The tayra (Eira barbara) is a fantastic zoo animal: active (sometimes), attractive, striking. And yet they are exhibited in only a few European zoos. However, they are present at a number of fairly odd places. in addition to Berlin, where a pair have been in situ in the carnivore house for several years (wild-caught, I believe), and Prague, the animals can also be found at Exmoor Zoo, and some pretty obscure places in Switzerland and Holland. They are also listed at being at Kent's RSCC, but whether they remain there I do not know. I have read mention that they are planned for both South Lakes (imminently) and Chester (less imminently). Can anybody shine any light on how these smaller zoos have come to get hold of this wonderful species? And is there any hope that they may become a more mainstream sight in European zoos in the years ahead?
Beautiful and striking as they are Tayra are unlikely to increase to any great extent in European collections because they are not recommended in the EAZA small carnivore collection plan. They would compete for enclosure space needed to expand the programmes for, fossa, yellow-throated marten, Owston,s civet, wolverine etc which are recommended. EAZA would also not encourage the aquisition of wild caught animals of low conservation value. However smaller specialist collections such as Papiliorama in Switzerland ( hardly obscure, its very good and well known in Switzerland) which only display South American species, are the perfect places to keep them, when there is limited interest from larger collections.
Sorry - I possibly sounded a little high-handed in calling these collections 'obscure'. But good though it may be - I do not know, as I have not visited it - Papilorama is not (yet) a major mainstream zoo. Looking at its web-site, it reminded me a little of Amazon World in the Isle of Wight. This may be an unfair verdict!
Just a note, please don't go restarting old threads unless you feel you add information of value or start a potential discussion. It's one of the rules, but it also saves replying to threads which involve members who are no longer active.
It is interesting that ZTL now lists 20 European holders of Tayra, including 6 in Germany and 4 each in the UK and the Netherlands so it appears Sooty got his wish!
