Rtas' main collection

Yes, they are... but I never found one myself in a zoo!
I checked and its really the most common armadillo of all in zoos!!!!!! It's also present in two zoos that I've visited (Berlin and Faunia), but I didn't saw them here. By casuality, while I visited a lot of zoos, almost all of them don't have this common species!

I understand. I had a similar feeling when we talked about red river hogs and you told me they were very common in zoos. I have only seen one once and no French zoo I visited keeps any.

I also was very surprised when I looked at your San Diego zoo pics and read "One of the rarest reptilian treasures of the zoo, the Ethiopian mountain adder!" since it's a species I can see one hour away from my hometown, in a reptile centre I have known since my childhood :
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V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

a) Mongooses

Species : Meerkat
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- Schleich 14362 Meerkat, Sitting (2007-2014)
- Schleich 14368 Meerkat, Standing (2007-2016)

Fun facts :
- The standing meerkat has been re-released this year as part of the animal rescue large truck set : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
- I got the sitting meerkat first but obviously, that's the standing one I wanted so I kept searching and was really delighted when I finally found it. Both were bought in toy shops during my figure hunts.
- I have seen meerkats in zoos.

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

b) Viverrids

Species : African civet
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Figure on this picture : CollectA 88824 African Civet (2018-still in production)

Fun facts :
- This civet was a very good idea from CollectA, as there were almost no viverrids in main brands' range before it was released. I hesitated over buying it or not as I was unaware of its size but finally decided to take the risk 'cos it was a too fantastic species to be missed. I was not disappointed at all !
- There are only promo pics of the African civet on TAI, so my picture may be used to illustrate that page.
- I ordered it from my favourite Ebay seller.
- I have never seen an African civet but I have seen a rare Malayan civet in Pont-Scorff zoo.

Very nice Ben :)

I am happy for you that you could manage a way to get a standing meerkat. We surely love unusual poses but if there' no standing meerkat, it looks something is missing. I have a few meerkats, my favorite are Papo although I only have the crazy sitting one.
CollectA African civet is an extraordinary figure, not only a fantastic species, never noticed TAW pics were promotional, we avoid using them. I will use yours, thanks.

I'm missing a meerkat in my collection... It's a species I would love to have, since even when it's not a particularly strange animal, it remains of Timon, from the Lion King (which is, definitely, the film that represents my childhood...).
However, I cannot decide myself to get one. Papo's are quite big, and have a strange look on their eyes (I have seen them in person and... there's sth strange with them...).
Schleich are nowadays unaffordable for me, but the re-relase looks really great (though I'm not buying all that set just for the meerkat).
And the rest of major (western) brands don't have a good enough model either (in my humble opinion)...

So, what do you think? What should I do?

That's a superb photo of this beautiful snake. IN SDZ I've seen the species for first time but since then I've seen in another different zoo.
And continuing with zoos - it's impossible to NOT see merkaats in zoo, hahaha. I think that soon they will surpass the common peafowl as the most common of all wild animals in zoo. Every zoo have this and, what is much worst, there is a tendency of sustitute exhibits of rarer species by meerkat exhibits

African civet is in my wishlist, once the quarantine pass and I can start buying again, I hope to find it in my favourite CollectA shop :) African civets are spectacular and easy to keep, and they should be more widely kept in zoos. You're very lucky with the Malay civet as now the species is completely absent from Europe since the last one in Berlin tierpark died two years ago. I saw the Berlin individual, but it was before I had a decent camera, I had only a compact camera with very little zoom (3x) and was unable to get a presentable photo.

SerAndrew wrote:

I'm missing a meerkat in my collection... It's a species I would love to have, since even when it's not a particularly strange animal, it remains of Timon, from the Lion King (which is, definitely, the film that represents my childhood...).
However, I cannot decide myself to get one. Papo's are quite big, and have a strange look on their eyes (I have seen them in person and... there's sth strange with them...).
Schleich are nowadays unaffordable for me, but the re-relase looks really great (though I'm not buying all that set just for the meerkat).
And the rest of major (western) brands don't have a good enough model either (in my humble opinion)...

So, what do you think? What should I do?

