Species We Have Gained Over The Last Quarter Of A Century

Being a “glass half full” kind of person (despite, perhaps paradoxically, managing to be seriously cynical at the same time) I thought the forum needed an optimistic counter to Tea Loving Dave's excellent but more pessimistic, death by a thousand cuts, “Species we have lost over the last quarter of a century” thread.

Whilst we all like a moan, myself included, I think it's important not to forget that whilst many interesting species have been lost we (European zoos) have also gained quite a few nice “new” ones over the last two and a half decades.

So the idea of this thread is to highlight all those species that weren't with us in 1991 but are now (and anything new that comes along in the interim).

I'll start the ball rolling with a short, mammal heavy, list and would welcome others' contributions (especially for birds where I have less historic knowledge, maybe there's very few?):

Chinese Pangolin
Ring-tailed mongoose/vontisa
Narrow-striped mongoose/boky
Gerenuk
Chacoan peccary
Yellow-spotted rock hyrax
Bear cuscus
Short-tailed spotted cuscus
Black & rufous elephant shrew
Checkered elephant shrew
Owston's (palm) civet
Tayra
Smooth-coated otter
Spot-necked otter
Greater grisson
Gharial (?)
Marco Polo sheep
Blue duiker
Iberian lynx
Bornean bearded pig
Visayan warty pig
Baird's tapir

I look forward to other's contributions (or corrections).

And don't waste your breath telling me some of the species are hardly established or dying out in captivity (this thread's a counter to species we've lost and some of those species (lost) we, similarly, never really had in the first place, so there) -it's about the here and now and what we're lucky enough (resources permitting, as always) to be able to see.

 

Great idea for a thread, cheers to your half full glass, 2 that come to mind immediately for me are
Philippine crocodile & golden takin?

 

Excellent topic for a thread.

What about Balabac chevrotain, red duiker and Sulawesi tarsier?

Indeed, Liberec Zoo was the first to receive golden takin; I was fortunate to see them there not long after they arrived.

 

Two mammals that come to mind are Eastern Quoll and Feather-tail Glider.

 

Thanks for your comments so far.

Just thought of another one, Chacoan Mara (lovely little things).

 

I think it's worth pointing out that this thread covers two distinct groups of species. Some species are either entirely new to European zoos or effectively so, as they were previously kept around a hundred years ago, in one of the grand old zoos or in private menageries like the Earl of Derby's: these species could be labelled net gains. But there are also several species which were held in several collections up to the end of the 1970s (or even later), but subsequently died out and have now been reimported and are either now re-established, or we trust that they soon will be. Species on Shorts' list such as grison, tayra and the otters fall into this category and so I think that ZooChat's greybeards, who remember those days, are entitled to call them regains.

My first thought was the aye-aye, but I see that Gerald Durrell brought the first specimens to Jersey in 1990 (along with giant jumping rats). So they just fall outside the 25 year line for this thread, but they are my favourite net gains. Moreover there were more significant arrivals in Jersey in 1990 - the black lion tamarin and the wonderful pied tamarin (if Zootierliste is correct).
The primate I would nominate as a net gain since 1991 is the pygmy slow loris.
The rusty-spotted cat also arrived in 1990, at Howletts, but it's worth a mention too. A regain is Pallas' cat, which was held in several European collections in the '70s, but is now re-established.
Off the top of my head, I would also mention the Australian water rat and the Philippine cloud rats which I think qualify as regains, if not as net gains.

It would need a lot of research to make a detailed list of birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes, as many species were imported by the pet trade before they appeared in zoos. I think many species which are relatively common in trade have been imported for the first time since 1991. Off the top of my head I would suggest that many Malagasy species, including chameleons, Mantella frogs and cichlids would qualify, as would New Caledonian geckos, Lygodactylus day geckos and many arrow poison frogs.

