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How did I miss that!!!!

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by kiang, 11 Feb 2011.

  1. zooman

    zooman Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    1983 visiting Howletts for the first time.

    So wanted to meet Mr Aspinall and did not have the confidence then to ask for him. As l have since been told that that there were many times he had talked freely with interested folk if he had time and was asked for.

    On the same trip l did get to talk with Molly Badham we talked for 20 minutes at the door of their cottage.
     
  2. Giant Eland

    Giant Eland Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I've compiled a list of all my Near Misses! In each example me and the animal were each present but different circumstances led to me not being able to see or more importantly photograph said animal.

    1.) Greater Glider (David Fleay WP) Waited a little for this guy to come into view, didn’t show himself. Was kinda in a time crunch to make a flight later in the day, and I was pretty sure Greater Glider’s were kept at some of the other Zoos I was going to. I was sorely wrong.
    2.) Long-beaked Echidna (Taronga Zoo) Visited in 2007 while they were off exhibit. Spoke to a keeper about seeing them off exhibit, but it was pretty impossible because they’re nocturnal and sleep underground.
    3.) Leadbeater’s Possum (Toronto Zoo, Healesville) Went to Toronto Zoo twice while they had them. First time I was too young to care/didn’t have a decent camera. 2nd time looked for it, but didn’t ask any keepers (turns out it was off exhibit). I regularly ask for off-exhibit species now. Also just missed these at Healesville Sanctuary, seems like they had them before 2007 and a couple years after.
    4.) Hog Badger (Toronto Zoo) Only had these the first time I went to Toronto, when I was too young to care/didn’t have a decent camera. I remember waiting a little for it to come out, but I doubt it was often out.
    5.) Bush Pig (San Diego Zoo) I photographed the weird Dark Phase one that was labeled as a Giant Forest Hog, but skipped over the regular Bush Pig exhibit because at the time they were considered the same species as Red River Hog and I didn’t “waste” film for subspecies.
    6.) Richardson’s Ground Squirrel (Plzen) In the midst of photographing 99 new mammal species over 2 days, this was the one and only species I was unable to get photos of. Went to the exhibit a few different times, just never came out. Oh well there went my chance of 100 new mammal species at one place.
    7.) Nilgiri Langur (Erfurt) Traveled to 3 Zoos in one day. Wildpark Leipzig, Leipzig Zoo, and Erfurt Zoo. I arrived at the later at about 5pm with hardly any time to spare and no one that spoke English. Desperately tried to find the Nilgiri Langur exhibit with no such luck. I think they were in a cage within the walk-through Barbary Macaque exhibit, but that was closed off. I contemplated climbing into it, but decided I probably wouldn’t be able to get back out haha.
    8.) Nigerian White-throated Guenon (Mulhouse) The only species I missed by accident on my 2010 Euro-Zoo trip. I had 222 new mammal possibilities spread out over 30 or so Zoos. I had a list of the total, and then separate lists for each Zoo. Unfortunately when making the Mulhouse Zoo list I omitted this Guenon species, so I didn’t even bother looking for it while running around the zoo.
    9.) Greater dwarf lemur (Zurich) Same day I visited Mulhouse Zoo, I drove to Zurich Zoo arriving about 2pm. Tried to find a nocturnal exhibit for this lemur until realizing that the 1 specimen of this species outside of Madagascar is kept in a diurnal gigantic walk through Madagascan forest exhibit. Complete needle in a haystack. I wasted so much time looking for this that I didn’t leave time for the next guy on the list.
    10.) Plains viscacha (Zurich) Primates over Rodents. Zoo was closing by the time I spoke to a keeper who told me the Greater dwarf lemur would be impossible to see. I begged to stop by the viscaha on my way out. But she said it was impossible. Hmm didn’t really sound impossible…
    11.) Key Largo Wood Rat (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
    12.) Mechow’s Mole Rat (Disney’s Animal Kingdom) 2 more rodents. I called ahead of time to check on these and as you can imagine I was transferred to a few different people before I got an answer. But I was assured that both were there and on exhibit and even was told where to find them. Unfortunately they sent me to the Naked Mole Rat exhibit. And both species I wanted to see were off exhibit and they wouldn’t let me see them. I was able to get a refund for the entrance fee for DAK for me and my dad!
    13.) Bolivian hairy armadillo (Huachipa)
    14.) Colocolo (Huachipa)
    15.) Silky anteater (Huachipa) These final three hurt the most. All three are off exhibit. The keeper in charge of these was on vacation when I visited. Her husband also worked at the Zoo, and wasn’t able to get a hold of her to get the OK. I emailed her in hopes I could return to the zoo the next day, but she didn’t respond till I was already back in the USA. Of course she had no problem with it then. Guess I’ll have to go backkk.


