Can we add mosquitoes in it too? Personally I'd love to see a walk through vulture aviary. Thanks for the answers on the hippos to those who responded.
Making African Sections More Unique
- Thread starter Van Beal
- Start date
This has been done in a few places, mostly in Europe. See here for example:
Europa - Vulture walkthrough aviary - ZooChat
Awesome. I'm aware of the French zoo that has the vultures in the quarry with the amphitheater but wasn't aware of any zoos with an actual walk through
You would love Dvur Kralove zoo in Czechia, which is a whole rich zoo which switched to African animals only.
About the 'Egyptian gods' theme: a similar concept is in Amersfoort zoo in the Netherlands called ancient city. There are baboons, crocodiles, sacred and waldrapp ibis, jackals and vultures. There is a lot of cultural theming - I remember a replica of the jewelled throne of some Persian? king, to sit upon and take photos.
About the 'Egyptian gods' theme: a similar concept is in Amersfoort zoo in the Netherlands called ancient city. There are baboons, crocodiles, sacred and waldrapp ibis, jackals and vultures. There is a lot of cultural theming - I remember a replica of the jewelled throne of some Persian? king, to sit upon and take photos.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
This is a really interesting thread and I think it reflects one of the issues with ‘African’ areas in zoos in that they don’t reflect the diversity of country, climate, flora or fauna in specific areas but treat ‘Africa’ like it’s a single country with one feel to it which is a big dusty plain and if you are lucky a bit of jungle tacked on.
I’ve worked in a couple of different countries in Africa and travelled to others and they were chalk and cheese, but zoos often treat the whole place like a little town that’s all the same.
I think specific areas that reflect parks as suggested earlier or which take people on a journey to areas with different plants and animals showing the diversity across what is a vast continent would really liven things up. Contextualising an area to a specific location or narrowing it down more than ‘Africa’ would stop there being so much rhino in a big grassy enclosure with some sand and mock rocks. It’s not that rhino aren’t amazing to look at of course in themselves but it’s not very imaginative.
I’ve worked in a couple of different countries in Africa and travelled to others and they were chalk and cheese, but zoos often treat the whole place like a little town that’s all the same.
I think specific areas that reflect parks as suggested earlier or which take people on a journey to areas with different plants and animals showing the diversity across what is a vast continent would really liven things up. Contextualising an area to a specific location or narrowing it down more than ‘Africa’ would stop there being so much rhino in a big grassy enclosure with some sand and mock rocks. It’s not that rhino aren’t amazing to look at of course in themselves but it’s not very imaginative.
Which areas do you think would be best showcased?
I think a partial reasoning for this is definitely due to that many of the popular large ABC animals are found in the grasslands and tend to have a range spanning a large amount of countries. That being said, I do completely agree with you that Africa feels sort of generalised not just by zoos but also by media in general. There is a lot of areas of Africa that could easily have their own specific areas such as the Namib/Kalahari, Ethiopian Highlands (sadly very difficult), Great Lakes, Okavango etc.
I think some of my favourite African areas tend to be those that don't focus on big ABC species, I'm not really sure if it counts but Little Africa at Cotswold Wildlife Park is super charming with its bushbabies and gundis!
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Some have been well covered off as having potential like Egypt and a greater emphasis on the Congo but I’d also like to see more bird / water bird exhibits - the vast lakes and lusher areas are not as covered off as much. There are some very good exhibits (CWP highlighted above) but for me it’s really about more diversity being added in addition to the big ABCs. Looking at the best exhibit and recent snow leopard tour there are active exhibits across Europe that have some range and planting that reflects other areas but I often think when I visit a lot of U.K. zoos that Africa is ‘generic’. Doesn’t mean what is being shown is bad far from that it just begs the question is it as creative as it might be.