Alan

 

There were already aye-ayes in Europe when Durrell brought them to Jersey in 1990; I first saw the species in Vincennes Zoo (Paris) in 1987; I believe they arrived there the previous year.

(Of course London Zoo’s first aye-aye was more than a century earlier back in 1862!)

Again, I think that there were already rusty-spotted cat in Europe when Howletts acquired them in 1990; I saw them on several occasions at Frankfurt Zoo during the 1980s.

 

Fair enough about the aye-ayes, it pushes the date back a little further than 1990. I should have been subspecific about the Sri Lankan rusty-spotteds too
This a complicated subject!
I have been thinking about it a little more and there is one particular group of species which we have gained since 1991 - the species which have been discovered and described since that year. For example the pin-striped damba (Paretroplus menarambo) was only described in 1992. I'm not sure if any zoo mammals or birds fall into this category, but there must be several reptiles, amphibia and fishes that do.

Alan

 

The interesting question is what species we will still have in 25 years. The rapid turn over of many species in captivity is alarming. Zoos really need to learn how to maintain populations long-term. It is worrying how lax some collections are with such important species as Aye-ayes. There needs to be more investment in keeping Aye-ayes correctly. Keeping them in nocturnal houses, which seems to be the norm, is akin to keeping them in deprivation chambers.

 

Were there Javan green magpies in Europe before Chester's import?
Aye Ayes seem to be doing rather well now, more collections breeding them.
Giant anteaters seem to be spreading at quite a rate

A few more;
Tasmanian wombat
Red backed bearded saki
Palawan binturong
Common cusimanse??
Spotted fanaloka
Eastern & Southern aardwolf
Arabian striped hyena
Crab eating raccoon??
Southern tree hyrax
Arabian rock hyrax
Northern warthog (from the original Dutch import?)
Greater mouse deer
American caribou
Philippine deer
Black lechwe?
Libyan Barbary sheep

 

An interesting list:-

I think that Mulhouse Zoo was first European zoo in comparatively recent times to receive Prince Alfred’s deer (Philippine spotted deer) although that was slightly before the “last quarter of a century” timeline of this thread.

I thought about mentioning fanaloka (a particular favourite species of mine) on an earlier post in this thread; however, to the best of my knowledge there are none in Europe other than at the RSCC and since that is now, sadly, closed to the public I didn’t include them as I thought this thread was only about species in zoos open to the public not about those in private collections.

 

I knew it was tight to the time limit with the deer along with the cusimanse too.
Hopefully RSCC will do a couple of open days.
Are there still Alaskan moose in Europe?

 

Zootierliste is good but there are gaps.

The first European import of Arabian rock hyrax was not in 2011; London Zoo acquired this form more than a century earlier in 1908.

 

Sumatran Laughingthrush aka Black-and-white Laughingthrush, now maintained at quite a number of zoos as part of a breeding project since the wild population is disappearing fast. It might have been kept before (as a subspecies of White-crested Laughingthrush), but I guess not.

It looks like the related Blue-crowned Laughingthrush, another species now maintained many places as part of a breeding project, just barely falls outside the time limit (having been present since 1989, per zootierliste).

 

The Black-and white laughing thrush was surtainly kept before 1989, I had one myself 1986 and he species was seen regualary in the trade in the mid-1980. If I remember correctly I've seen them also at Rotterdam Zoo in those days. Will up-load a ( VERY bad ) photo of the bird in my privat collection from around 1986 in the Netherlands - others Gallery.

 

1 complete new species coming into captivity during this period was the Montserrat oriole. Durrell / Jersey recieved the first birds 1999 and now a small number of ( European ) collections are keeping and breeding them.
Another species which came to Durrell / Jersey in the same year can also be found in a number of collections but is not completly new - London Zoo already kept Mountain chickens during the 1880-ties.
If we blend-out that Cleres in France kept Rose-bellied bunting(s?) around 1969, this can also be seen as a "new" species, 2 Dutch collections keeping it at the moment.