    I encourage anyone else that wants to compile a list of all their near misses to do so. A different list I'll make sometime is animals that had passed away right before I arrived :(
     
  3. Malayan Tapir

    Malayan Tapir Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Rather than missing certain species, most of my close calls have been from being driven past them on school trips.

    These have included:
    • London Zoo (Have been to since)
    • London Sealife Centre (Walked past the entrance to get on the London eye)
    • Munster Zoo (Was in the carpark, but was forced into the Planetarium within the natural history museum next door!)
    • Barcelona Aquarium
    • Barcelona Zoo
    Worse than all of this though, was in the build-up to going to the Cologne area zoos last year, I couldn't wait to go to Wuppertal to see the Shoebills, but by the time I visited, I had completely forgot about them having them at all!

    When we were there, the free-flight part of the bird house was closed for some reason, and on the way out of the zoo via the gift shop, I saw a postcard for a Shoebill, which suddenly reminded me that they had them, so I put 2 and 2 together, and presumed they were in an exhibit somewhere in part of the bird house that was shut.

    Only when I got back to England, did I examine the hand out map more, and used by worst German translation skills, (and some comments from friends about the shoebill exhibit etc) and worked out that after a whole day at the zoo, we didn't go down one path, which contained the Shoebills! :eek:

    Oh well, one day I’ll get them ticked off the list! :D
     
  4. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I haven't had too many "How did I miss that!!" moments.

    After years of visiting the Bronx Zoo, I had just realised, right before my last visit on November 11, 2011, I never noticed the World of Birds exhibit!! The entrance where it's located is the one I usually go through, too!! Luckily, since I caught it right before I went, I was able to visit it.

    On my way to the Smithsonian National Zoo I saw the entrance to the National Aquarium in D.C. but we didn't have time to go during our D.C. visit.:(
     
    Last edited: 10 Nov 2012
  5. elefante

    elefante Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    On my first visit to Omaha I missed the African hunting dogs (I'd only seen them once before in Brookfield) and the gaur that I had never seen (which I missed on my second trip). I finally saw the gaur on my visit this past summer.

    The one I'm kicking myself for not visiting is the Barcelona Zoo, especially since it was before Snowflake died. I was there on a school trip and we had some free time but my Spanish wasn't so good and I didn't want to risk taking a cab or getting lost. The other zoo I missed was San Diego when I was there for a conference with work. We just didn't have enough time to make it there before it closed and that's the only zoo I've been near that has pandas.
     
  6. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    when I go to zoos i'm usually lucky enough to see all the animals,but my luck changed when I went to wilhelma zoo (summer 2012)
    I missed the small mammal house,andean bears and worst of all giant anteaters and maned wolves.
    I still don't know where about in the zoo the last three are
     
  7. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I'm usually lucky as well but when I went to the Roger Williams Park Zoo (June 2, 2012), most of the animals in the rainforest house were off-exhibit. Same with all the animals behind the Australasia house except for one Chinese Alligator and a North Sulawesi Babirusa (the only animals back there I hadn't before). I missed the Andean Bears, Maned Wolves, Addra Gazelles, Siamang Gibbons, many bird species, and the animals of America Trail (except N.A. River Otters) when I visited the Smithsonian National Zoo.

