Endangered species you wish zoos tried to preserve

In talking about the purpose of zoos in another thread, I brought up the tooth-billed pigeon as a species I wished zoos would try to conserve but which gets no attention, AFAIK. So here's my list of bird and mammal species (like most people, I'm sadly biased towards birds and mammals and know relatively little about conservation of other species) I'd like to see zoos trying to save (whether through captive-breeding programs, conservation partnerships, or both).

Species marked with an asterisk (*) are species I believe zoos could potentially use as the face of their conservation program. They may not be as large as the tiger or panda, but the meerkat has demonstrated that small species can also be charismatic.

Birds

1. *Tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris)
2. *Madagascan serpent-eagle (Eutriorchis astur)
   
3. *Forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti)
4. Junin grebe (Podiceps taczanowskii)
   
5. *Long-whiskered owlet (Xenoglaux lowery)
6. Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo)
   
7. Sumatran ground cuckoo (Carpococcyx viridis)
   
8. Subdesert mesite (Monias benschi)
9. New Caledonian owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles savesi, possibly extinct)
   
10. Titicaca grebe (Rollandia microptera)
11. Congo bay owl (Phodilus prigoginei)
12. Masked finfoot (Heliopais personatus)

Mammals:

1. Both species of solenodon (Solenodon spp.)
   
2. All species of long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus spp.)
3. Smokey bat (Amorphochilus schnablii)
4. Bulmer's fruit bat (Aproteles bulmerae)
   
5. Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus)
6. Volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi)
7. Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furness)
8. Hainan moonrat (Neohylomys hainanensis)
9. Ethiopian water rat (Nilopegamys plumbeus)
10. Pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus)
    
11. All species of Ryuku spiny rat (Tokudaia spp.)
12. Both wild chinchillas (Chinchilla sp.)

What about you guys? What endangered species you wish zoos would give more conservation attention to (and exhibit if possible)?

 

Maybe Dingiso.

 

Both South East Asian rhino species.

 

Some endangered birds that are having little to no conservation efforts took efforts in conserving them:
Giant ibis
New Zealand storm petrol
Caleo
Dwarf olive ibis
White collared kite
White eyed river Martin (Possibly already extinct)
Peruvian diving petrol
Australian painted snipe
Nahans francolin
Sulu hornbill
Purple winged ground dove
Sangihe shrike thrush
Bahia tapaculo
Eskimo curlew (Possibly already extinct)
Bannerman's turaco
Ashy storm petrol
White throated storm petrol
Dark winged trumpeter
Zapata rail
Sulu bleeding heart
Makira woodhen
Kittliz's murrelet
Udzungwa forest partridge
Long whiskerd owlet
Crow honeyeater
Banded ground cuckoo
Flores hawk eagle
Tachria antpitta
Becks storm petrol
Blue eyed ground dove
Javan trogon
Pulitzer's long bill
Pernambuco Pygmy owl
Jamaica petrol
Wood snipe
Rio de Jenerio antwren

I like this thread! I love tooth-billed pigeons which I would really like to work with.

 

The species I have marked in pink* are unlikely to do well in captivity (although in situ breeding might be more successful for some, eg volcano rabbits seem to do better in zoos at high altitudes). Echidnas seem very difficult to breed, although progress is being made, and very little is known about some of the others.

I think the Madagascar pochard mighty be a possible candidate, as ex situ breeding could support the in situ programme.

* expand the quote to see the full lists

 

Why aren't solenodon highlighted in pink?

 

I considered it, but I put them in the little known category - as far as I know it's been a long time since a solenodon was kept in a zoo. I have spent the last 43 years regretting that I didn't attempt to photograph the Hispaniolan solenodon that I saw at Frankfurt in 1973, although the light was poor and it was waddling around its exhibit in a rather vague manner

 

A larger amount of amphibian species would be extremely good.

 

I expected the echidna, Junin grebe, and the New Caledonian owlet-nightjar to do poorly in captivity based on our current husbandry knowledge, but I basically put together a list of animals I thought it would be nice if more conservation efforts were put towards, and there happens to be a lot of overlap with species I think might make good ambassador species for zoos.

In particular, while the owlet-nightjar is an owlet-nightjar rather than a parrot, it reminds me in a lot of respects of the kakapo and the night parrot. I was therefore thinking that a strategy similar to that used to preserve the kakapo might work, with attempts made to relocate surviving animals to predator-free islands off the coast of New Caledonia. (It would certainly be expensive, but I'm always staggered by the amount of money big name zoos spend on big-name species.)

With the Junin grebe I know that there seems to be something about Lake Junin in particular that it needs to breed (and even then will only breed in certain years), but if we could crack what that is we might be able to replicate that in captivity more easily than finding suitable conditions in another lake.

