Here, we'll talk about animal species that are no longer kept at Brazilian zoos, aquariums and breeding facilities.
I'm sure there was an Indian rhino kept at Sao Paulo zoo around 20 years ago. Does anyone have any info?
Yes, he came from Germany and his name was Nabob. He was kept from 1977 to 1997 until his death at the São Paulo zoo. I've read somewhere that the zoo's team tried hard to bring him a female, but had no success (firstly they tried trading with European zoos and then even asked the king of Nepal to send a female as a gift, but he ignored/denied the requests).
As Enzo said, it's true. I saw a video on youtube of the zoo in the 90's/80's in wich the individual appeared. Not sure about when he passed out though. @Enzo , do you know in wich exhibit this animal lived?
One more interesting species that was formerly kept in Brazil, more specifically at the Belo Horizonte zoo, is the nile crocodile. Probably the only individual that ever lived in our zoos, who was called "Irk", and lived a considerably logn life. He's now taxidermized at the PUC Minas university museum. The following picture is from one of my visits to the zoo, possibly in 2012.
Ah yes. So I imagine the present peccari exhibit, located behind the sea lion enclosures was part of Nabob's paddock, right? It really has the feeling of a megafauna/pachiderm exhibit, due to the moat, as we can see here:
I've read it somewhere, wich I don't remember well, that BH was the only one who ever kept these. Knowing Rio an São Paulo had huge collections in the past, I got surprised with this information, but it seems to be true.
Another very important species to remember is the northern muriqui. The only zoo in the world that ever kept the species was Belo Horizonte, but the single individual that lived there (called "Zidane") has never been exposed to the public. The zoo had the intention to capture a wild female of the species that was living in an eucalyptus field in the city of Manhuaçu, so that both individuals could be together and maybe reproduce. Unfortunately, she was never captured, and the male died in 2015, if I'm not wrong.
Sadly, we've probably never been able to breed those in captivity. I hope one day we manage to capture some in wild and start an ex-situ conservation program.
Yes, you're right. I also hope that our zoos manage to keep them and make a nice ex-situ conservation program indeed. This species desperately needs it, and it's very sad that there are no evidences of efforts for capturing hurted/needy individuals in the wild...
São Paulo zoo kept cheetahs and leopards (common, black and snow ones) untill a relatively recent time. The leopards were part of the collection until at least 1990, and the cheetahs were there until 2005, if I'm not wrong. Malayan tapirs, american (black and grizzly) bears, kangaroos, aoudads, rhinoceros and silvery cheeked hornbills, european bisons, alpacas, african elephants, white headed vultures, european wolves and greater kudus were also part of the institution's collection, as well as a single male gorilla. All these species were slowly phased out in the last 2 decades, being some of them affected by a crisis in 2005 that the zoo suffered, due to a sequence of poisoning cases commited by an employee (who is arrested nowadays, for what I know).
Some of the animals you've listed are still kept by some institutions around the country (Americana, as an example, still has some aoudads). Also, I've read about that case, but did one of the employees actually get arrested?
Yeah, some species are still kept. Besides the aoudads, there are still grizzly bears, kangaroos, african elephants, and mainly gorillas, being kept in other zoos in the country. I was mentioning these cause I was particularly refering to SP zoo, but you're right, we'd better mention mostly the species that were totally phased out of the country. About the crisis in the zoo, I remember reading a woman was arrested for a period, and a few years ago I heard she was still in jail. It seems she had commited other crimes involving wildlife traffic too, and I tend to think she's still contained, once I never heard anything about this case anymore. Besides that, all I remember having read was that five other suspects were being investigated, but probably nothing notable happened after...
Another species that is no longer kept in any zoo in the country are the geladas. In a youtube video @Enzo recently shared, we can see that Piracicaba zoo held the species back in the 80's if I'm not wrong. Also, Belo Horizonte zoo used to keep an unknown number of individuals of this species at least until 2001.
I found a video which shows Nabob (the Indian rhino) back in 1982. The video also shows three elephants, a bear and two zebras:
One of the elephants was the african female individual that lived at the SP zoo until 2018. The others are visibly asian individuals, and if I'm not wrong, the male died during the poisoning cases of 2005. Nabob was living in the present peccari exhibit, as I imagined, and for what I've read and some old maps of the zoo that I saw, the place continued being the rhino exhibit until around 2008. I just don't know wich animal was living in the present rhino exhibit (beside the former african elephant enclosure). The zebras were probably still held in one of the few exhibits that used to be located where nowadays is the environmental education kiosks, in front of the native mammals enclosures; and the bears seem to be living in the present spectacled bear grotto.
Two male reticulated giraffes were rescued from a circus in 2008, and sent to Goiânia zoo. Unfortunately, they died in a very short period after their arrival. Nowadays, the country only keeps west african and rotschild giraffes in it's zoos.
