i thought it would be fun to have a thread with all those animals that are not on show elsewhere in the world but not here in blighty. this is a chance for u ozzies to gloat a little at all those wonderful monotremes and marsupials you will not give us. mammals, duck billed platypus, any sort of tree kangaroo, tasmanian devil, wombat, vampire bat, douc langur, proboscis langur, pacarana, brown hyena, giant panda, banded linsang, northern sea otter, stellers sea lion, walrus, elephant seal, baikal seal, manatee, kulan, bairds tapir, giant eland, bontebok, impala, gerenuk, saiga, nubian ibex, argali. birds, brown kiwi, shoebill stork, storms stork, openbilled stork (asian and african), harpy eagle, hooded crane, kagu, sulawesi red knobbed hornbill, superb lyrebird, any other kind of bird of paradise (excluding the reds at chester). one or two there to think of anyone else wish to add?
probably not much. i imagine the UK would have every exotic we have and whilst we could speel-off a list of obscure native creatures like the marsupial mole - but then again not even our zoos keep them!!!
Blackpool used to have Quokka, and may still have the odd wallaroo but they have probably all died out. Kilverstone used to have Tayra, Grison, Black Saki. Thrigby used to have Smooth-coated otter, lesser tree shrews and hog badgers. Howletts kept Marbled cats for a while. London had Bennett's and Single-wattled Cassowary until the late 80s. Cotswold used to have Thompson's gazelles, which we haven't had since. All these are now gone from the UK to my knowledge.
Whipsnade also used to have a good herd of Thompson's Gazelles, about where the Red River Hogs are nowadays. I have a postcard of them too. Do you know if Cotwold's were the same group? -its sad that animals like this are no longer exhibited.
I believe Edinburgh and Belfast exhibited Springbok about 20 years ago. I don't know of any currently in the UK.
blackbrook are currently building an enclouser for openbilled stork's asain i think although i have no more details on this
Please get more details!!! I love Open bills. Try to find out, where they are coming from? How many? When it will be open? It will be great!!
Thanks for reminding me. South Lakes did put springbok on ISIS sometime last year. I was going to go and see them but they were removed from ISIs within a few weeks. Grant thinks Blackpool may have had springbok too. Perhaps he's right. I can't remember seeing springbok anywhere, but I did not visit Blackpool between 1979 and 1986.
i realise this list could go on and but what i would like to know is what species we would like to see in our collections, over the past few years our zoos have been broadening the spectrum of species in their collections. as mentioned above open billed storks could be coming, edinburgh zoo when building their congo forest exhibit advertised yellow backed duikers as being part of the exhibit.
I would like to see more antelope species for the mammal side of things, eg impala and hartebeeste. I would like to see shoebill and kagu also.
i have always been surprised at the amount of safari parks and zoos with african plain exhibits and we have not had any impala since marwell in the early eighties as well as white tailed gnu.
I saw white-tailed gnu at Blackpool in 1974. I'm surprised this species is not kept in more collections.
I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but the male white-tailed Gnu they had at Marwell was just about the most aggressive animal in a zoo anywhere. Totally crazy, always 'fired up' and it would charge the fences repeatedly. I believe he injured at least one of the females too. Do you know if Blackpool's were the same animals? Marwell did not keep them very long.
That post of the most aggressie animal has ben taken up by Alfred!! The male Tarictic at Chester. He's evil!!! I have the ZOO Book. I'm sure most of you have it, but it shows a white tailed gnu in a lovely enclosure in a german zoo.
with africa alive bringing in blesbok, edinburgh bringing in lesser kudu, port lympne bringing in defassa waterbuck and marwell bringing in saharawi dorcas gazelle, and chester still possibly bringing in persian goitred gazelle over the last couple of years maybe we will see more, does anyone know what species chessington are bringing in for their savannah exhibit. Marwells plans for their african bowl include "hybrid giraffe", roan antelope and nile lechwe which is part of their masterplan this will probably be a drive through exhibit on the back of old army trucks.
That seems odd, for Marwell to invest in an exhibit for hybrid giraffe, Roan antelope (their animals are also hybrids), and some lechwe! I'm surprised Marwell continues to breed so many giraffe when only a couple of females are not hybrids out of the whole herd. In terms of conservation value, and the message they project, you would expect them to reduce their hybrid stock and divert funds into endangered antelope.
