibit is Grizzly Bear.
Tokyo Sea Life Park comes to mind for me. To give an example for a species from each continent:
Europe - European Plaice
Africa - Natal Angler
Asia - Grass Puffer
Oceania - Leafy Seadragon
North America - Blue Rockfish
South America - Giant Hawkfish
Antarctica - Antarctic Spiny Plunderfish
Europe - European Plaice
Africa - Natal Angler
Asia - Grass Puffer
Oceania - Leafy Seadragon
North America - Blue Rockfish
South America - Giant Hawkfish
Antarctica - Antarctic Spiny Plunderfish
Are there zoos with European exhibits? No. But are there well-represented European species in US Zoos? Yes. Even not including Grey Wolves, Brown Bears, etc., plenty of US Zoos keep scheltopusik, hermann's tortoise, cinereous vultures, and a few other European herps/birds. So Antarctica is still the "limiting continent" for most zoos, especially if for Europe you consider species such as Grey Wolves, Brown Bears, and Red Fox found on both continents.
Furthermore, if we want to talk geography, the validity of the seven continents model should be brought into question. There's little scientific evidence for Europe and Asia as separate continents, with some arbitrary line separating them, especially with India not considered a continent, despite being on its own tectonic plate. So really a better question would be to look at the zoogeographic zones and see what zoos have representative species from all of them.
Isn't the only reason Europe is considered a separate continent since the culture is so vastly different? Technically Isn't that why the term Eurasia is used?
Well "culture" is a rather arbitrary way to determine what is or isn't a continent. Canada and, say, Panama, have very different continents, but are both parts of North America. Likewise with, say, Israel and Vietnam. Eurasia is a fine term to use, and yes, I'd argue that Eurasia is in fact one continent not two. Continents are determined by the actual geography/plate tectonics, not culture.
Yeah, if we're really trying to look at animals geographically, we should stick to the model of 8 biogeographical realms rather than the more arbitrary 7 continent model:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ical-realms-of-the-world-Olson-et-al-2001.png
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ical-realms-of-the-world-Olson-et-al-2001.png
I only observed the lack of dedicated European exhibits, whereas there are dedicated Antarctic exhibits, even if certain small European animals may be more commonplace in zoos than antarctic penguins are currently. Perhaps I should have not addressed this point since the thread title is explicitly addressing 'species' and not 'exhibits', but I don't feel that I was wildly out of turn.
As for the choice of continents, that's not on me, I was using what the original post established. Maybe that was meant as a separate observation but the 'furthermore' made it feel as if it was a response to what I said that was quoted.
I withdraw my original observation. I have only been to six facilities, it was unwise to generalize.
I don't believe it has been attempted much. The question does not pertain to the topic of this thread though, it would be better asked in its own thread or in a thread discussing reintroductions.
Molly
New Member
Oh, thank you
There’s at least one case of a U.K.-born tigress being successfully released in India, following appropriate training
which led to a bit of scandal.
I never knew Palearctic and Nearctic just referred to New and Old World essentially.
Not really. South and Central America are part of the "New World", but are in the Neotropical Zone- not Nearctic. Likewise with Sub-Saharan Africa- part of the "Old World" but in the Afro-Tropical Zone, not Palearctic. If you are only looking at the northern/colder weather areas, then yes- it is a hemispheral split between Nearctic and Palearctic, but both hemispheres have multiple zoogeographic zones on them. Think of zoogeographic zones as where animals could easily travel- as the distinctiveness of wildlife in each area is due to the relative difficulty to travel between zones. For instance, most animals are incapable of crossing the Saharan Desert, making it a logical "barrier" between zoogeographic zone. Likewise with zones separated by seas/waterways, etc. such as the Australasian Zone.
It was more so meant as a general comment/observation on the subject of the thread, sorry for any confusion. It was more related to the topic being discussed, European animals, versus Eurasian animals, and wasn't targeted towards you or any other member, just a point I wanted to mention to whoever may read the response.