    Where are the Siamangs anyway? I know they're suppose to be by the Northern White-Handed Gibbons but both gibbon exhibits had Northern White-Handeds in them.
     
  8. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    I'm usually pretty good at going down every pathway and into any building I can, so I rarely miss exhibits (I think). In Plzen there was a large desert-themed glasshouse near the penguins, which I think was shut for winter, and had big heavy blankets covering the glass doors, I presume to keep it as warm as possible. There was no-one around and the door wasn't locked, so I went in under the blankets and had a brief look at the cacti and reptiles contained within, before sneaking out again. Does anyone know if this was off-display or if I was allowed in?

    The most disappointing total miss was the nocturnal house at Copenhagen Zoo, which I only realised I had missed when I consulted the Engllish map online the night after visiting (having only been given a Danish map (and buying a Swedish guide book) at the zoo itself). I'm still not sure where the entry was. I was also disapointed to miss the Berlin Zoo Bird House and Prague Zoo Cat House, both of which were closed for renovation on my visits.

    My absolute worst misses species-wise were Pangolins at both Singapore Night Safari (off-display) and Leipzig Zoo (asleep), both of which were priorities for my visits.
     
  9. FWC

    FWC Well-Known Member

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    I've seen most everything I've wanted to see at zoo's I've attended, with perhaps 1 or 2 exceptions.

    1. Secretary Bird at Honolulu Zoo. Over the past 6 freaking years ,I have not seen that stupid bird. I've walked past his exhibit well over 50 times. I volunteer at the freaking zoo ,for cripes sakes !! But everytime I have plans to go into the actual exhibit to go see him ,something gets messed up. I've hand-fed and been attacked by birds-of-paradise ,spent hours observing and attempting to help breed Rufous Fantails and Golden Whiteyes ,almost been attacked by golden lion tamarins ,attempted to be eaten by a sloth many times ,and played with Komodo dragons ,but yet I can't freaking see the stupid secretary bird.

    2. Koalas at Calgary Zoo. This was a really long time ago. My family and I went to go see them ,but it was so ubsurdly busy we just left and toured the rest of the zoo.

    3. Kea at Edmonton Valley Zoo. They've always been off exhibit for me ,but I will see them one day.
     
  10. Maguari

    Maguari Never could get the hang of Thursdays. 15+ year member Premium Member

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    It's been open on both my visits (in May and September). Not sure if it's open all winter.
     
  11. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    maned wolves,wolverines,armadillos and binturongs at edinburgh zoo today

    unrelated but when did the clouded leopards leave and where did they go
     
  12. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    The maned wolves are no longer in the collection, and the zoo has only just went *into* clouded leopards so they are not onshow.
     
  13. Terp

    Terp Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    @Giant Eland - Just curious, it seems you do a lot of travel to photograph and document species. Do you have a count? Have photographs of them all?

    As for my most painful 'miss' - in 2007 I went to the Taronga Zoo, only to find the leopard seal exhibit (and only the leopard seal exhibit) drained for cleaning. Been bugging me ever since, hoping to get back there soon.
     
  14. Giant Eland

    Giant Eland Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Terp, I HAVE to have photos or I wouldn't be able to sleep at night haha. I focus on mammals and only have a list/count of those. Currently I'm at 823 mammal species (not including subspecies). I've been thinking about posting the whole list on another thread.
     
  15. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Turning this experience on its head, when I went to Taronga I didn't even know they had Leopard Seals (there were two) so it was a complete surprise to see this fascinating species. Not quite the first time I had seen one as the Marineland in Napier N.Z. had one also but very good to see anyway. Not expecting to see another in my lifetime.
     
  16. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    what does *into* clouded leopards mean ?
     
  17. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    Edinburgh has only very recently started keeping clouded leopards.

    Going into a species = Started keeping
    Going out of a species = Stopped keeping

    So in the context of your prior comment, Edinburgh have gone out of maned wolves and gone into clouded leopards.
     
  18. kiang

    kiang Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    #Rehash
    I seemed to have missed cusimanse at Camperdown???