I've seen Snake-necked Turtle with various tree-dwelling snakes at Roger Williams Park Zoo
Mixed species exhibit ideas
- Thread starter LowlandGorilla4
- Start date
Noah Butas
Well-Known Member
I guess they’ll be good with each other
The turtles and alligators should be fine together as similar sized crocodilians such as the Dwarf Crocodile have been mixed with turtles before. I would recommend that the birds and bats have elevated food and water platforms, so they don’t have a reason to go down to ground level. As a precautionary measure however, I would maybe put a net over the alligator part of the enclosure to discourage the birds and bats from going down there. The only animal I’m concerned about though is the Hooded Pitta, as pittas are primarily ground-dwelling birds, and might fall prey to the alligators.
It has been done. But there are risks with disease transfer and stress on both sides (turtles can be really aggressive).
I think you have picked the wrong turtle species. Chinese alligators do best with a winter rest with colder temperatures so you should rather look into Chinese turtle species. I know they have been combined with some successfully. For the birds you’d also need to dive into temperature tolerance, though most species will probably do fine.
Predation is always a risk when combining crocodiles with birds and bats. However I don’t think you want to take such risks with a bird as rare as a bird-of-paradise, or that any current holder would let you do that either.
If I replace the alligator with a phillipine Crocodile and removed the birds of Paradise would it work?
A risk of predation always remains, but if there is enough space where the crocodiles can't come it might work out with the birds. Phillipine crocodiles might prey on turtles and are more aggressive then Chinese alligators so the turles might need to be removed.
Ok. That makes sense- I could always make two separate Water features of the Exhibit and keep the phillipine crocs alone.
Know that the crocs also need to be kept alone in most cases, they are aggresive to other crocs.
1. Swift Parrot and Tawny Nightmouth
Aviary would be a desert woodland one, with plenty of bare trees and lush vegetation to give security.
2. Tasmanian Long-nosed Potoroo and Tasmanian Brushtail Possum
Enclosure would be spacious with plenty of climbing structures for the more arboreal species, and a mini tunnel system for the ground-dwelling individuals
3. Nepalese Red Panda and Mishmi Takin
Enclosure would be about nearly 1/4 acres, built on a slope, with the bottom being a bamboo forest with a separate indoor quarters accessible only by the red pandas, further up it evolves into a rocky mountain landscape, with plenty climbing places for the takins to make use of their climbing skills, there also will be a separate indoor quarters for the takins
Aviary would be a desert woodland one, with plenty of bare trees and lush vegetation to give security.
2. Tasmanian Long-nosed Potoroo and Tasmanian Brushtail Possum
Enclosure would be spacious with plenty of climbing structures for the more arboreal species, and a mini tunnel system for the ground-dwelling individuals
3. Nepalese Red Panda and Mishmi Takin
Enclosure would be about nearly 1/4 acres, built on a slope, with the bottom being a bamboo forest with a separate indoor quarters accessible only by the red pandas, further up it evolves into a rocky mountain landscape, with plenty climbing places for the takins to make use of their climbing skills, there also will be a separate indoor quarters for the takins
- I don’t see why not. Neither species would prey on the other and are particularly aggressive. Should work.
- Again, should work due to low temperament and occupying different parts of the exhibit.
- Not a good idea. They would be in different parts of the exhibit most of the time, but red pandas do frequently come down to the ground, particularly in captivity, so the risk of trampling is quite an issue.
In Hamburg they do this with Thar instead of takin, so I think this might actually work. A precaution against trampling would be several safe-areas and branches throughout the exhibit so that a red panda would never be far away from the option to flee. Red panda can also be quite fast, so I'd estimate the risk of trampling to be quite low unlike with pinioned birds that usually need their flight to achieve significant speeds.
I'm not sure if inbreeding between the species would be a problem, but other than that, I could see this working.
Thank you @Paleoarchontas and @Jarne for the positive feedback, much appreciated
1. Roti Island Snake-necked Turtle and Weber’s Sailfin Dragon
Enclosure will be a large rainforest river theme, with many branches, foliage and crevices for the arboreal inhabitants and many tree roots and fallen palm tree branches in a large water area for the aquatic inhabitants
2. Angolan Colobus Monkey and DeBrazza’s Monkey
Enclosure will be a spacious one, with many climbing structures and foliage’s in the higher areas of the enclosure with the bottom consisting of a bare forest area with many dead leaves along the rocky pathways for the keepers, and many tall vegetation to add a forest-y sense
1. Roti Island Snake-necked Turtle and Weber’s Sailfin Dragon
Enclosure will be a large rainforest river theme, with many branches, foliage and crevices for the arboreal inhabitants and many tree roots and fallen palm tree branches in a large water area for the aquatic inhabitants
2. Angolan Colobus Monkey and DeBrazza’s Monkey
Enclosure will be a spacious one, with many climbing structures and foliage’s in the higher areas of the enclosure with the bottom consisting of a bare forest area with many dead leaves along the rocky pathways for the keepers, and many tall vegetation to add a forest-y sense
1: I know sailfin lizards have been combined with various turtles, and in some cases the turtles have even bred. I don't know about the lizards breeding, but I don't remember them being damaged in Antwerp so they might be fine. Disease transfer is a large risk with some other lizards, but I don't know how big of a risk it is with these two species.
2: I believe this has been done before and probably will be fine.
That's a hard no. At least two of these species have males that can be very aggressive to other turtles. All execpt the radiated deserve a breeding setup, which this one is simply not (breeding these species is a complex process). And finally the radiated and ploughsare can transfer diseases and hybridise.
If you really want a mixed exhibit with Madascan tortoises, look into some endemic iguanas or other lizards to go with one of these species.
Ring tailed lemurs are mixed with radiated tortoises at Omaha as well.
True, that has been done on multiple occasions. Mixing with birds should also be possible. I wouldn’t try these things with the other species though as those are all extremely rare.
Well guys I got myself another batch of mixed species ideas that I’m really glad to share with all of you; and also as you can probably tell by the list below. I really don’t have a lot of ideas (only four currently) and thus I just wanted to make sure if these following mixes can be feasible enough for me to work with for future projects and thus here they are;
01 - Bornean Orangutan with Long-Tailed macaque (not sure if it might work due to disease transmission)
02 - Southern Rockhopper Penguin with Gray Gull and Magellanic Flightless Steamer Duck
03 - Eld’s Deer with Oriental White Stork
(the storks will have access to a small area not accessible to the deer and also there will be only female deer and their fawns mixed in with the storks to prevent further aggression that maybe caused by males)
04 - Brazilian Tapir with Southern Screamer
(the screamers will also have an adjacent yard all to themselves to help them isolate themselves just in case if the tapirs get a little too aggressive for them)
You just tell me on what your opinion is for each of the mixes
01 - Bornean Orangutan with Long-Tailed macaque (not sure if it might work due to disease transmission)
02 - Southern Rockhopper Penguin with Gray Gull and Magellanic Flightless Steamer Duck
03 - Eld’s Deer with Oriental White Stork
(the storks will have access to a small area not accessible to the deer and also there will be only female deer and their fawns mixed in with the storks to prevent further aggression that maybe caused by males)
04 - Brazilian Tapir with Southern Screamer
(the screamers will also have an adjacent yard all to themselves to help them isolate themselves just in case if the tapirs get a little too aggressive for them)
You just tell me on what your opinion is for each of the mixes