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What wild mammals have you seen in zoos?

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by animalszoos, 10 Apr 2017.

  1. Jurek7

    Jurek7 Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Zoo Winnipeg has wild Richardson's ground squirrels. They are numerous also in city parks, on mowed lawns of official buildings, on motorway verges etc.

    Zoos in Europe protect european ground squirrels, which are almost identical. I wonder if they could be kept semi-free on grass lawns of zoos in Europe. I even had a radical idea that european and spotted sousliks could be saved by transplanting them from almost disappeared short-grass steppes to urban and man-made habitats like city lawns, motorway verges etc.
     
  2. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    A couple more I remembered:
    nutria (Gladys Porter Zoo)
    armadillo (Fossil Rim)
     
  3. Merintia

    Merintia Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Very few... Apart of House Mouses and Brown Rats (and not sure if those can be consider wild), I only can remember Red Squirrels in some German zoos, Grey Squirrels at Bronx and Queens zoos, European Rabbits at Madrid Zoo and what I think was a Desert Cottontail at the San Diego Zoo.
     
  4. Pleistohorse

    Pleistohorse Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Muskrat at the Mystic Aquarium
    Harbor Porpoise from the deck at the Alaska Marinelife Center
    Red Fox at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
    American Red Squirrel at the Alaska Zoo
    Eastern Grey Squirrel at the Bronx Zoo
    Eastern Fox Squirrel at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
    Rock Squirrel at the San Antonio Zoo and the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
    California Ground Squirrel at Wildlife Safari
    Eastern Chipmunk at the Beardsley Zoo
    Townsend's Chipmunk at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park
    Feral Domestic Cat at the Honolulu Zoo*
    Eastern Cottontail at the Nashville Zoo and Woodland Park Zoo
    Colombian Blacktail Deer at Wildlife Safari (just on the other side of the fence)

    *I'll count the cat
     
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  5. Azamat Shackleford

    Azamat Shackleford Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Eastern grey squirrels, eastern chipmunks and fox squirrels in Detroit.

    A marsh rabbit at SeaWorld Orlando.

    Eastern chipmunks and Eastern cottontails (the rabbits in the sloth bear enclosure! :p ) at Toledo.

    Lots of chipmunks and squirrels at Belle Isle Nature Zoo.

    Other places too but I don't keep track xD
     
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    a few others I remembered: three-striped palm squirrel, five-striped palm squirrel, Prevost's squirrel, European rabbit, stoat, and brush-tailed possum.
     
  7. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

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    I believe Zamosc zoo in Poland has done exactly this with Spotted Sousliks.
     
  8. Jana

    Jana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Sousliks are unfortunatelly sensitive to feral cat predation. That makes most european cities unsuitable habitat for them I think.

    Czech conservationists indeed try to reintroduce sousliks to man-made habitats with some success - local airports, golf courses and similar places. Some producers of Moravian wine recently put a certificate on bottles, stating their souslik-friendly management of vineyards where they keep short grass between grapevine lines and so create usable space for souslik colonies.
     
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  9. Azamat Shackleford

    Azamat Shackleford Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I went to the Detroit Zoo today and my list remains the same, basically squirrels and chipmunks (a rabbit if you're lucky)
     
  10. Jurek7

    Jurek7 Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Cats in turn are vurnerable to being run over by cars, so sousliks could thrive on motorway verges and large road criss-cross motorway areas.

    Also some industrial and municipal institutions, military and sport areas and open grass-lawns have large grassy spaces with no shrubs, giving no hiding places for hunting cats.
     
  11. bongorob

    bongorob Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    rabbit, grey squirrel, unidentified shrew, brown rat, field vole, water vole, house mouse
     
  12. Grant Rhino

    Grant Rhino Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    At my local zoo (Werribee Open Range Zoo) on the outskirts of Melbourne, I've seen the following:

    Swamp wallabies
    Brushtail possums
    Ringtail possums
    Platypus (yes - the zoo has a river running through it)
    Rabbits (introduced species)
    Various bats

    And for the non-mammals:

    Australian pelicans
    Cape Barren geese
    Fairy wrens
    Birds of prey
    Owls
    Mallards
    Snakes
     
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  13. Neil chace

    Neil chace Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I saw a baby deer at the Cleveland Zoo a few years ago. Squirrels and waterfowl go without saying as the most commonly seen animals wild in zoos. I do know that at the Capron Park Zoo, the kookaburea has been known to kill ANYTHING that gets into its exhibit.
     
