Online Zoo Animal Databases

I've added a new database to the page: Petra Prager – Elefanten-Fotolexikon

It is for captive elephants worldwide, searchable by location or species/subspecies. Seems like a good site.

 

this is really useful - I didn't know this was possible, because it is all in Japanese!

I had a play around on the site and I think I've got it all figured out. I'll put an explanation below (next post to keep it separate). If others can follow my instructions and let me know if they are clear, and if they work, and most importantly if I missed out something obvious, that would be great. For example, I couldn't see any way to get a full listing of animals in the database, as is possible on Zootierliste.


Side-question: is it relatively easy for a Chinese-speaker to read kanji? I know there are differences between the Chinese hanzi and Japanese kanji, but the latter is derived from the former, so is it relatively easy for (say) @aardvark250 to navigate the site regardless?

 

How to use the JAZA zoo database:

You can access species lists for the zoos, but it is difficult because it is all in Japanese kanji script. There doesn't appear to be any way to search while on the English part of the website. Go to this page of the site 飼育動物検索 | 動物園と水族館 on which you will see two coloured squares - green on the left (with the image of a search bar and magnifying glass) and orange on the right (with a map of Japan). Clicking on the green square enables you to search for individual species, while clicking on the orange square will provide you with a list of Japanese collections (albeit all in Japanese kanji) from which you can see animal holdings.

If searching for species, clicking on the green square will take you to a page where you can enter the scientific name of the animal into a search-bar. The results will show all animals with any word in the name (e.g. just putting in "concolor" will result in both "Puma concolor" and "Corydoras concolor"; while "Elephas maximus" will show results for all animals with either "Elephas" or "maximus" in their scientific name). You can restrict the search to particular fields (e.g. mammals, birds, fish, etc) using the picture boxes below the search-bar. On the list of results, clicking on the tab at the bottom right of each result will take you to a list of zoos holding that particular species (although all the zoo names are in kanji, not English). Clicking on any of those zoo names will take you to that particular zoo's website. There doesn't seem to be a way of seeing a full list of animals on the database - you need to search individually.

If clicking on the orange square, you will be taken to a colour-coded map of Japan's regions. Clicking on a region will give you a pop-up of all the zoos in that region - all in kanji script, not English. The name of the zoo you click on will appear underneath the map. Select which animal groups you want to include in your search (mammals is highlighted automatically when you select a zoo) and then hit the button to the right of the zoo name (under the right-hand corner of the map). You will then get a list of all the species (in your selected groups) which are at that zoo - most have a photo and all have a scientific name, so can be identified even if you cannot read kanji. The difficult part is finding a particular zoo because none of them are listed by their English names.

 

I found the new site for Cetacean Cousins (now .org instead of .com)
Cetacean Cousins

It used to be an excellent site with coverage of current as well as historical holdings. The contents of the new site appear to be very limited but I'm not sure if this is due to it not being fully completed, or due to parts of it being "member only". About the only section which seems to work is the "Search our database" tab which gives lists of individual animals by personal name (and it seems you can only search by personal names: e.g. something like "bottlenose dolphin" gives zero results). Other tabs for facilities and species simply result in a "page not found" message.

 

I've finally removed this as it hasn't been available for a long time.

However I came across a more recent version of the NOAA database (August 2016) as a Cetabase pdf. I've added this link to the listings in the original post. On the NOAA website, anyone can also request the database information. Note for the pdf, it looks like the data is arranged randomly, but it is actually alphabetical by Holder (to the right side of the table).

Pdf link: http://www.cetabase.org/downloads/docs/nmfs/mmir/complete-cetaceans-pinnipeds-20160809.pdf

NOAA page where there is a request link (at the bottom): Marine Mammal Inventory :: NOAA Fisheries

 

Yup, it is a fairly new site so is still being filled. The main elephant site is still the best one and this is because it has been around for a long time and hence has built up its database over time. However it is regularly inaccessible. The third elephant site I have there doesn't appear to have been touched since 2014.

 

WEB水族館｜全国の水族館ガイド116施設
This is a website of the Aquariums of Japan. It is entirely in Japanese kanji script (so I have no idea how comprehensive or current it is).

The link above will take you to the page listing the Aquariums of Japan. The word next to each blue dot is the region - e.g. Hokkaido, Honshu, etc - and the Aquariums are listed beneath each heading. Clicking on an Aquarium name will take you to a page describing that facility, and on that page there will be links to photos on a sister-site (a blog).


At the top left of the Aquarium Listings page (under the banner) there are two coloured bars. The top one will take you to a page for species held in Japanese Aquariums, albeit restricted to certain groups. See below for a description of how to use it. (When you go to that page, the top bar will then be for the page I discussed above, listing the Aquariums). The bottom bar relates to transport and is not important.


This is the page where you can find species in Japanese Aquariums: 水族館動物写真図鑑｜WEB水族館

Not all of the following sections are searchable, but the first section is for marine mammals (in order: cetaceans, sirenians, pinnipeds, otters, polar bears, beavers). The second is for birds (penguins, waterfowl, etc). The third is for reptiles (turtles and snakes). The fourth is for amphibians (frogs and salamanders). The fifth is for marine fish (including sharks). The sixth is for freshwater fish. The seventh is for aquatic invertebrates. The eighth is for deepsea animals (fish and invertebrates).

There are clickable links for only some of these groups (in order from the top: cetaceans, pinnipeds [further separated into walrus, eared seals, and earless seals], sea otters, penguins, and sharks). However, for all of those that are there, clicking on the link will take you to a page with a photo of each species. Clicking on the link for a photo will give you a list of Aquariums holding that species.