Rising and Disappearing Species

@ gentle lemur : gentle lemur meets gentle lemur ----> LOL
@ TLD : didn't know about the split of the Red ruffed lemur and also not about the real third subspecies of the Black and white ruffed lemur, thanks for this information !

 

Which US zoos still have lion-tailed macaques?

 

San Diego had six(?) as of May 2014. They're still listing them on the site, so I imagine that they're still there. And if memory serves, SF's lion-tailed macaque was sent to a facility in Texas.

That's kind of depressing. I just learned of the existence of a couple species over this past week, but it sounds like they'll never become prevalent across the States due to the AZA's phase out program.

Hopefully it isn't the same in the UK.

 

I hope it didn't go to a lab in Texas. That makes three that I know of that still have them as I know Detroit has at least five and Cheyenne Mountain says they have them on their site. I was curious which other zoos had them. While primates are not my main interest in zoos I have been intrigued by this species lately.

 

I'm not sure in relation to these rarer Primate species in the UK if there is a deliberate 'phase-out' programme as there are frequently not enough left for the term to be used. They just seem to dwindle until they virtually die out, or the last survivors are shipped off to join other groupings in Europe.

In the UK Guenons are really at a low, even Dianas and De Brazzas, still numerically the highest, are only kept by a handful of collections each. One or two singletons/pairs of e.g. Roloway and Whiteside's Guenon (from Twycross) and Dianas(from Newquay & Exmoor) too have been sent to join European groups and another singleton(red-tailed) has gone to a Monkey Sanctuary.. There are now just 0.2 Swamp Monkeys at one zoo(Paignton) which were supposed to join the American programme but the decision seems to have reversed and they now appear to be staying put at least for the present.(This species is very limited in Europe now-only about six left).

Mangabeys have seen something of an increase in recent years though- no Sooty anymore but there are groups of Red- Capped at two Zoos (three including Ireland) White-naped at two (three including Ireland), and Grey-cheeked at one in Ireland.

Most macaques are a rarity in the UK now, except the more endangered Sulawesi Crested Macaque which is more common in UK zoos than anywhere else in Europe, and Lion-tailed which is still kept(either contracepted or breeding) by several collections. There is also one large colony of Barbary Macaque at a specialised 'Monkey Forest' attraction.

 

I must retract my Texas comment. Per the keeper at SFZ, both macaques were shipped off to Detroit about a year ago. So, our count still stands at three zoos.*

* - The National Zoo also lists lion tailed macaques on their site, but I don't see an exhibit for them on the map.

** - Woodland Park Zoo also appears to still have them. They were there last April, and they're still listed as being on exhibit in Tropical Asia section.

Thanks for that. It's quite intriguing. I haven't been to a lot of zoos yet, but, for example, I've only ever seen De Brazza's at one location. Yet, black-and-white colobus, again for example, seem to be at every facility. One might be forgiven in thinking that the latter was more prevalent in the wild. The SSP has to prioritize species, of course, but it's sort of a letdown to see the same species at all zoos. Primates seem to be an excellent place to differentiate.

Oh, and getting back to the thread topic -- jaguars seem to be on the rise here on the West Coast.

 

I know some Primate species are rarer, or even absent, in the US which are commoner in Europe, and vice versa.

Examples; Drill- commoner in Europe. 'Phaseout' in USA?
Lion-tailed Macaque- evidently commoner in Europe now.
Hamlyn's Monkey. No longer in USA? Few in Europe now.
Swamp Monkey. Few in USA but still more than in Europe.
Wolf's Guenon. In the USA but none in Europe afaik.

Black and White Colobus are very easy to keep and free breeders too, hence why they are seen in so many Zoos- in Europe its the same, while many Guenons, even the commoner ones like De Brazza and Dianas seem comparatively poor breeders in Zoo situations, hence they are numerically much rarer.

 

I'm finding Ring-tailed in the rescue/sanctuary zoos. They are so common in captivity in the US that they are part of the "exotic pet" trade. Back in the late 90's, I saw some in a rescue zoo. Those lemurs were purchased as an exotic pet, then when the lemurs reached adulthood, they were surrendered because they couldn't be controlled. Now they are in all the rescue/sanctuary zoos that will take them.

 

I think that's right about the Drill - I think I mentioned earlier both drill species (Drill and Mandrill) have been phased out of Brookfield and Lincoln Park here. I find the latter a bit funny because I believe wikipedia's Drill article uses an image from LPZ.

 

Another group of animals seen very rarely 20 - 30 years ago and now quite commomly disclayed are the larger shark-species. In earlier days we got to see normaly only Nurse sharks but now species like Hammerhead and Reefsharks can be seen in almost every larger Aquarium.

 

This is a good point, I know at least one midwestern zoo has a shark tunnel now. I remember before 2003 when I hated the lack of sharks at the Shedd Aquarium - just tiny bonnetheads and a recently deceased nurse. The Wild Reef opening was a huge deal for me and it added a dozen shark species, and that was over ten years ago now. Brookfield also just acquired some additional leopard sharks and boonetheads I think.

A local pet store also had some juvenile leopard, nurse and blacktip reef sharks for a while in a small pool but they haven't had them in quite a while and I know the blacktips were gone as soon as they outgrew the pool.

 

Maybe you still can't say they're common, but Visayan warty pigs have experienced quite an uprise, haven't they? At least in European zoos. I felt a bit like a weirdo for never having seen them before July this year.

Also, another species that was never common, but at least was on display in a few zoos some years ago - the Virginia opossum. It's gone from European zoos now as far as I know. Zootierliste still lists Ree Park as holding them, but I'm 99 % sure they don't keep them anymore. I just won't delete their entry until I've had it outright confirmed.

And here in Denmark, every freaking zoo apparently needs to have meerkats and ring-tailed lemurs. Though meerkats are mostly the domain of small zoos - of the major zoos, only Aalborg keeps them. But every single zoo in the country with the exception of Randers Regnskov and places with a specific theme that doesn't include lemurs (aquaria, native species etc.) has ring-tailed lemurs now. And since Randers swapped their red-bellied lemurs with the more mainstream white-faced brown lemur and black-and-white ruffed lemur, they may go all the way and get ring-tailed lemurs sooner or later.

 

As meerkats take over the zoo-world, other small carnivores are vanishing. I was surprised to find recently that neither Zootierliste nor ZIMS records a single zoo holding Zorilla (Ictonyx striatus). Does anyone know of a collection still holding this species?

 

They have indeed- their rise in UK zoos has been almost explosive. I put that down to being (like the non-endangered Red River Hog before it) a free-breeding species in captivity, meaning surplus are available for other collections, also they are easy/cheap to build enclosures for, and also classified as endangered, so they score in three different ways. I don't know its exact status but imagine the captive population could soon outnumber that in the wild if it isn't the case already.

 

You're right - it's just that in Denmark, white-fronted lemurs have been kept in at least half a dozen different zoos while Randers was the only one to ever keep red-bellied lemurs.

Speaking of rising/disappearing species, ruffed lemurs (both black-and-white and red) may be taking the white-fronted lemurs place as the second-most common lemur in Danish zoos as the latter have disappeared from a couple of places in recent years, while the former have become more common.

 

Not mentioned many birds sofar but a species very rare about 20 years ago and now quite common is the Steller's Sea-eagle - they even can be seen in Flight-shows now - see this picture http://www.zoochat.com/457/stellers-sea-eagle-376285/ !
On the other hand, the Great Indian hornbill, a bird which could be found in almost every zoo or even the smallest birdpark about 30 years ago, has almost disappeared !