Mixed species exhibit ideas
- Thread starter LowlandGorilla4
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Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Walkthrough exhibit featuring both Red and Eastern Gray Kangaroos, Red-necked Wallaby, and Wallaroo.
Tank with Banded Archerfish and Red-clawed Yabby
Galah with Rainbow Lorikeet, Crested Pigeon, Victoria Crowned Pigeon and Budgie in a walkthrough aviary
Tank with Banded Archerfish and Red-clawed Yabby
Galah with Rainbow Lorikeet, Crested Pigeon, Victoria Crowned Pigeon and Budgie in a walkthrough aviary
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I know Gharials have been safely mixed with a number of animals that usually wouldn't go well with croodiles, but would birds like Jacana, Plovers or Ducks be safe free-roaming in a greenhouse with African slender-snouted crocodiles. The crocodile enclosure would take up about half of the greenhouse, with water areas in the other half as a safe area for the Jacanas and ducks.
I don't see any problem here, though the walkthrough would have to be quite sizeable to hold four kangaroo species
I don't see any problem here, though the walkthrough would have to be quite sizeable to hold four kangaroo species
I should imagine not.Wikipedia page for the Slender-snouted Crocodile said:
Platypusboy
Well-Known Member
What about an aviary kinda like the buffalo aviary at Antwerp but instead with water buffalo. It would be based on the Danube delta in Romania would be a large semi-walk through aviary with some large lakes, sandy beaches and reed beds. Semi-walk through meaning the aviary could be entered by guests but it would only be a small and elevated path at the side of the aviary so the water buffalo couldn't reach the visitors. The species list would be the following: Domestic water buffalo, White headed duck, Red crested pochard, Gadwall, Ruddy shelduck, Northern shoveler, Corncrake, Pied avocet, Eurasian spoonbill, Little bittern, Ferruginous duck, Bearded reedling, Common sandpiper, Greylag goose, Red-breasted goose, Little grebe, Glossy ibis, Eurasian coot, White-winged tern, Eurasian curlew, Great cormorant, Purple heron, Dalmatian pelican, White stork, Little egret, Eurasian wigeon, Black-crowned night-heron, Collared pratincole, Garganey.
Haliaeetus
Well-Known Member
No specific problem, but the area must be partly closed to the Buffaloes to prevent trampling of the birds, especially the species that nest on the ground.
I would not mix Dalmatian pelicans with ducks or most other waterbirds - pelicans are known to sometimes consume young or even adult ducks, coots et cetera. Pelicans are best housed separately, or perhaps with larger herons and/or cormorants.
I don't think mixing smaller fragile species like little grebes or small sandpipers with ducks is the best idea, especially not with aggressive species like shelducks or geese.
I'm not sure to what extent the herons (and maybe the storks) might pose a problem to nesting or young ducks, but I think it would be good to have separation areas for breeding or for young birds.
Haliaeetus
Well-Known Member
In Beauval the Hippo aviary hosts many birds together, including Pink-backed Pelicans, several Stork and Duck species.
Many of them breed regularly, although I'm not sure that the eggs/chicks of every species stay where they have been laid with their parents. At least the Storks raise their young on large platform nests in the aviary.
The only mix with ASCO and primates which hasn’t yet yielded primate casualties as far as I know is with orangs. All other smaller primates are definitively at risk of being mauled, be it as adults or as young.
What's an ASCO?
It's an acronym for Asian small-clawed otter.
Well Brookfield and Omaha seem to pull it off just fine.
There have been cases though where primate-otters mixes went well for years, until they didn't and it ended badly and bloodily...
As KevinB sais indeed, plenty of mixes where it goes well for the entire duration of an exhibit or for a long time until something happens. Usually when group compositions change, but sometimes out of the blue. I also didn’t mean that every zoo with an otter mix has experienced casualties already, rather that for all sizes and groups of primates except hominids casualties have arisen.
Brookfield and Omaha are lucky then that they haven’t experienced issues yet.
Haliaeetus
Well-Known Member
This mix looks OK while it is unusual in most zoos.
1. Lowland Anoa, Silvery Leaf Langur
2. Red-Flanked Duiker, Wolf's Guenon
3. Asian Small-Clawed Otter, Sumatran Tiger (otters have been mixed with bears, so could big cats maybe work if there was ample space to allow the otters to escape?)
4. River Hippo, Yellow-Backed Duiker
5. Reeve's Muntjac, Chinese Goral
2. Red-Flanked Duiker, Wolf's Guenon
3. Asian Small-Clawed Otter, Sumatran Tiger (otters have been mixed with bears, so could big cats maybe work if there was ample space to allow the otters to escape?)
4. River Hippo, Yellow-Backed Duiker
5. Reeve's Muntjac, Chinese Goral
I'm not sure on this one. Anoa have been successfully mixed with gibbons at Point Defiance Zoo, so I wouldn't call langurs completely out of the question, however I also wouldn't put it past an anoa to turn a langur into a horn decoration. AZA Ungulates TAG recommends caution when mixing anoa because they have a tendency to be aggressive, so take that as you may. Not a mix I'd recommend, but not entirely out of the zone of possibility.
Duiker/Cercopithecid mixes have been tried and true. This combination should be no exception.
The main prey for sloth bears are termites. The main prey for sumatran tigers are deer. While similar in size, it's pretty clear that there is a significant behavioral and dietary difference between the bears and the tigers, making the mixes not comparable. This one is a hard no on so many levels, unless you want an otter blood bath.
Even ignoring the ecosystem/ecological differences between the needs of these species, I'd say this one is also very much a no. Hippos tend to be aggressive, and mixing them with other ungulates has never been widespread. While I could see hippos being successfully mixed with a larger ungulate that's able to stand their own, but a small, fractious, timid antelope species is not something that a hippo mix would be conducive for.
Seeing that goral and tufted deer is a tried and true mix, I have no reason to believe that a goral/muntjac mix would be unsuccessful. Both of these species tend to do well in a plethora of different mixed species displays, so this is one combination with a high possibility of success.
4: could certainly work, duikers are generally not the most aggressive animals and dwarf hippo also seldom seem to be the aggressor in a mixed exhibit.
3: bear are totally different from tigers. All asiatic black bear species are omnivoric, already making them much less likely to hunt down an otter. Tigers should also be a bit more athletic and generally able to chase down an otter. Just like lion-mongoose mixes it might just be possible with an extreme dose of luck but in practice it’ll probably almost always go wrong sooner or later.
1: anoa have been mixed with macaque, so I presume mixing with much less aggressive and more arboreal langurs should be possible.
I think all should be find except 3. Bears are relatively slow omnivores. Tigers are obligate carnivores and one of the most dangerous predators on the planet