One of my favorite groups of mammals are caprids, which have unfortunately been disappearing from US Zoos in recent years. Some species have either completely died out or have very few individuals left, such as the japanese serow, west caucasian tur, and himalayan tahr. And many of the other species have dwindling populations as well. Perhaps the only caprid species that is doing successful and seeing an increase in holders is the Sichuan Takin. How many caprid species still have viable populations? And besides the Takin, do you forsee a future for any caprids in US Zoos?
Look beyond AZA and you'll have a different perspective. Just looking at places open to the public, not hunting ranches or private breeders, there's 100 places that keep aoudad and the numbers are rising. Several places have large herds of tahr, markhor, and nubian ibex. Mouflon are increasing in popularity, as well. Goral, bharal, and serow are the ones we're close to losing in the USA. Native species are also uncommon, mostly because of their living requirements.
I didn't realize tahr were common outside the AZA. I didn't know aoudad were quite that common, but knew they certainly aren't rare. It'd be nice if the AZA could revive either the aoudad or ibex programs, so at least one African caprid can still be kept. It's a shame the goral numbers are so low, they're a really cool species that I've yet to see. How many holders are they down to? Serow might as well be a lost cause, isn't there only like one or two individuals at one of the North Dakota zoos left?
AFAIK the Rosevelt Park Zoo is the only holder left in the U.S. Chinese Goral are at somewhere under eight holders right now, but most zoos just have one or two.
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of aoudad in private hands are generic while SSP facilities and a couple others have the Kordofan subspecies. I know that SDZSP, at least, is breeding Nubian Ibex as there was a calf in the nursery a couple months ago. If we are also including Canadian facilities, Calgary is actively breeding serow while Toronto is breeding tur. I think tur may also be in private hands though I'm not sure.
Hemker Park & Zoo keeps and breeds the species, with maybe one or two other private collections displaying them as well (Although I’m not sure if they breed them).