Papo meerkats are better detailed than Schleich meerkats but they are also much bigger and if you are looking for Timon, I would say the Schleich standing meerkat is his perfect replica ! When such small animals are concerned, figures are necessarily too large but still, the smaller the better. The Schleich ones are nice enough and since we have very similar collecting tastes and tend to prefer Schleich's touch over Papo's, I would recommend you to go for Schleich. I found pretty affordable deals on ebay for you, I will send you a PM Andrés.

Pardofelis wrote:

And continuing with zoos - it's impossible to NOT see merkaats in zoo, hahaha. I think that soon they will surpass the common peafowl as the most common of all wild animals in zoo. Every zoo have this and, what is much worst, there is a tendency of sustitute exhibits of rarer species by meerkat exhibits

You're wrong ! The most common species in zoos is indubitably the ring-tailed lemur Even in the Feline's park, an incredible zoo exclusively dedicated to big and smaller cats close to Paris (with amazing species like Asian golden cat, rusty spotted cat or Canadian lynx), there are ring-tailed lemurs !

Pardofelis wrote:

You're very lucky with the Malay civet as now the species is completely absent from Europe since the last one in Berlin tierpark died two years ago. I saw the Berlin individual, but it was before I had a decent camera, I had only a compact camera with very little zoom (3x) and was unable to get a presentable photo.

I came back many times to the exhibit and finally saw it in the evening, just before the zoo closed. I think it is the only civet I saw in my life as all the others always stayed hidden in their shelters.

Peafowl top the list with over 400 more zoos housing them.

V Mammals

H) Carnivorans

1) Feliforms

c) Hyenas

Species : Spotted hyena, striped hyena
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Figures on this picture (from left to right) :
- Papo 50252 Hyena (2019-still in production)
- Schleich 14735 Hyena (2015-still in production)
- CollectA 88566 Striped Hyena (2012-still in production)

Fun facts :
- As I try to adapt my number of figures to the species' social behaviour, I am willing to get as many spotted hyenas as possible ! That's why I bought Papo's and will surely get Mojo's.
- In my opinion, the 14735 spotted hyena is one of Schleich's late masterpieces, along with the American bison, gemsbok, gorillas, moose bull and dromedary mare.
- Even though I like it, there was something wrong about Papo's hyena I did not find out until Caracal repainted the one I sent him. Indeed, Papo's mould fits much better as a striped hyena.
- CollectA's striped hyena is too big compared with my other two hyenas but I accept it because it is a very nice model and I do not usually display them together as my spotted hyenas are in Africa while I choose to put my striped hyena in India.
- I bought the Schleich spotted hyena in my favourite Schleich shop and the Papo in that toy shop close to my job. I ordered the striped hyena from my favourite Ebay seller.
- I have seen spotted hyenas only in Beauval. I have seen striped hyenas only once, in a poor, dilapidated, shameful zoo where animals were kept in dirty and too small enclosures. The striped hyenas had nowhere to take shelter from the sun during hot summer days. I did not think those kind of animal prisons still existed nowadays before visiting it...

I agree the Schleich spotted hyena is an excellent figure. I don't have it yet because I have already a few hyenas but I like it better than old Schleich and Papo or Safari's. I may acquire it someday. The newer Papo is completely out from my conjectures once I can't repaint it as a striped and I am quite happy with my collectA's. Maybe, I probably haven't bought yet the Schleich figure because I have a little hope that CollectA releases a spotted hyena soon and the new models of this company are almost always improving everything we know. Though, my absolute favourite of them all is the Bayala custom by Kosta!

Interesting! So you choose the so much critiziced in the forum Papo hyena. Now I see why, you need as many spotted hyenas as you can! I've tought some days in acquiring one for repainting as a brown hyena, as suggested shortly after the figure was released, but probably I will not do it. Much later, other forum members are doing exactly this currently.
I don't have any spotted hyena in my collection, but I chosed Mojo one for my future purchase list.

