Non-Crane Gruiformes in North American Zoos

Here I have attempted to make a complete list of Non-Crane Gruiformes present in American and Canadian collections. Cranes are already covered in a different thread by @Great Argus. Only information 2017 or newer was used. Information on missing holders or species, as well as information on subspecies or populations is welcomed.

I suspect the reason this list appears so small isn't the lack of these species in captivity, but rather the lack of publicity about these species. Zoos don't really advertise these species (with a certain exception from Guam), and they really don't seem that popular of animals to photograph on ZooChat, either. We shall see if my hypothesis is correct.

Gray-Winged Trumpeter (6 holders)
Bronx Zoo
Caldwell Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Minnesota Zoo
National Aviary
Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Guam Rail (9 holders)
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
Guam Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
National Aviary
Philadelphia Zoo
Racine Zoo
San Antonio Zoo
Sedgwick County Zoo
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Buff-Banded Rail (1 holder)
Central Park Zoo

Ridgeway's Rail (1 holder)
Living Coast Discovery Center (levipes)

Gray-Necked Wood Rail (4 holders)
Bronx Zoo
Henry Vilas Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Toronto Zoo

Giant Wood Rail (3 holders)
Assiniboine Park Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Special Memories Zoo

Sora (2 holders)
Buttonwood Park Zoo
Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

Gray-Headed Swamphen (2 holders)
Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens
Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium

Allen's Gallinule (2 holders)
Oregon Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo

Purple Gallinule (2 holders)
Audubon Zoo
Toronto Zoo

Common Gallinule (4 holders)
Gladys Porter Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science
Saint Louis Zoo

American Coot (1 holder)
Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary

 

Honolulu and Houston both have grey winged trumpeter

Zoo Tampa has Grey Headed Swamphen

Zoo Miami has Buff Banded Rail

Pinola Conservancy has African Jacana, Common Gallinule, African Crake, Allen's Gallinule, and Black Crake

Toronto and Disneys Animal Kingdom have Black Crake

Dallas World Aquarium has Wattled Jacana

Houston has African Jacana

A TON of zoo's have sunbittern, including Toronto, Assiniboine Park, Montreal Biodome, San Diego, Fort Worth, Miami, Discovery Cove, Houston, Bronx, San Antonio and many others.

 

Jacanas and Sunbitterns aren't Gruiformes, and therefore do not fin under this thread.

 

Rip, the Jacanas are my bad, however in my defense, Sunbittern are managed under the gruiforme tag and have been considered gruiformes in the past, so I'll just excuse myself on that one

 

Central Park does not have Buff-Banded Rail unless it is a very new addition.

Grey-Winged Trumpeter: Emerald Forest Bird Gardens, Houston Zoo
Grey-Necked Wood-Rail: Santa Ana Zoo, Tracy Aviary
Giant Wood-Rail: Bronx Zoo
American Coot: California Living Museum
Allen's Gallinule: San Antonio Zoo
Black Crake: Bronx Zoo

~Thylo

 

Mill Mountrain Zoo has buff-banded rail.

 

San Diego has Black Crake, and they hold Guam Rail off-exhibit. I saw lots of Common Gallinule at the SDZ Safari Park, but I believe they were all wild so I don't think they count. Interestingly enough I don't remember hardly any small Gruiformes from those two zoos, despite their large bird collections.

Oregon Zoo may have had Black Crake I think, not sure if they still do.

Woodland Park has Gray-winged Trumpeter.

I remember Fresno Chaffee Zoo having Gray-necked Wood-Rails, as well as Guam Rail on exhibit 5-6 years ago. @ChaffeeZooFan might be able to confirm whether these species are still held?

 

Where did you find Oregon Zoo as a holder for Allen's Gallinule? It's not listed on their site and a Zoochat search didn't turn it up. I'm not aware the zoo has ever held the species, although I don't follow them super closely.

 

Saint Louis Zoo held Gray-winged Trumpeter some number of years ago and are still listed on their website, but I haven't been there recently so I don't know if that's still the case.

 

There were several on exhibit last month.

 

They were listed here:

Oregon Zoo - Oregon Zoo Complete Species List

 

Update:

Gray-Winged Trumpeter (11 holders)
Bronx Zoo
Caldwell Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Emerald Forest Bird Gardens
Honolulu Zoo
Houston Zoo
Minnesota Zoo
National Aviary
Saint Louis Zoo
Sylvan Heights Bird Park
Woodland Park Zoo

Guam Rail (10 holders)
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
Guam Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
National Aviary
Philadelphia Zoo
Racine Zoo
San Antonio Zoo
San Diego Zoo
Sedgwick County Zoo
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Buff-Banded Rail (2 holders)
Mill Mountain Zoo
Zoo Miami

Ridgeway's Rail (1 holder)
Living Coast Discovery Center (levipes)

African Crake (1 holder)
Pinola Conservancy

Gray-Necked Wood Rail (6 holders)
Bronx Zoo
Henry Vilas Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Santa Ana Zoo
Toronto Zoo
Tracy Aviary

Giant Wood Rail (4 holders)
Assiniboine Park Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Dallas World Aquarium
Special Memories Zoo

Black Crake (6 holders)
Bronx Zoo
Disney's Animal Kingdom® Park
Oregon Zoo
Pinola Conservancy
San Diego Zoo
Toronto Zoo

Sora (2 holders)
Buttonwood Park Zoo
Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

Gray-Headed Swamphen (3 holders)
Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens
Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium
ZooTampa at Lowry Park

Allen's Gallinule (4 holders)
Oregon Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Pinola Conservancy
San Antonio Zoo

Purple Gallinule (2 holders)
Audubon Zoo
Toronto Zoo

Common Gallinule (5 holders)
Gladys Porter Zoo
Milwaukee County Zoo
Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science
Pinola Conservancy
Saint Louis Zoo

American Coot (2 holders)
Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary
California Living Museum

 

Sedgwick and Memphis both have Black Crake as well.

 

also Toledo and Cape May

 

Only trumpeters and rails?????? I'm fairly sure that many American zoos have seriemas, bustards, sunbitterns and kagu, maybe some even have buttonquails. Really none zoo have these other families of the Gruiformes order??

 

All of those are present in North American collections, but no longer placed in Gruiformes.

I have plans for how to handle those other groups.

 

Those groups have all been moved out of Gruiformes in the new taxonomy sequence. Buttonquails are placed under Charadriidae, and the seriemas, bustards, and sunbittern/kagu now each have their own order.

 

Saw at least one Sora in Philadelphia zoo a week ago

 

Where was it? Are you sure it wasn't their Guam Rail?

~Thylo