Hyenas are an animal I have yet to see. As I understand there are no brown hyenas in captivity in the U.S. Which species is more common in the USA? Spotted or striped? Are these generally very popular zoo species?
Spotted are much more common. I'm not even sure if many zoos in the US even hold striped any more. The Living Desert and Utica zoo are some with Striped but I can't think of many others. Denver, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Franklin Park zoos all hold spotted along with a few others.
DeYoung has Striped. And I remember reading somewhere on ZooChat that Wildwood Wildlife Park had Striped, but I don't know if this is true anymore.
Spotted hyena are the norm. They are an SSP species with around 50-60 individual animals. Stripped hyenas do not have an SSP and the goal is to completely removed them from the AZA so the space they take up can be used by the spotted hyenas. They third hyaenid species, aardwolves are also not wanted in the AZA. Their spots are wanted for smaller canines which have SSPs.
Naples has striped as well. They had spotted at some point, but they weren't there when I visited. Not sure if they were off exhibit or just not there. Columbus had spotted in a rotational exhibit a couple of years ago, but they were young and I'm not sure if they intended to keep them long-term. It's a shame you don't see more zoos with hyenas IMO. They're a fairly important species on the iconic African savannah but seem to get overlooked in collections. I wonder if they're tough to maintain in some way. I kind of see cape buffalo the same way. Iconic species, very little representation in US zoos.
Oh I am a genius. That's what I get for trying to hold a conversation and type a comment at the same time. Apparently I cannot do both and not seem like a *****. I'd edit it if I could. Good news on the cape buffalo front they are looking to rebuild the population possibly.
Śląski Ogród Zoologiczny in Katowice; the only Polish zoo which holds hyenas. (Rule 1: never explain the joke )
Some others I know of that have spotted hyenas are Rio Grande, Miami, Out of Africa, Buffalo, Phoenix, Turtle Back, and Busch Gardens Tampa. While I agree that hyenas are rather underrepresented in the U.S., I'm glad there seems to be something of an increase, both in the exhibits recently opened/planned (Phoenix, Fort Worth, Turtle Back, etc.), and in fairly recent breeding with spotted.
A big problem with the current spotted hyena population is that they are fairly interrelated. The majority of the population descend from a founding group held by Berkeley. Now more recently new founding stock has been imported from South Africa but not massive numbers. Over time as more potential holders become available hopefully they will do a little more importing and bring in new bloodlines.
I love all of the hyena family members and spotted are By Far the most common in the United States and luckily their numbers are growing. To the best of my knowledge the last brown hyenas in the US may have been at Henry Doorly in the 70’s or 80’s but as far as North America they were at Mountain View in Langley British Columbia maybe 12 or 15 years ago and have not been exhibited since...previous to that I Do have pics seeing them at the zoo in Winnipeg in 1995. As far as aardwolves the only zoo currently exhibiting them in the United States to the best of my knowledge is Cincinnati. I have seen them at zoos in San Antonio, Living Desert, Brookfield, San Diego and Kansas City in the past though. To the best of my knowledge striped hyenas are currently exhibited in Fort Worth, Boise, Living Desert, Naples, DeYoung, Safari West, Denver , Wildlife World(in a brand new exhibit), Utica and rotated into shows at San Diego zoo and Safari Park.
I wish more zoos had them, especially striped, brown, and aardwolf, but unfortunately they're not popular at all with the public. They take up as much room as felines or canines do while bringing in very few people and giving the zoos nothing sales-wise; kids want shirts with clouded leopards and plush wolves, not hyenas This is my list of AZA zoos, based on my spreadsheets that use their websites (so some may be missing, if the zoo doesn't have the species mentioned on their site): Aardwolf - Cincinnati Brown - None Spotted - ABQ Biopark, Buffalo, Busch Gardens Tampa, Fort Wayne Children’s, Franklin Park, Milwaukee County, Oakland, Rolling Hills, Saint Louis, Seneca Park, Sunset, Toronto, Turtle Back, Zoo Miami Striped - Living Desert, Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens, Safari West, Utica (not AZA), Zoo Boise
