To the best of my knowledge, the only zoos in mainland Europe to have ever exhibited thylacines were Antwerp, Berlin, Cologne and Paris. (London Zoo had twenty thylacines between 1850 and 1931.)
Cheetahs are relative commonly kept and the largest part of the captive population belong to the South African subspecies - Acinonyx jabatus jabatus - , alone in Europe this subspecies is kept currently in 120 collections. Other subspecies are much rarer or are not kept at all. For one of these - the East African cheetah - A. j. fearonii, ZTL only list 2 former European collections which have kept it : - Boras in Sweden which kept it between 1962 and 1975 - Belle Vue Zoo - Manchester - UK which closed 1977 Not mentioned is however Artis and from a newspaper from 1930 it becomes clear that this zoo also had this subspecies : The article mention that 4 specimens were recieved directly from Nairobi - Kenya and thus belong to the East African subspecies. Couldn't find any further information how long the animals were kept at Artis. This makes also 3 former holders of this subspecies in Europe but I'm quite sure that many more zoos have kept it in the past because in the early part of the 20th century many wild animals were exported from East African to European and North American zoos so a little more digging in old zoo-literature could reveal a good number of other collections having kept this subspecies.
1966 a female Short-tailed nurse shark was obtained and at that moment is wasn't clear that this species would grand Artis with no less then 3 records. The female stayed healthy and got older and older. Around 1989 the female started to lay eggs, 2 at a time and on a regulary base ( btw untill then it was even unclear if this species was egg-laying or viviparous ! ). As could be expected, the eggs proofed to be infirtile. In 1996 a male was obtained and after a while even matings were observed but all the eggs laid again proofed infirtile ( the female was already 30+ years old at that time ) and a number of them were eaten by the parents. 2005 4 more females were obtained and the single male mated now also with one or more of the new females and 2006 4 of the eggs laid by the new female(s?) hatched - a world-first breeding ! From then on young hatched on a regulary base ( at least 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2014 ). Artis is till now the most succesful breeder of this species worldwide and many young found homes in other zoos / aquariums for example in Budapest, Scheveningen, Göteburg, Blue Reef Portmouth and SeaLife Bray. SeaLife Bray recieved a 2006-hatched male from Artis during 2013 and in Jan. 2019 the first second-generation Short-tailed nurse shark was hatched there and 2 more earlier this year. The original 1966-female died 2014, making here with around 48 years old the oldest known specimen of her species. With 3 former keepers and 15 current keepers in Europe the species is still a rare sight but thanks to the breeding-results the captive future looks a little brighter. -Sand-bathing Short-tailed nurse shark at Artis ( Feb. 14 2017 )
At the end of April 1965 Artis recieved a female Gambia giant pouched rat from a relation in West Africa. Because this species was kept at that moment very rarely in European zoos ( they still are quite rare - only 9 collections keeping the ) they were very happy with this animal and it was placed into quarantaine because this species is known to carry a lot of pests in its fur. Within a week the number of pouched rats kept at Artis was increased to 8 ! The graved female had given birth to 7 healthy young. On ZTL Artis is not mentioned as being a former keeper but as clear from the above note they even bred it !
Manatees at Artis : In its long history Artis has kept 2 different species of manatees. The Amazonian manatee: The first animal they recieved was a male which was caught in April 1928 in the Ayapua river in Brazil and arrived at Artis in July that same year. The animal got the name Sirene and got its own enclosure in an extension of the incubation / pigeon house, a building still to be found in Artis ( photo see : Historical incubation house - ZooChat ). At the time this house was used as "Sea-cow house" it looked like this : The animal was a young one on arrival and quite small as can be seen on this photo : Thanks to the good care it developed well and on a photo from 1938 we can see that it was grown very well : This animal died Dec. 1943. Then in 1966 4 West Indian manatees were catched in Surinam and were send to Artis. All 4 were males but 2 already died during the ship-transport to the Netherlands. The 2 males which arrived in Oct. 1966 at Artis were named Nicky and Archimedes - later shortened to Archie and again later renamed into Joop. A year later - Oct 1967 - Nicky died and Artis started to search for a female for their male. Some animals were catched in Surinam but for some unknown reason ( at least to me ) none was send to Artis and even a collection-expedition by the curator in 1971 was started... without succes. In Sept. 1972 then at least a female was obtained and she came from British Guyana and got the name Marie. The pair was housed in a very small and much discussed "enclosure" in the Hippo-House and made history by becoming the first West Indian manatees in Europe to breed. On Aug. 8 1977 a male was born and named Lamatinus - later shortened to Tinus and this animal was later send to Antwerp Zoo were it was housed in an enclosure prop. even worse as the one at Artis ! Then 10 years nothing happened but in Sept. 1987 Marie gave again birth but this time the young was stillborn . Then the breeding started to went well and already 1989 the next healthy young was born, again a male. Dec. 1991 a female was born. 1994 a female was born called Daphne 1997 a male was born called Bertus Breeding female Marie died the same year as her last young was born on Sept. 17 1997. Breeding male Joop died May 20 2002 and the last remaining manatee at Artis "Bertus" was send that same year to Randers in Denmark and closed in this way an important era in the history of Artis.
