Zootierliste is a European website that keeps track of all the (vertebrate) species held in European zoos. Recently (as in: today) they expanded their range to worldwide. ZTL already included a few non-European countries, most notably New Zealand and Singapore, but can now also include any zoo we add (I think/hope). So I want to encourage you all to collect species lists for the zoos of Africa. Now, I'm not an official spokeperson of Zootierliste, but I have helped them with species lists before. So here's a quick guide of how you can help: Send an email to [email protected], including the name and city of the zoo. Maybe the country as well, just to be safe (Emerald Resort Animal World in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. The Gambian Reptiles Farm in Kartong, the Gambia. Etc.), as well as the date of your visit. And of course, the species list for the zoo (preferably including Latin names as well). I'd suggest sending separate mails for separate zoos, to avoid confusion. Just a species list is already helpful, but including additional information would be even better! Here's some examples of additional information (and examples of the examples using my home zoo): - Species amounts (Example: Burgers' Zoo currently has 1.1 Aardvarks and 0.0.50+ Redhead cichlids) - Recent births (0.2 West Indian manatees were born in Burgers' Zoo in 2023) (unrecent births are also welcome of course) - Separate group holdings (Burgers' Zoo has a breeding group of Blue-backed grassquits in Burgers' Bush and a male bachelor group in Burgers' Mangrove) - Mixed species enclosures (The Black-tailed prairiedogs in Burgers' Desert are held with North American tree porcupines and Collared peccaries) - Specific regions (The Javan bantengs are held in "Burgers' Rimba") - Whether of not the species are signed or seen (0.0.1 Nile tilapia is held in Burgers' Bush (Seen, but not signed)) - Where the zoo has received the animals from (Burgers' Zoo received Baringo yellowfish from Wageninger University) - In some cases, ZTL also likes to include names for certain large animals, but this is usually only in the case of animals like Elephants or Gorillas. I personally don't include them but you can if you want to Here's how I usually format my emails to ZTL: But again, any info is appreciated! Hopefully we can all help expand Zootierliste to African zoos in 2024! For now, happy zoo-ing!
