Often on ZooChat, conversations around zoo species are framed in regards to the rare species many of us either desire to see or have rightly earned the bragging rights for having seen, along with the occasional expressions of boredom at certain common species. So, the point of this thread is a sort of subversion - what are some relatively common or mildly uncommon zoo species you haven't seen, or perhaps only rarely? What's an animal other zoochatters might complain a little about that you've actually missed out on? I think the easiest mention for me is the Spectacled Bear -- certainly not a rare species, and present at both of my local zoos, but never within memory were they out and about despite multiple visits by their respective exhibits. I think another such example would be the Dall Sheep, present at two of my local facilities until recently, but both long gone and missed. (For the purposes of this thread, I would like to qualify 'common' as a subjective term; it would obviously not be ideal to list a species found in only a few facilities, but I always find it hard to qualify numbers, and there's questions in regards to populations once common but without a high number of current holders, or those common in Europe but not North America and vice versa, etc.)
Atlantic puffin, probably. In terms of numbers, it's relatively rare here in Europe (not sure if it's more common in North America), but given that it's kept at well-visited places like Blijdorp and Hagenbeck, it's arguably a bit unusual that I haven't seen the species yet with around 70 zoos under my belt. Copenhagen acquired the species after I last visited, I visited Hagenbeck in the summer 2016 where there was a break in keeping the species, and I haven't visited any of the other zoos/aquaria. I've seen tufted puffins, though, at the Bronx Zoo. I've also never seen any wild species of lagomorphs in captivity. Honorary mention: Visayan warty pig, which I've only seen in one zoo (Leipzig) despite how common it's become during the last 10 years.
Atlantic Puffin is kept at a small handful of collections in the US, though if you went to the Central Park Zoo while in New York you should have seen some. I've done pretty well at this point getting all of the more common species I was missing under my belt, though if you look at common zoo species in say Asia or Australia then I'll be missing quite a lot. I think the most egregious example of me missing a common species was me having never seen a Jaguar until my 2016 UK trip. ~Thylo
The main common zoo species in Australia that I’ve (rather embarrassingly) missed out on is Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby (I have Brush-tailed and Proserpine tick off though). There are just no local zoos that hold the species. If I were to mention common zoo species from Europe/North America that I haven’t seen it would quite extensive. Note none of these are in Australia at the moment. Some notable absences include flamingo, leopard, jaguar, Giant anteater, Bactrian camel, a next/ salamander/ caecilian species ( bar Axolotl), toucans, hornbills and turacos.
I’ve never seen a Chimpanzee. Astonishing, I know but i’m heading to Wellington zoo (NZ) next month so i’ll hopefully be able to see some there.
I can feel your pain. Living in Aus or NZ means we see some really unusual stuff for Northerbln Hemisphere folks but our import rules mean we miss a lot of stuff as well, especially birds but increasingly mammals as collections downsize and homogenise. 10 or 15 years ago quite a few of the species you mention were still present somwhere in Australsia but gone now. Aucklands has flamingos if you ever end up there. When I went to my first overseas zoo amongst my main impressions were toucans and hornsbills.
For me, the species that immediately comes to mind for this is the common chimpanzee! I have visited a number of facilities that house or used to house the species, but they have continually been no-shows for me. I am not a huge fan of primates, but I think it is quite ridiculous that I have never seen a common chimpanzee!
I’ve never seen quite a few ungulate species that I believe are very/fairly common in the US, but not Europe/Asia (Excluding Germany, where I’ve never been) in my experiences; -Lesser Kudu -Springbok -Giant Eland -Takin -Nile Lechwe -Gerenuk -Cape Buffalo..
The only one of these I'd say is common in the US is the kudu and maybe Sichuan Takin. Overall Europe has many more takin with three subspecies represented. Giant Eland, Gerenuk, and Cape Buffalo are really only held in a handful of collections. ~Thylo
