Mixed species exhibit ideas

Jurek7 said:
It could be interesting to mix land mammals with sea lions, on their land part.

For example red or arctic foxes with northern species, rock hyrax with African fur seals, or mara with Patagonian sea lions or South American fur seals.

Strangely, in the zoo fashion of mixing everything with everything, this mix never happened. Also, despite the zoo fashion of visually merging multiple exhibits, pinniped pools never had land animals as a background, except one combo of polar bears behind seals. And there could be many other possiblities - from musk ox and reindeer for Arctic species, through brown bears for temperate species, guanaco for South American species and many others.
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I haven't seen the mix myself myself, but reading Allen Nyhuis's original edition of "The Zoo Book," he describes the following at Cincinnati Zoo: "Monkey Island, which features loud waterfalls, has an unlikely trio of species - Japanese snow moneys, Nubian ibexes, and California sea lions (swimming in the moat)."
 
Aardwolf said:
I haven't seen the mix myself myself, but reading Allen Nyhuis's original edition of "The Zoo Book," he describes the following at Cincinnati Zoo: "Monkey Island, which features loud waterfalls, has an unlikely trio of species - Japanese snow moneys, Nubian ibexes, and California sea lions (swimming in the moat)."
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The monkey island was demolishes in 2016 with the ibex dead and the sea lions moved to a different exhibit. The island is now a grotto for bald eagles and a walk through tortoise exhibit. The sea lion exhibit now displays african penguins.
 
RandomZooVisitorYT said:
The monkey island was demolishes in 2016 with the ibex dead and the sea lions moved to a different exhibit. The island is now a grotto for bald eagles and a walk through tortoise exhibit. The sea lion exhibit now displays african penguins.
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Yep, it's long gone. I was mentioning it because folks were asking if there were any known examples of mixed pinniped-ungulate exhibits, not necessarily any current ones
 
pichu said:
impala, ostrich, warthog
warthog and red river hog
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First could work, though warthog males can be (too) aggressive and their digging behavior always brings the risk of tripping for the other animals. Particularly in a smaller exhibit.

The second, beyond the risk to get hybrids I’m not sure how it would go. Perhaps an all female mixed pair/group would actually go without big issues.
 
I'd be concerned with this warthog/impala mixture being discussed. Oftentimes when discussing mixed species exhibits on this site, the conclusion is whether or not anything would die, or be seriously injured. However, there's more to a successful mix than just whether the animals survive it. There are plenty of more subtle ways a mix could be unsuccessful- such as increased stress levels, competition over food and other resources, etc. I'd be concerned with the impala/warthog mix of this second type of failure- as most antelope tend to be fractious and flighty animals that get stressed rather easily. Warthogs, on the other hand, are an aggressive species that, while they may not pose an imminent threat to the impala, are likely to cause increased stress and hence negatively impact the welfare of the impala.
 
pichu said:
ok, if i remove the warthogs would the mix be fine?
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Most likely it would be. Ostriches and ungulates is a common mix. Just know that male ostriches in particular are known to be "chasers" so you'd need some escape zones for the impala to flee to if need be.
 
Neil chace said:
I'd be concerned with this warthog/impala mixture being discussed. Oftentimes when discussing mixed species exhibits on this site, the conclusion is whether or not anything would die, or be seriously injured. However, there's more to a successful mix than just whether the animals survive it. There are plenty of more subtle ways a mix could be unsuccessful- such as increased stress levels, competition over food and other resources, etc. I'd be concerned with the impala/warthog mix of this second type of failure- as most antelope tend to be fractious and flighty animals that get stressed rather easily. Warthogs, on the other hand, are an aggressive species that, while they may not pose an imminent threat to the impala, are likely to cause increased stress and hence negatively impact the welfare of the impala.
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Cincinnati mixed a male warthog with impala, gazelles, storks, pelicans, cranes, ostriches, kudu and wildebeest before he died
 
RandomZooVisitorYT said:
Cincinnati mixed a male warthog with impala, gazelles, storks, pelicans, cranes, ostriches, kudu and wildebeest before he died
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I said I was concerned about it, not that it would be impossible to work. I'm sure with the right individuals it could work, but just like all mixes they must be analyzed on the individual animal level, not the species level.
 
RandomZooVisitorYT said:
Cincinnati mixed a male warthog with impala, gazelles, storks, pelicans, cranes, ostriches, kudu and wildebeest before he died
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Which just goes to show that even real-life zoo mixes aren’t always a display of good welfare, pinioned storks and cranes in with wildebeest, warthog and kudu is asking for stress and trampling accidents. Why do you think so few pinioned vultures, storks and cranes breed in such mixed exhibits?
 
Jarne said:
Which just goes to show that even real-life zoo mixes aren’t always a display of good welfare, pinioned storks and cranes in with wildebeest, warthog and kudu is asking for stress and trampling accidents. Why do you think so few pinioned vultures, storks and cranes breed in such mixed exhibits?
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Because Cincinnati went out of their way to prevent any breeding in that specific habitat?
 
Jarne said:
Which just goes to show that even real-life zoo mixes aren’t always a display of good welfare, pinioned storks and cranes in with wildebeest, warthog and kudu is asking for stress and trampling accidents. Why do you think so few pinioned vultures, storks and cranes breed in such mixed exhibits?
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Curiously the Zooparc de Beauval has kept for many years a pair of Griffon Vultures with a breeding herd of Sitatungas, Emus and Marabou Storks (what a strange mix !) in an enclosure.
And the Vultures bred nearly every year !
 
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