Famous no-shows.

The water opossum at the Dallas World Aquarium. In the many years they have had one (they've gone through a few) and me visiting regularly, Iv'e only ever seen one twice.

 

Damn! Very jealous!

 

Satin Bowerbirds at Australia Zoo. I have been there several hundred times and I have still not seen a Satin Bowerbird, they were also no shows at the Darling Downs Zoo as well.

 

Maned Wolfs anywhere

 

I have never been to Australia Zoo, but I saw Satin Bowerbirds in Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Taronga Zoo and Sydney Wildlife World. This was in 2009 though so not sure which of these still keep that species.

 

The night herons at Randers Regnskov. They've been there since 2003, and I've been to the zoo at least 10 times since then. I haven't seen them once. I've never had much trouble with spotting night herons in any other zoo, so I'm slowly starting to doubt that the ones at Randers even exist.

I'd like to mention two other animals that aren't no-show at a specific zoo, but in general have some suspicious no-show tendencies in my presence; Asian small-clawed otters and snow leopards.

I've been to many zoos keeping small-clawed otters, and I have seriously only managed to see them in five of these zoos. Everybody else on Zoochat complains that they're an ABC animal that is boring because it can be seen anywhere, and mention that they're popular to ordinary visitors because they're always active. Puzzles me because that's most certainly not my experience with them.

I've been to maybe nine zoos with snow leopards, and they've only shown themselves in four of those zoos. Granted, some species of felines have a tendency to hide, but I don't hear other Zoochatters complain that much about snow leopards being no-shows.

I'll just suppose I was a serial killer of Asian small-clawed otters and snow leopards in a former life, and that's why they avoid me so much.

 

I nominate
kiwi- every zoo I’ve been to that has them
Aye-Aye- for the exception of Cleveland Zoo
Pallas’ Cat- Every Zoo but Columbus

 

Aye-Aye: I saw them on all my visits to Berlin, on my only visit to London and only visit to Frankfurt.
Kiwi: Did not see them in Walsrode. Used to see them in Avifauna, but not lately. Did see them on my 1 visit to Frankfurt.
Pallas Cat: Do usually see them (Rotterdam, Zurich, Jihlava, Berlin and a few others but not certainly noy always)
Small-clawed otters: Almost always see them in my most visited zoos (Amsterdam, Arnhem, Hilvarenbeek, Mechelen)
Snow leopards: Almost always see them, although often asleep or resting.

 

Funny, I have no problems what so ever with them, just as I also always see the tuatara in Berlin. My main problem are kiwi just about everywhere and somehow they always take the Panay cloud rats off-display just before I visit, despite visiting all 3 zoos that have them, they were always behind the scenes when I was around...

 

My first vote goes to the Panay Cloud Rat at the LA Zoo. It is my zoological Bigfoot. There's a sign, there's rumors of it existing, but no solid evidence has arisen. My second vote goes to the Arctic Fox at the San Diego Zoo. I've been many, many times, and have never seen that dang fox. Same goes for the raccoon in the same area, but I care slightly less about missing that.

 

Armadillos NEVER make an appearence when I am around. I continuosly missed them when I visited Copenhagen and Salzburg in the past couple of years. I have only seen them once and that was at a trip to Amazon World in 2007. Even then, I only saw the three-banded ones.

 

ZSL London Zoo has some active armadillo's.I believe they are the six banded subspecies.

 

ZSL London Zoo has hairy armadillos.

 

I am not blessed with Duisburg´s clouded leopards, although I always see them in Dortmund and Wuppertal.

In Dortmund (my home zoo) I have this problem with the European badgers. In my 40 years of visiting this zoo, I have never seen them awake.

Otherwise, I am always lucky to see the Wombats in Duisburg, the Aardwolves in Tierpark Berlin or Arnhem´s aardvarks (I´ve neve seen their bobcats awake, neither the Thomson gazelles in general yet).

 

I have not seen the clouded leopards in Duisburg since the moved to their current enclosure.

I visited Dortmund 3 times, and I did see a badger awake on one of those visists (even got a (not very good) photo of that.

Armadillo's are no-shows sometimes, but I have seen them plenty of times nonetheless (3-banded, 6-banded, 9-banded, hairy).

Last visit to Burgers' the aardvarks were all sleeping, but I did see the bobcat awake and all 4 on-show ringtails.

 

My luck is also limited when it comes to armadillos, though comparatively less terrible than with the aforementioned small-clawed otters and snow leopards. I find that six-banded armadillos are easy enough to spot when they live in separate exhibits (always no-shows when they live in mixed exhibits), three-banded armadillos are hard (very active at Dresden Zoo, but no-shows elsewhere), and hairy armadillos are impossible (no-shows in every zoo I've went to).

 

I believe you mean Panay bushy-tailed cloud rats I used to have no luck with these, but a few visits ago I discovered their hiding spot and since then always seem to time it just when one is active.

Rock squirrels at Arnhem I can get behind, other no shows for me include the dorcopsis and Palestine mole rats at Pairi Daiza, the kiwi at Avifauna (saw one at Bronx but that's just because its nest was visible to the public), the blue-legged mantellas that were formerly onshow at Chester (obviously), the oncillas and rusty-spotted cats at Hamerton (until recently), most of the carnivore species at the bottom of Port Lympne, the Tasmanian devils and wombats at Duisburg (I ended up seeing these at Planckendael and Pairi Daiza however), and the catbirds, leafbird and chachalacas at Arnhem.

 

TBF, you can usually smell them

 

Two weeks ago, I saw the leafbird, catbirds and chachalacas. Leafbird I seldom see beause there's only 1, chachalacas and catbirds I think I have seen on all my visits.

Antwerp Zoo has some very active 3-banded armadillos btw.

I saw the Palestine mole rats on my only visit to Pairi Daiza since that species went on-show, on my first attempt. And got a good photo too. Sometimes luck is on my side

Some people say to have trouble with Pairi's mouse lemurs, even though I've seen them a few times myself.