I have the CollectA striped hyena. First I've find in the gift shop of a natural history museum during a trip, but I didn't bought it because is purely grey, not tan. Later I regret my decision. But fortunately, much later I've found it in a local stationery in my city. Grey again, but this time I was more used to retouch models, so I've bough and added a tan background as well as better stripes in flanks and legs. Now it's one of the beautiful models in my collection, still waiting for a spotted companion
I don't think that the striped hyena is big. It's perfect sized. But maybe too long-legged, so it appears taller. But the body bulk is perfect. Take in account also that the figure shows the hyena with the back hair crest erect.
I'm surprised by the few times that you have seen hyenas in zoos, spotted hyenas tend to be pretty common. Striped hyenas are much rarer but still found in a good number of facilities. Despite that, I've seen striped only once, and brown, being rarer, twice. I've seen all four hyena species at the same zoo in same visit (Berlin tierpark), I don't know if they still have the four species. Unfortunately, for the striped hyena, I got what maybe is my worst zoo photo ever. Its a mass of striped hair lyiing in the floor, with the head hidden behind grasses, and hit with strong sunlight in a oversaturated photo. It was sleeping, far, and I was unable to get nothing better. When I've visited Zie-zoo in Netherlands I hoped to substitute the photo as they have striped hyenas, but it was my worst zoo visit ever, it was a rainy day, almost no time for see the zoo before closure, and half of the animals (including almost all of the ones that interested me, such as the hyenas, as well as the black bears, corsac foxes and plains viscacias) were hidden inside their dens, waiting for better weather.

Yes, unfortunately many small zoos (what Americans call "roadside zoos") keep still the ugly conditions of XIXth century zoos. Fortunately, most zoos are completely different now, with standars of animal welfare much higher even than the ones we use for people. Sadly, the (increasing) ideology of the disney-modelled generation of mankind we currently are, is that all zoos are ugly prisons for innocent animals, so the good zoos that are the majority nowadays pay for the sins of the small bad zoos :-(

Very nice hyenas Ben. In my collection I have 3 spotted hyenas: the Schleich, retired Papo and Safari. I also have the CollectA figure which was one of my first CollectA.

In 2015 I struggled to find CollectA and only had roughly 20 figures. Now I have over 120 and my grandfather believs that CollectA do the most detailed models. Safari was also another brand I struggled to find as in 2015 I had roughly 12 figures, now I have over 100.

According to me, the more accurate spotted hyena remains the Safari one! :)

The striped hyena was very comonly edited by historical brands unlike the spotted one and now it's scarcely produiced!..

I would certainly agree Alain, it looks how a hyena should look. The Mojo figure is also nice. Should I get it?

Pardofelis wrote:

I'm surprised by the few times that you have seen hyenas in zoos, spotted hyenas tend to be pretty common. Striped hyenas are much rarer but still found in a good number of facilities. Despite that, I've seen striped only once, and brown, being rarer, twice. I've seen all four hyena species at the same zoo in same visit (Berlin tierpark), I don't know if they still have the four species.

Keep in mind that unlike you, I have hardly ever travelled, even within France (I mean I did travel for work but I had no time to visit zoos then) and only one French zoo keeps spotted hyenas in western France (and I have not visited it yet). So, in my mind, spotted hyenas are very rare in captivity, just like red river hogs, while the Ethiopian adder is a very familiar species to me

I checked on Zootierliste and there is currently no aardwolf in Europe and brown hyenas only in Czech Republic.

Pardofelis wrote:

Sadly, the (increasing) ideology of the disney-modelled generation of mankind we currently are, is that all zoos are ugly prisons for innocent animals, so the good zoos that are the majority nowadays pay for the sins of the small bad zoos :-(

And the same people eat meat and do not mind about animal welfare conditions in factory farming but are horrified by large natural enclosures in zoos I am not saying it's bad to eat meat, I am myself a meat lover, I am just highlighting the hypocrisy of many moralisers.

Adam, I agree with your grandfather about CollectA.

Roger, I would love to find Bayala's hyena but I would be unable to remove its collar.

Alain, I will check the Safari although I think I already did it and found that it was too big.

One of my close zoos has spotted hyenas, but I don't recall seeing them. With 52 zoos/safari parks in Europe housing them, it's a decent amount.

Advicot wrote:

I would certainly agree Alain, it looks how a hyena should look. The Mojo figure is also nice. Should I get it?

Adam, after the Safari one, I ordered the Mojo one too! :)

Advicot wrote:

I would certainly agree Alain, it looks how a hyena should look. The Mojo figure is also nice. Should I get it?

You're not asking me but I won't reply either.
Which hyena figure you think about when watching this real one?

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Mojo

Ok, you convinced me. I will order it next time I do an Ebay purchase.

Exactly, it is not a hyena stereotype neither an Alpha female but surely an excellent representative of a non dominant male member of a clan.