Can anyone point me towards a UK or foreign zoo with a good collection (and hopefully breeding history)of mammals from the Xenarthra superorder?
Dortmund Zoo would be an obvious pick as they house 6 out of the 9 species of Xenarthra found in European zoos (and in one house even). I am also fairly certain that they have had very good breeding results with most (if not all) of these species: Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) Southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) Linnaeus' two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus) Big hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus) Six-banded armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus) Nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
The first name to spring to mind is Dortmund - anteater capital of Europe and with 6 xenarthran species in one house (3 Pilosa and 3 Cingulata): http://www.zoochat.com/126/xenarthran-spotting-dortmund-11-05-2009-a-82152/ (the only one of my photos of this house to survive the Great Purge!)
Let's not overlook a collection technically, if not logistically, on your own doorstep: Amazon World. On my recent visit, I saw: Three-banded Armadillo Six-banded Armadillo Lesser Hairy Armadillo Greater Hairy Armadillo Hoffman's Sloth Giant Anteater Tamandua I only know of the Greater Hairy Armadillo breeding, but that's not to say other species haven't. That's not taking anything away from Dortmund's Anteater House though which is one of my favourite zoo places. Whilst the Isle Of Wight is great for a general holiday with enough to keep a zoo nerd ticking over I'd be tempted to go to Dortmund instead which is a great general zoo (with a good small cat collection and a number of other great obscure species too). From Ayr I can't imagine the total travel time and costs would be massively different. You've also got a lot of other top grade zoos near Dortmund too but that's a bit off-thread.
Well neither of them are particularly close but I think I might organize a holiday! Im not massively into/clued up on mammals (more of a bird guy) But I think xenarthra are fascinating and pose interesting problems to house and feed successfully. Walsrode is only about 3-4 hours away from Dortmund isn't it ?
According to google maps about 2,5 hours. Should be easily doable within 3 hours as long as you avoid heavy traffic around the Ruhr area. While you're there, you might just as well pick up the only amazon river dolphin still in captivity at Duisburg
Dortmund is the place to go ! The species count aside, you will have a hard time to find a zoo with nine or ten giant anteaters on show (including offspring and in nice enclosures). Actually I don't think you can find that even in South American zoos.
