What's an animal a local zoo has that is rarely seen otherwise?

I actually think Barbary lions are regionally extinct, so they only survive out of there native range.

 

Huh. So every zoo claiming to have Barbary lions aren't actually true Barbary lions? That's kinda strange. So I guess many books and websites would have the information that Barbary lions are indeed in captivity, are false. That's pretty inaccurate. Even some high-level animal textbooks I own say that Barbary lions are kept in captivity. That's new to me. Thanks for explaining.

 

Beyond crocs (thanks to the recent thread), I'm not confident in what herps are rare at these places.

Philly has aye-aye, blue-eyed black lemur, coquerel's sifaka, giant jumping rat, giant otter, desert crocodile, dwarf crocodile.

Smithsonian Zoo has giant panda, dwarf mongoose, black-footed ferret, brush-tailed bettong, northern luzon giant cloud rat, northern tree shrew, sand cat, Philippine crocodile, gharial, cuban crocodile, tomistoma, japanese giant salamander.

National Aquarium has smooth-fronted caiman, freshwater crocodile, bottlenose dolphin, northern searobin, longsnout spider crab, pineconefish, giant talking catfish, lovely poison dart frog (and terrible poison dart frog, to even it out), anthony's poison dart frog, largetooth sawfish, spotted lagoon jelly, purple-striped jelly, flower hat jelly, and probably plenty more, but those are the ones that have stood out.

Maryland Zoo has west african slender-snouted crocodile, blue duiker, okapi, polar bear.

I wish they were common here Closest is 3 hours, several hours more to the next closest.

Pale fox is starting to appear in the pet trade lately, so I imagine their zoo population will start to grow. A couple of places have added them in the last year or two. Unfortunately they're mostly traveling zoos.

 

Tuatara springs to mind for Chester.

 

Polar bears, okapis & dwarf crocs don’t seem to be rare over here in the states.

 

Going along with these Philadelphia also has Black-and-rufous Elephant Shrews, Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine, Guam Rail, Mariana Fruit-Dove, and Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise. National Aquarium has Razorbills, Plains Death Adders, and TONS of interesting turtles including Irwin's Turtle, Yellow-faced Turtle, Northern Snake-necked Turtle, Big-headed Amazon River Turtle, and more. Maryland Zoo also has Coquerel's Sifakas.

Cape May County Zoo has Two-toed Amphiuma.
Elmwood Park Zoo has Black-footed Ferret and Montezuma Quail
Adventure Aquarium (Camden) has Little Penguins

 

Does Maryland not have one anymore?

 

For Toronto, the biggest rarity is Chamois as they're the only holder in North America. Some other animals that are uncommon: Moose, Short-Beaked Ecidna, Mangarahara Cichlid and Betsiboka Killifish (these final two I don't know much about but they seem to be pretty rare).

 

Turtleback has white-bellied tree pangolins and Lake Titicaca frogs. Bronx has Kihansi spray toads and maleos.

 

Chamois are just beautiful animals, I adore them.

 

I want to list some rarity’s from my other home zoos, como, Lake Superior & Dallas(if anyone is wondering, I have family in Texas, so I visit Dallas zoo every year, and consider it my second home zoo)

Como has a few rarity’s like dalls sheep, African lungfish, blue eyed black lemurs and the plethora of rare bird, only four of wich I know about.

Lake Superior has central Chinese goral, brush tailed bettong, southern flying squirrel, large spotted genet, kinkajou, and Pygmy slow loris.

Dallas has Somali wild ass, Kordofan aoudad, spectacled langur, tuataras, African fishing eagles, scimitar horned oryx, and possibly more reptiles and birds I either don’t know about or forgot about.

 

Colchester Zoo keep the Fisher's estuarine moth (Gortyna borelii lunata) - I've not heard of them being kept in captivity anywhere else.

Of course you won't see them even at Colchester, as they live in an off-show breeding centre.

Some other species that spring to mind are the red-backed bearded saki (only four zoos in Europe, according to Zootierliste), Gariau forest dragon (only in five European zoos) and Mindanao rufous hornbill (also only in five zoos). Also, if Zootierliste is accurate, Colchester are the only place in Europe with rosy bitterling Rhodeus ocellatus.

 

I've never even heard of the Fisher's estuarine moth so there you go, I've learnt about the existence of a new species today

 

Such a great feeling, learning a new species, isn't it?

 

Its one of the best feelings in the world IMO, discovering something new about our complex world whether it be biology related or otherwise.

 

A few mammals from my local zoos off the top of my head that I guess would be uncommon/non-existent elsewhere (for birds, herptiles and fish it's probably a bit difficult to actually distinguish what is uncommon and what isn't):

Whiptail Wallaby – Darling Downs Zoo, Walkabout Creek Nature Centre
Proserpine Rock Wallaby – David Fleay Wildlife Park
Black-footed Rock Wallaby – Australia Zoo
Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby – David Fleay Wildlife Park
Short-eared Brushtail Possum – Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Wildlife HQ and David Fleay Wildlife Park (not currently on-display at any of these places)

 

It saddens me that so few of these are on exhibit in the West, especially because they are threatened by the disgusting bear bile trade in SE Asia, which is one of the cruelest forms of animal torture. They used to be quite abundant, but more and more are taken every year from the wild because the demand for their bile keeps skyrocketing. Traditional Chinese Medicine will drive half of the world’s megafauna to extinction

As an aside, I like the name moon bear better, it fits cutely alongside the sun bears!!

 

Only 5 places have the dwarf croc species (others may possibly, but don't label at species level). Polar bears and okapi aren't necessarily rare, but their numbers are dwindling in the US.

Behind the scenes as an ambassador animal, and it costs several hundred $ for an adult to see the ambassadors.