Another animal kept at Artis and almost unnoticed by the 'general zoo-literature' is the Bush dog. Now-a-days a common animal ( at least in Europe : ZTL listed 32 former keepers and 43 current keepers ) but in earlier days it was realy a rarity in zoos. ZTL don't mention Artis as being a former keeper but in fact they were most prob. one of the first European zoos keeping the species. In Dec. 1914 its mentioned in a newspaper and 1 pair was recieved from Santa Catharina in South Brazil. Between 1915 and 1920 the species must even have been bred because an American visitor reports that he had spoken with the curator which told him that the species had bred at Artis. He don't report however if the young had been raised succesfull. Evenso this birth would mean a world-first-breeding of the species. Didn't find any other notes about the species being kept at Artis. ( picture from a monograph about canids from 1890 - no copyrights on this one anymore )
To make it even more clear how rare the species was at zoos at the beginning of the 1900s : the National Zoo Washington recieved a Bush dog in June 1924 and for the Zoo it was at that moment "the rarest animal of the total collection".
Amsterdam was one of 2 ZTL collections to have Abbott's moray (1998-2000). The other was the Prague Sea World Aquarium.
Pygmy hippos at Artis In Juli 1927 Artis became the first zoo in the Netherlands to place a Pygmy hippo on display. It was not owned by the zoo ( they could't afford it ) and I don't know how long the animal stayed at Artis. First Pygmy hippo at Artis with keeper - 1927 ( no copyrights on the photo anymore ) 1947 Artis second Pygmy hippo was obtained, a female which was born at Bazle. 1956 a male was obtained which was named Tobi 1963 a mother ( Alma ) and her daughter ( Irma ) came to Artis but the male showed no intrest in the females. Therefor female Alma was send in Sept. 1967 to Basel to pair with a male at that zoo. As soon as Alma was gone, Tobi started to mate with Irma. Because also at Basel Zoo Alma didn't mate she was send back to Artisin the summer of 1968. Then on Sept. 16 1968 Artis ( and prob. the Netherlands ) first Pygmy hippo was born to Irma. Irma with calf. Oct 1968 ( Photo-credit ANP ) This calf was a female, named Carla and stayed till 1976 at Artis.. .Alma died 1970 but 1971 Irma gave birth to a male-calf 1972 and on a date between 1973 and 1975 2 more calves were born but both these calves were either stillborn or died shortly after birth. April 1975 again a female-calf was born': Irma with female calf - April 1975 ( photo-credit ANP ) In 1976 Artis first-born Pygmy hippo returned to Africa and found a new home at the University-zoo of Jos - Nigeria. In Jan. 1977 again a Artis-bred pair Lambiek and Irmgard ) was send to the same Zoo in Nigeria and to fill up the enclosure 2 months later again a calf was born. Irma with calf - March 1977 ( Photo-credit ANP ) Also the Pygmy hippos at Nigeria did well and already at the end of 1976/ beginning of 1977 the first calf ( a male ) was born there. After the 1977-birth I didn't find any records of breeding anymore and in 1988 Artis stopped completly with keeping the Pygmy hippo.
