Animals You've Seen That Few Zoochatters Have Seen

I only saw a few rare ones like spix's marcaw (Loro Parque) aswell as so many other species, I coudn't name in here
Baikal seal (Leipzig)
Chinese Pangolin (Leipzig)
Abyssinian golden wolf (Rheine)
Amazon Riverdolphin (Duisburg)
Blue-Eyed black Lemur (Appenheul)
San- Francisco Gartersnake (Münster)

 

I think this could be summed up in part as the 'Baby Phenomenon'. Despite being the only one, basically any zoochatter in Europe with the means to do so has seen a river dolphin. Similarly although Berlin and Plzen hold countless rarities, most of those rarities have been seen by large numbers of zoochatters. Even the spotted linsang at Chengdu was seen by almost all Chinese zoochatters. What we are probably looking for are either rarities seen at small zoos nobody really visits, or stuff seen in the wild.

 

I'm sorry.... I'm confused.....What does this say?? Spoons?? It's late....

 

Would be interesting to say the least. Given there's 6 groups (Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates - probably could just say herps here though), I wouldn't mind taking half if you wanted to do the other half. Would give us a rough idea of some of the rarest and least seen species among Zoochatters!

 

Who said I completed the thread?

 

There's a tame one on one of the Islands, maybe he saw that one?

 

Let's just say things aren't quite over yet.

 

So I bolded ones I've seen in the wild, and made red the ones I've never seen.

Seems like you have at least 8 mammals on me! I have some work ahead of me haha.

 

The vole was seen wild by coincidence. The beach mouse was seen at Noah's Ark in Europe of all places, who received one from a private collection. The kangaroo-rat was at CALM. The gerbil was at Bronx, yes, but long gone now.

~Thylo

 

Ah I actually tried seeing that same mouse at Noah's Ark, but I arrived on the one day of the week they're closed (and no sneaking in this time lol!) I even spoke to an employee I saw there to try to convince that an exception be made- but no luck!

What year did you see the kangaroo-rat at CALM? Did you have similar troubles seeing the gerbil at Bronx- ever get a photo?

 

I visited CALM in January 2018. I don't remember the gerbil well, this was when I first started zoo-going so no photos.

~Thylo

 

Noahs used to have a group of them, never did manage a decent picture, the little buggers moved like lightning

 

I’ve seen...

Shoebills at San Diego zoo Safari Park
Tuataras at Dallas zoo
Hawaiian monk seals at both Minnesota zoo & wakiki aquarium
Kangaroo rats at Henry doorly zoo
Darien pika at Minnesota zoo
Transcaspian urial at both Minnesota zoo & saint Louis zoo
Goitered gazelle at Minnesota zoo
Kodiak bears at Lake Superior zoo
Bush dogs at Detroit zoo
Dholes at Minnesota zoo
Kagus at San Diego zoo
California condors at San Diego zoo
Rock wallaby’s at Henry doorly zoo

 

Pretty sure a lot of people have seen all of those... most of them are easily seen.

 

I'm probably a poor judge of what's a true rarity by zoochat standards, as I've never had the financial ability/time for traveling that a lot of zoochatters seems to have had. I think there's a bit of a gulf between serious enthusiasts and the more average folks, in terms of what's considered particularly difficult to see, aka "rare". Not that I begrudge anyone that, as y'all have a habit of taking great pictures for me to check out

With that said, I can come up with a short list of species that I've seen people mention in various threads. Or species that are, as far as I know, not super accessible.

Black-footed Cat - Fresno Zoo
Bush Dogs - Sequoia Park Zoo
Great White Shark - Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mountain Tapir - LA Zoo
Speke's Gazelle- Fresno Zoo
Walrus - Marine World (now Six Flags Discovery Kingdom)
Yellow-billed Magpie - LA Zoo (these were also common backyard birds for me growing up in Merced County, CA)

If we're talking wild animals:

Falcated Duck - (a wild vagrant from Russia/Mongolia, in Colusa Wildlife Refuge)
2, maybe 3 subspecies of Ensatina salamander here in California and Oregon
Fisher - rural Humboldt County
Giant Kangaroo Rat- Carrizo Plain National Monument
Kit Fox - Carrizo Plain National Monument
Phainopepla - Tulare County

Likely several other bird species I've seen would be considered rarities too, but I'm not up to trawling through my old eBird records right now.