If we think of a Madagascar area in really good zoos that have the animals and birds and planting of the area it’s thinking of that being brought more to life for other place - perhaps something like the Kakum national park could be ‘visited’ by an exhibit which could also reach out and support a project there or something that brings in some different and interesting planting like in the Bia national park which could help with the conservation message on the importance of forests and trees. Both of those are examples from Ghana. In addition I’d make more use of water and water birds and the animals that live around some of the vast and amazing lakes and coasts. Something unusual or viewed as more obscure I guess like Lake Sonfon in Sierra Leone which has both a huge range of bird and wild life and great cultural significance. Gold mining is having an impact on the lake now and exhibitry could both inspire a debate on the environmental impact we have as we consume resources and showcase the importance of an area like that.
A lot of this is teasing the idea of rarities and new imports that are obviously impossible; the existing captive population of African species is already far more than adequate to create an immersive experience and cover the biodiversity of the continent.
After thinking it over some though, is there really any benefit to fixating on tiny, hyper-specific slices of Africa besides courting a handful of zoochatters? As long as the same species are on display I don't think most guests will care about specificity and it could become a needless expense.
After thinking it over some though, is there really any benefit to fixating on tiny, hyper-specific slices of Africa besides courting a handful of zoochatters? As long as the same species are on display I don't think most guests will care about specificity and it could become a needless expense.
There are a lot of African species though that are present in a relatively small number of Zoos. Yeah, we all know that no US Zoo is acquiring Mountain Nyala, Ethiopian Wolf, or whatever other rare, not kept in captivity species you are thinking of any time soon, but that doesn't mean that more US Zoos can't prioritize including klipspringer, Kirk's dik-dik, gemsbok, Roan Antelope, or any other species present in a relatively small number of facilities.
I think you may not have to get too specific on a section of Africa, but other larger biomes like deserts tend to get ignored a bit more. There could also be different, more unique species added to spice up a savanna exhibit. I've always said ABC species can anchor an exhibit but that doesn't mean more unique and unusual ones can't round it out.
Both of my local zoos have Klipspringer in their Africa sections and one has Kirk's dik-dik so perhaps I am too spoiled for the question.
I do not know much about roan antelope but I was under the impression the AZA was phasing out gemsbok in favor of focusing on Schimitar-horned oryx.
Those were just four examples I used, but there are plenty of others out there I could have used as well. Gemsbok shouldn't need to be phased out in favor of Scimitar-horned Oryx, as gemsbok are more unique and the scimitar oryx has been popping up just about everywhere in the private sector. Roan Antelope are present in six or seven US Zoos, but a few of them do keep quite large herds. A decent-sized population, but more facilities keeping this absolutely beautiful species would be nice. I'm definitely jealous you have some of the smaller antelope species present near your home! They're some of my favorite species I've yet to see in zoos. And again, I could have just as easily have used any number of other examples for species I wish more Zoos would incorporate into African sections- Slender-horned, Speke's, and Soemmerring's Gazelle come to mind as others in the ungulate realm, but amongst other groups I could think of other examples, black-footed and sand cats, banded and dwarf mongoose, bat-eared foxes, any of the African Starling species, turacos, many of the African Vulture species, and quite literally any African reptile smaller than a sulcata tortoise. Primates is another big area that comes to mind for this. Let's see more Zoos keeping bonobos, hamadrayas baboons, geladas, guenons, mangabeys, and Swamp monkeys!Both of my local zoos have Klipspringer in their Africa sections and one has Kirk's dik-dik so perhaps I am too spoiled for the question.
I do not know much about roan antelope but I was under the impression the AZA was phasing out gemsbok in favor of focusing on Schimitar-horned oryx.
Throw in Cuvier's gazelle too.
Perhaps safari parks/open range zoos can better capitalize on the hoofstock niche since they can house a ton of ungulates in good herds. You can have small herds/bachelor groups in regular zoos but places like SDZSP, White Oak, and Fossil Rim are especially useful for hoofstock viability
Absolutely!
Come visit Chicago's zoos and you can scratch both of those small antelope off your list as well as dwarf mongoose, bat-eared foxes, black-footed cat, swamp monkeys, and red-tailed genouns.
I would actually say primates seem to not be so often held within larger Africa complexes in my experience but often in dedicated areas due to their unique needs. It might actually be interesting to seem the more integrated in biogeographic sections.