If we have a look at ZooTierListe we will see that they think Artis has never kept American black vultures. This is however surtainly NOT true and in fact Artis was prob. the first European zoo to breed this species, maybe even the first world-wide ! The first information I found Artis keeping the species was a note on the arrival of 1 specimen from Surinam in 1905 but it's likely that the species was already kept before this date because the species is(?)/was very common in Surinam and Artis became regulary animals from this former part of the Netherlands. The next note I found wasin the book "Het Artisboek' ( 1922). In the text its said that the species has bred succesfully already several times and on a photo an adult bird with 2 young can be seen : American black vulture with 2 chicks before 1922 ( no copyrights anymore on this one ) Wasn't unable to find any further information about keeping / breeding the species - althrough I think they had the species on a regulary base - untill 1959. In April 1959 6 birds were recieved from the National Zoo - Washington in exchange for some Wood pigeons and European herring gulls. 3 of the 6 were send then to Antwerp Zoo, the other 3 stayed in Artis and were placed in a large aviary which they shared with a good number of other birds of prey. 1963 2 eggs were laid but because of the danger of the other birds of prey the eggs were placed in the incubator and both hatched but hand-raising them failed. Then the birds took a break and only 13 years later again eggs were laid. This time the parents incubated themself and both eggs hatched but the young disappeared shortly after hatching. 1977 only one egg was laid and this time it was placed in the incubator were it hatched but died 2 days later. 1978 and 1979 again no succes was booked in breeding the species but in Sept. 1979 the pair was moved to another aviary with less agresive bird-species and already April 24 1980 the first egg was laid, followed 3 days later by a second one. After 39 days only one egg hatched and the other egg disappeared. The young was raised succesfully by the parents. Exactly 1 year later, on April 24 1981 again an egg was laid and again 3 days later a second. Both eggs hatched but one chick died in the process of leaving the egg. The other chick was however again raised succesfully. Afther this succes I wasn't able to find any further information about the species at Artis and at the moment the species is not kept anymore at Amsterdam. American black vulture in the wild ( Mexico ) Sources : - Het Artisboek ( 1922 ) pp.197 - Zwarte gieren. Artis vol. 27 ( Nov. Dec. 1981 ) pp. 132-135
Breeding the Whooper swan : Althrough the Whooper swan was already a quite common bird in zoological collection at the end of the 1800s - beginning 1900s, breeding them was VERY rare ! The first collection reporting to be succesfull with them ( then under the name Cygnus musicus ) was the London Zoo : June 16 1839, May 27 1841 and May 20 1842 young hatched at London. Then a long time no reports of breeding became known but at the collection of mr. Blaauw in the Netherlands a pair build a nest in 1887 or 1888 but this was destoyed by the Gru's living in the same enclosure. At the beginning of the 1900s Artis had several Whooper swans in the collection and in 1910 a pair build a nest and 5 eggs were laid. 2 young from this nest were raised succesfully. 1911 the Reptile-house was build near the pond were the swans were living and because of these building-activities no nest was build that year. 1912 everything was quite again and the pair build a new nest and on April 2 the first egg was laid followed by eggs laid on 4, 6, 8 and the 10th of April. On April the female started brooding the eggs and on May 14 the eggs hatched. From this nest 1 young was raised to adulthood. These breedings may represent the first-breeding of the species on the European contnent. Nesting Whooper swan at Artis - 1910 ( no copyrights anymore )
Breeding male Tobi died in April 4th, 1979. This would explain why breeding might have stopped. Their Hippo House residence also got refitted in the 1980's ... I believe. Repurposed for gorilla's. The female pygmy hippo sent back to Jos, Nigeria in 1976 was Carla! The only surviving - probably - is male Maikel (b. March 1977) and sent to Seoul Zoo in South Korea in May 1984.
Untill at least 1988 there were two hippo enclosures, but I don't know which species was kept in which enclosure. Free-flying birds were kept inside the Hippo House, mynas among others. At the time, gorillas were kept in the former building for young apes. In the 1950's en 1960's the young individuals of all three types of ape were kept here together, untill they reached maturity. In the 1970's the gorillas got the building for their one, but I think they hadn't an outside enclosure. Somewhere in the latest 1980's or earliest 1990's, the largest of the hippo enclosures was reconstructed into a outside enclosure for the gorillas. Their former home was connected to the chimpansee enclosure and serves as inner enclosure for this species up to now.
