How many animal species are kept in captivity in the world ? I would guess about 10000. What do you think ? I base this on these figures: Mammals: I dont know how many mammal species are kept in captivity but I will guess about 700 to 1000 Birds: I have read somewhere that about 2500 of the worlds 9000 bird species are kept in captvity Reptiles: Dont know, from 500-1000 Amphibians: Maybe 500 Fish: Very many species of fish are kept. 1500 species are kept by the home aquarium industry alone, So I will guess that 2000-3000 species of fish are kept in captivity Invertebrates: I dont know here either but it is between 500 and 1000 I think. Many of these numbers are only qualifed guesses and estimates, so contribute with your own numbers if you know anything about this. It is highly interesting with all the species in the modern Noahs Ark. Also interesting with animal species that is not in capitvity. Write comments if you know anything more about this.
I think it is probably much less than this. I would guess maybe 5,000. Your figures are grossly overestimated.
I wouldn't say so. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were way more than what he guess found in captivity. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell. There are just too many private collections with rare and not too common species, zoos in exotic countries like the Philippines were native species are held that one might not know are even kept in captivity anywhere, and there are probably a few zoos holding species off-show that people don't know are in captivity. Personally, I've seen well over 700 separate species/subspecies in zoos and that's only with having visited 9 collections! And I suspect that number will grow by 100-200+ after my summer visits to three or four new collections with tons of species I've never seen before. ~Thylo
I also guess there are many more then 10.000 species kept in captive collections, think alone about the many species of stick insects and bird-eating spiders kept by privat breeders. Also small rodents are kept in a large diversity ! 2500 bird-species is also a low number. During the 80-ties Walsrode alone had about 1000 species and in total I alone took care for about 1500 species in 3 public and several privat collections !
Also consider that there are, in fact, undescribed species in zoos today! Two examples are the undescribed Pearl Ray that I've personally seen at the Prospect Park Zoo and the undescribed Mount Kulal Spiny Mouse at the Chester Zoo and in many private collection. Here are pictures of both- http://www.zoochat.com/599/undescribed-species-pearl-ray-317378/ http://www.zoochat.com/42/mount-kulal-spiny-mouse-35764/ ~Thylo
The Zootierliste lists over 10.000 taxons (species, subspecies and domestic breeds) that have been ever kept in european zoos. This includes animals not longer in zoos and hunderts of domestic breeds. But it excludes all the invertebrae and many fish. Based on this and also considering the wast amount of species kept privatelly, I would guess there are over 10.000 species kept in captivity.
I doubt it is anywhere near this number. But, the number is going to be fairly high if you count insects. So, it’s very hard to say. It could very well be in the tens of thousands. I believe that.