With the pygmy three-toed sloth, I thought that zoos were capable of keeping three-toed sloths, it's just that the two-toed are easier and a sloth is a sloth to most people? However given that its main threat is habitat destruction by local people, it seems like the easiest way to save it would be to give the local people an incentive to preserve the sloth. But keeping a few in zoos if possible might be helpful for awareness, if zoos promoted them.

I didn't know the volcano rabbit was difficult to breed in captivity. And why do you think the Amani rabbit and Titicaca grebe would fare poorly?

 

Owlet nightjars have been bred in zoos, but if I remember correctly they eat flying insects (moths) which is awkward. 3 toed sloths also have specialised diets (unlike 2 toed sloths). Lagomorphs and grebes are notoriously hard to keep in captivity. The volcano rabbits at Jersey bred pretty well, but did not live very long. High altitude species are often susceptible to respiratory problems, which would also be a risk with your grebes.

 

Owlet-nightjars have bred in zoos, but the New Caledonian owlet-nightjar seems to be more cautious around humans from what I've read than, say the Australian or barred nightjar. In that respect it reminds me of the night parrot. (Kakapos are conversely quite unafraid of humans, but I think their conservation strategy might work for the owlet-nightjar.)

Also, I'd like to add the crow-honeyeater and possibly the related ma'oma'o--two birds I only just learned about today--to the list of birds I'd like to see receive more conservation attention and possibly be present in zoos. In particular, the crow-honeyeater is neat looking, it's native to New Caledonia (whose fauna I'm obsessed with) and in the EDGE top 100 birds (a list I swear I've been over half a dozen times), yet I don't think I was was aware of it until today.

 

Jeez, so many I wish.

Andean Mountian Cat
Kakapo
Eastern Lowland Gorilla
African Golden Cat
Mountian Nyala
Ethiopian Wolf
Pygmy Hog
Northern Pudu
South and North Andean Deer
Cape Mountian Zebra
Chobe Black Rhinoceros
Southwestern Black Rhinoceros
West African Giraffe
Nubian Giraffe
Angolan Giraffe
Indochinese Tiger

 

Due to a number of issues, three-toed sloths don't do well in captivity. The only facility that I'm aware of currently with a three toed sloth (outside of their native range) is the Dallas World Aquarium, who has kept a male named Leno since 2005 and a female named Lucky before that.

DWA blog post about them: Bradypus variegatus at the DWA : Dallas World Aquarium

Pygmy three toed sloths are studied even less. DWA tried to import 8, to international disapproval. They almost made it, except the public blocked them from entering their plane or learning their car. Alas, the near-riot that ensured caused two of the sloths to lose their lives. It may be for the better- now studies are being carried out and little by little, we are understanding them.

 

Pygmy hogs were a species that I thought of as well, DragonDust. There is a captive breeding program set up in India; the AZA was planning to import several individuals from them as a collaborative effort and establish an international population. For reasons unknown to me, it never happened, which is quite a shame.

Some general animal groups that I'd like to suggest: palm civets, lorises, and pangolins (many threatened species, visually striking, biologically interesting, huge potential for education and connection to conservation issues in Southeast Asia). More Malagasy species would be beneficial as well: carnivores besides fossa, more mantella frogs, more birds, etc.

A species that I think would have huge potential in zoos: giant armadillos. There is at least one zoo that keeps them, Bioparque Los Ocarros in Villavicencio, Colombia. There could be more in Latin America. That, along with rescue facilities, could provide founders and husbandry information.

 

I have already mentioned Crow-Honeyeater... Anyway maybe we should formulate a list in order of animals that need the most urgent attention, right down to animals that need the least amount of urgent attention.

 

I think someone's already thought of that

http://www.iucnredlist.org/search

 

ZooDOM, the Dominican Republic's National Zoo, actually maintain Hispaniolan solenodons off-show.

There are currently at least three other collections with giant armadillos; one is private in Brazil, one is at a Brazilian municipal zoo which hasn't yet been named, and another is Santa Cruz Zoo in Bolivia.

 

I find the EDGE Species list more useful myself.

 

Where do you think the GE score comes from?

And I don't really understand the reason for your preference. Is it simply that EDGE lists include species not featured in WWF advertising campaigns? As the link above indicates, so does the IUCN's.

PS. The literature on this topic is extensive and I certainly haven't read it all, but several of your questions can be answered by heading to the source: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000296&type=printable

 

Neat, thanks for the paper! And it's because I think ED species are generally more important to preserve. I consider the loss of the Carolina parakeet a greater loss than the loss of the heath hen and the loss of the Labrador duck a greater loss than either. Though the Labrador duck was more evolutionarily distinct than the passenger pigeon, the passenger pigeon was a keystone species and I consider it a greater loss.