Unusual/unique mixed exhibits?

Jurek7 said:
I just came across mixed capybara and caiman in Bioparc Teimaken, Argentina.
2013 Temaiken Bioparc - ZooChat

Actually, in parts of South America, for example Pantanal, it is very common to see caimans and capybaras resting side by side, so it is less strange than it appears. Caymans usually are very calm creatures.
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Yacare caiman would only represent a significant danger to young infant capybara as they do tend to prefer to eat fish, amphibians , small aquatic birds / waterfowl and freshwater mollusks.

There are one or two other caiman species that would likely be a bit more challenging to keep alongside adult capybara though.
 
I know Port Lympne, UK, at one point had an enclosure that had cheetahs and black rhinoceroses in together. I know a cheetah would never hunt a rhino, but even so, it's not a mixing I thought I'd see.
 
Multi-species exhibits if done well and carefully planned can be both educational to visitors and enriching to the animals. I absolutely agree that predatory species should not be mixed with potential prey, and each case should be assessed individually, as sometimes it boils down to the individual animals' personality and traits.
A few examples here in Singapore of multi-species (not necessarily "mixed" species, as sometimes they don't really mix ;)):

  • Siamang + Tomistoma
  • Bornean / Sumatran Oragutan + Pilleated Gibbon + Small Clawed Otter
  • Proboscis Monkey + Wreathed Hornbill + Barking Deer + Painted Terrapin
  • Grevy's Zebra + Ostrich
  • Black-handed Spider Monkey + White-faced Saki + Common Squirrel Monkey
  • Common Squirrel Monkey + White Faced Saki + Azara's Agouti + Helmeted Curassow + Great Curassow + Red-legged Tortoie + Yellow-footed Tortoise + Macaws (Military / Green-winged / Scarlet)
  • Leopard Tortoise + Pancake Tortoise + Nyasa Lovebird + Namaqua Dove
  • Goeldi's Monkey + Pygmy Marmoset
  • Leopard Cat + Small-toothed Civet
  • Masked Palm Civet + Binturong
  • Southern Three-banded Armadillo + Kinkajou
  • Sunda Pangolin + Common Palm Civet
  • Malayan Tapir + Barking Deer
  • Barasingha + Axis deer
  • Bennet's Wallaby + Eastern Grey Kangaroo + Emu + Magpie Goose
  • Manatee + Arapaima + many other fish species
  • All the large walk though aviaries at Jurong and the Fragile Forest at the Singapore Zoo
  • Most of the Reptopia Exhibits (reptiles and amphibians)
  • Etc, etc....
 
* Two-striped water monitor + giant snakehead at Jakarta Aquarium (Formerly)
* Coconut crab + barred mudskipper + giant mudskipper + coenobita brevimanus at Jakarta Aquarium
* Indonesian blue-tongued skink + Forsten's tortoise at Jakarta Aquarium
* Green iguana + Malayan porcupine at Jakarta Aquarium (Formerly)
* Caucasus beetle + dorcus titanus at Jakarta Aquarium
* Bathynomus giganteus + blue bat star + longspine snipefish at Jakarta Aquarium
* Chambered nautilus + sacura margaritacea at Jakarta Aquarium
* Aldabra giant tortoise + rabbit at Faunaland
* Wreathed hornbill + common pheasant at TMII Bird Park
* Sunda wrinkled hornbill + greater bornean crested fireback at TMII Bird Park
* Javan muntjac + Bawean deer + Malayan tapir at Taman Safari Bogor
* Siamang + muscovy duck + alabio duck + lesser adjutant at Taman Safari Bogor
* Red lechwe + llama + Northern cassowary at Taman Safari Bogor
* Southern African ostrich + defassa waterbuck + hippopotamus + saltwater crocodile at Taman Safari Bogor
* Impala + emu + Southern cassowary at Taman Safari Bogor
* Buffy fish owl + large flying fox + wreathed hornbill + other bird species at Taman Safari Bogor
* Pygmy hippo and Sumatran orangutan at Taman Safari Bogor (Formerly)
* Ring-tailed lemur + black-and-white lemur + eastern grey kangaroo at Taman Safari Bogor
* Binturong + Sunda porcupine at Taman Safari Bogor
* Red-bellied short-necked turtle + Amboina box turtle + pig-nosed turtle + alligator snapping turtle + saltwater crocodile at Taman Safari Bogor (Formerly)
* Four-toed hedgehog + sugar glider at Taman Safari Bogor
* Kloss's gibbon + black swan at Taman Safari Bogor (Formerly)
* Bornean white-bearded gibbon + lar gibbon + Bornean orangutan + Malayan sambar at Taman Safari Bogor (Formerly)
* Mishmi takin + Chinese goose at Taman Safari Bogor
* Amboina sailfin lizard + Sulawesi forest turtle at Batu Secret Zoo
* Coypu + tilapia + giant gourami + carp + walking catfish at Batu Secret Zoo
* Barred sorubim + white iridescent shark + giant pangasius + alligator gar + false gharial at Batu Secret Zoo
* Pygmy hippo + sitatunga at Batu Secret Zoo
* Alpaca + South American tapir at Batu Secret Zoo
* American beaver + spotted whistling duck at Batu Secret Zoo (Formerly)
* Agile wallaby + Aldabra giant tortoise at Batu Secret Zoo
* Syrian brown bear + Eurasian brown bear at Taman Safari Prigen
* Maleo + other bird species at Taman Safari Prigen
* Javan muntjac + Sunda porcupine + turtles at Taman Safari Prigen
 
Batu Secret Zoo have a Komodo Island themed exhibit housing Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) and common hill myna (Gracula religiosa)
 
The Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, being a private breeding and population management center, doesn’t have biogeographical theming as one of its biggest priorities, so that does make for some, perhaps, “unique” mixes, including: Speke’s sitatunga/barasingha and saddle-billed/milky/Abdim’s storks. Up until recently there was also a mix of eastern bongo/yellow-backed duiker/Mississippi sandhill crane.
 
Reef HQ has a mangroves exhibit with juvenile Saltwater Crocodile, Barramundi and... Strawberry Land Hermit Crab? Thought that was a little strange.
 
The National Aquarium has one with an Emerald Tree Boa, 4 or 5 Giant Monkey Frogs, lots of Splash-backed Poison Frogs, a tarantula (don't remember the species), and a Sabana Surinam Toad in their Amazon River Forest Exhibit.
 
The Goiânia zoo (Brazil) mixed mouflons (probably they're the only ones kept in the country) and waterbuck sometime this year, as you can see in this video:
I don't know if it is strange, neither if they still live together, but it's quite unusual, since those ungulates are from different parts of the world.
 
Wildlands in the Netherlands had an enclosure with harbour seals, northern raccoons and striped skunks for a little while, until the raccoons escaped
 
I’d say that the coolest mixed species exhibit I’ve seen is at the San Diego Zoo’s Africa Rocks, where they mix African Penguins, Leopard Sharks, and various species of fish together. I never knew that penguins and sharks could be mixed together, but the zoo says its because the Leopard Sharks mainly feed on benthic crustaceans, so they leave the penguins alone.
 
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