  14. Mbwamwitu

    Mbwamwitu Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Best I've seen is the black-and-white colobus monkeys in Uganda Wildlife Education Center, Entebbe. Another good one I've seen are the Indian flying fox roosts at Mumbai Zoo.

    White-tailed deer at the National Zoo (DC) are hilarious - I remember first seeing them in with the elephants and thinking it was a mixed exhibit. It's cool how peacefully at least some of the female elephants go about their days with the deer hanging a few feet away. From the bridge above the exhibit, it felt like you could have been somewhere in India or Nepal watching the elephants graze with hog deer.
     
  15. Vision

    Vision Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I've seen this thread in the past and thought about replying, but apparently never have! Like most others here I've seen squirrels, rats, mice, voles, rabbits etc of multiple species in zoos. Some of my most exciting ones however are:
    -Lesser dog-faced fruit bats (a roosting group in Singapore Zoo's orangutan house);
    -Colugos (a male and a female in the Singapore Night Safari, one on each of my visits in 2016);
    -Crab-eating macaques (groups in both Singapore Zoo, on top of the proboscis monkey exhibit, and in Taman Safari II Indonesia, where a group entered the Asian mixed drive-through exhibit);
    -Javan lutung (a single animal in Taman Safari II Indonesia, that startled their entire group of proboscis monkeys);
    -Rock hyrax (a group of animals in the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre that had settled inside the 'zoo');
    -European mole (a moving molehill in Parc des Felins).
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2019
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  16. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    -Eastern Cottontail (many zoos)
    -House Mouse (Brookfield, Como Park, Smithsonian National)
    -Norway Rat (Smithsonian National)
    -Eastern Gray Squirrel (many zoos)
    -American Red Squirrel (many zoos)
    -Eastern Chipmunk (many zoos)
    -Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel (Racine, Manitowoc Lincoln Park, Brookfield)
    -Eastern Fox Squirrel (Lone Elk Park)
    -White-Tailed Deer (many zoos)
    -Northern Raccoon (Brookfield, Saint Louis)
     
  17. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Here are some off the top of my head.

    Mammals
    - Red-legged Pademelon (David Fleay Wildlife Park)
    -Common Brushtail Possum (Ipswich Nature Centre)
    - Black Flying Fox / Little Red Flying Fox/ Grey Headed Flying Fox (Ipswich Nature Centre)

    Birds
    - Brush Turkey (most zoos- mainly more tropical/lush zoos)
    -Waterbirds i.e. egrets, cormorants, herons, Magpie geese, ducks (David Fleay, Australia Zoo, Currumbin, Dreamworld, Wildlife HQ, Werribee)
    - Peaceful Dove (the former Alma Park Zoo)
    -Galah (Darling Downs Zoo)
    - Red-rumped Parrot (Darling Downs Zoo)
    -Eastern Yellow Robin (Australia Zoo)
    -Bell Miner/ White-browed Scrubwren/ Red Wattlebird/ Blackbird/ Spotted Turtle Dove/ Silver Gull (Melbourne Zoo)
    -Rainbow Lorikeet/ Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (Lone Pine, Currumbin)
    -Brown Songlark (Darling Downs Zoo)
    -Noisy Miner/ Torresian Crow (everywhere)

    Reptiles
    -Eastern Water Dragon (everywhere)
    -Macquarie Turtle (most Queensland zoos)
    -Green Tree Snake (Australia Zoo)
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2019
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  18. Kudu21

    Kudu21 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I would say the most exciting wild mammal species I have seen in a zoo is the moholi bushbaby— there is a very healthy population of them living on the grounds of the National Zoo of South Africa.
     
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  19. Black Footed Beast

    Black Footed Beast Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Groundhogs in the Pygmy Hippo exhibit of Brookfield, and there were ones in most of the exhibits with the pygmy hippo
     
  20. Hyak_II

    Hyak_II Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Mmm, lets see, nothing too special for me:

    Coyotes, Red Squirrels, House Mice, and a porcupine at Edmonton Valley Zoo
    Chipmunks in a number of the pavilions at the Toronto Zoo
    Prairie Dogs at Discovery Wildlife Park (one of which was caught and consumed by a Jaguar, very cool to see!)
    House Mice in the gorilla exhibit, and huge Eastern Grey Squirrels all over at Calgary Zoo
    A partial leucistic Fox Squirrel in the elephant exhibit at the Dallas Zoo
    A little bunny hopping around at the Houston Zoo
    More little bunnies hopping around at various zoo's in the southern states.

    I'm certain I've seen more, but nothing memorable.
     
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