I'd like to get a sense of which animal species tend to be overrepresented in zoos around the world. These would be the common animals that many institutions have and sometimes you won't even want to bother photographing them because you've seen them a gazillion times. Not everything on this list I would skip over in a zoo visit, though, and sometimes I get more interested in the exhibit setup than the animal itself. -Mammals Transvaal lion ( or unlabeled African lion, many might be hybrids, though) Reticulated giraffe Common eland (most commonly kept antelope in my experience) Meerkat Small-clawed otter (at the expense of other otters) Lar gibbon (sometimes you get other gibbon species instead, which is cooler) Ring-tailed lemur Black-and-white ruffed lemur California sea lion (zoos and aquariums) Harbor seal (aquariums) Bottlenose Dolphin (aquariums) Cape rock hyrax (other hyraxes are really rare) Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (other prairie dogs are really rare) Hybrid American Bison -Birds South African Ostrich (or ostrich with unlabeled subspecies) Emu Indian Peafowl Mallard Grey Crowned Crane Greater Flamingo (American and Chilean are also pretty common) Scarlet Macaw Blue and Gold Macaw Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo Toco Toucan Golden Pheasant Silver Pheasant -Reptiles Red-Eared Slider Aldabra Tortoise Sulcata Tortoise Red-Footed Tortoise Green Sea Turtle (aquariums) Green Iguana Veiled Chameleon Central Bearded Dragon Leopard Gecko Madagascar Day Gecko Eastern Blue-Tongued Skink Corn Snake California King Snake Ball Python Burmese Python Reticulated Python Red-Tailed Boa American Alligator -Amphibians Axolotl American Bullfrog African Clawed Frog Dwarf Clawed Frog Oriental Fire-Bellied Toad African Pixie Frog Ornate Horned Frog -Fish Koi Goldfish Tilapia Asian Arowana Alligator Gar Large Plecos Red-Tailed Catfish Tambaqui Red-Bellied Piranha Neon Tetra Discus Freshwater Angelfish Tinfoil Barb Assorted Lake Malawi Mbunas Ocellaris Clownfish Tomato Clownfish Emperor Angelfish Moorish Idol Yellow Tang Regal Tang Assorted Surgeonfish Longnose Butterflyfish Assorted Butterflyfish Longnose Hawkfish Red Volitans Lionfish Cleaner Wrasse Humphead Wrasse Giant Grouper Sand Tiger Shark Blacktip Reef Shark Bluespotted Ribbon Ray -Invertebrates Pink-Winged Stick Insect Madagascar Hissing Cockroach Rose-Haired Tarantula Mexican Redknee Tarantula Emperor Scorpion Giant African Millipede Moon Jellyfish
Missing a few species which are also to be found in huge numbers ( just what pop-up in my head ) : - Tiger ( none-subspecified ) - Patagonian mara !!!! - Capybara - Cotton-top tamarin - Black swan - Mute swan - Red-whiskered bulbul Have to think about other but there will undoubtly be a lot more !
Southern white rhino, Burchell's zebra, Red deer, Fallow deer, Red fox, Wild boar, European brown bear, red panda Some of those are probably specific to Europe but very common nonetheless.
Reticulated Giraffe, Amur Leopard, Asian Small Clawed Otter, Western Lowland Gorilla, Allen's Swamp Monkey, American Flamingo, Roseate Spoonbill to name a few....
Pity that other prairie dogs are almost unknown in zoos. Any North American member can know why they cannot be obtained or kept? Utah and Mexican forms are pretty rare in the wild.
Amur leopard and allen's swamp monkey aren't common in Europe Fortunately we here on the other side of the pond have more leopard variety - Sri Lankan, Indian, African, Arabian (kind of), Caucasus, Central African, Javan, North Chinese and North Persian. Rather sadly in the US there are only Amur leopards - or maybe that is a good thing? I don't know.
Every single time I go to a zoo I always see Humans. I mean there are just so many of them its irritating. Definitely over-represented.
Amur Leopard are pretty common - in point of fact more collections in Europe keep them than any other leopard subspecies! Non-subspecific: c.56 collections Amur: c.54 collections Persian: 38 collections North Chinese: 29 collections Sri Lanka: 25 collections African: c.5 collections Javan: 4 collections Indian: 1 collection There are no Arabian or Caucasian Leopards in European collections.
ZTL lists them but they are in Novosibirsk and various zoos in the UAE so not really European I admit.
Not European at all bearing in mind ZTL lists one or two collections which are on the Russian border with North Korea!
ALWAYS have wanted to see the huge Persian and Sri Lankan Leopards. I've read that they get to be nearly lioness sized!
Worth noting several of the mammals listed so far are endangered in the wild, so it could be considered a benefit to the species to be common in captivity. Meerkat on the other hand...
This is true. In Wisconsin I see Prairie Dogs on exhibit at places that aren't even intended to be zoos. People around here really love them, so zoos keep breeding them to keep the public happy.
