Spec. Zoo Design questions
- Thread starter Mr Gharial
- Start date
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Is there a recommended group size for tamarins? There isn't an AZA care manual so I thought this would be my best bet instead of just randomly throwing numbers out there.
Also would total 100 square meters (50 indoor, 50 outdoor) be excessively large for such primates?
Also would total 100 square meters (50 indoor, 50 outdoor) be excessively large for such primates?
Wildlands, in The Netherlands has the largest group of Bearded emperor tamarins as far as ZTL is concerned. They are held together with Golden lion tamarins, White-faced sakis and Azara's agoutis.
13 Bearded emperor tamarins, 4 Golden lion tamarins and 2 White-faced sakis in this size enclosure:
Max group sizes for lion tamarins and sakis (again, according to ZTL) are 11 for Lion tamarins and 8 for White-faced sakis.
Some other group sizes for similar monkeys that I could find:
- 10 Silvery marmosets
- 10 Cotton-top tamarins
- 8 Tufted-ear marmosets
- 7 Goeldi's marmosets
- 7 Black-tufted marmosets
- 11 Geoffroy's marmosets
- 9 Golden-handed tamarin
- and a partridge in a pear tree
I'd say 10 is around the sweet spot for maximum group sizes
Attachments
There is a Best Practice Guidelines book for Callitrichidae published by the EAZA.
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/BPG-2022/EAZA-Best-Practice-Guidelines-Callitrichids-V14.pdf
The social structure of callitrichids is such that they usually live in groups consisting of a monogamous pair with their offspring, sometimes with subordinate, usually non-breeding females.
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
So based on the size of enclosure you gave me, I’d guess my 100 square meters is excessively large. But would a 20m indoor and 20m outdoor split be good?
You had the recommended thread, but it's a place for posting good references for designing exhibits - it's not really for asking specific questions.
There's not many - they do fine but they don't have an established population. True for both Hawaiian and Mediterranean Monk Seals.
Check the EAZA best practice manual that was posted - if it's bigger than the recommended size then yes.
The smallest enclosure I've seen that's considered of decent size is an island of roughly 20x50 meters. This is in Dierenrijk, which is technically for Barbary macaques but I'd assume the same general size requirements are in place.
The island in Amersfoort (which is 10x30) is considered too small by most people but sadly still in use, so I would use 1000 square meters as a rough minimum requirement.
Barbary Macaque enclosure at Dierenrijk
Photo by Snowleopard
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Do you know how many macaques live in the mentioned enclosure at Dierenrijk?The smallest enclosure I've seen that's considered of decent size is an island of roughly 20x50 meters. This is in Dierenrijk, which is technically for Barbary macaques but I'd assume the same general size requirements are in place.
The island in Amersfoort (which is 10x30) is considered too small by most people but sadly still in use, so I would use 1000 square meters as a rough minimum requirement.
Barbary Macaque enclosure at Dierenrijk
Photo by Snowleopard
14 as of 2021 (10 males, 4 females)
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Oh wow. I honestly thought primates (besides great apes) were better kept in groups of even sex distribution.
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Not enclosure related, but rather another topic: starting up.
If I wanted to do an in-depth spec zoo, with planning from the very initial start-up right to where I hope the zoo eventually gets, what species would be best (in manners of price, crowd draw, and conservational/educational purposes) to start with?
If I wanted to do an in-depth spec zoo, with planning from the very initial start-up right to where I hope the zoo eventually gets, what species would be best (in manners of price, crowd draw, and conservational/educational purposes) to start with?
Sphenisciologist
Well-Known Member
Red pandas, river otters, and meerkats to name a few — On the cheaper side and all tend to be favorites among zoo visitors.
There are larger animals too, like plains zebras and white rhinoceroses that are relatively cheap in comparison to rarer ungulates, but that depends more on the size of your facility.
A reptile or small mammal house with high species density could also work well
The smaller species would be on assumption of being AZA on start up - which is technically impossible. If it's a true ground up zoo most of those species aren't good candidates. Red Pandas are almost exclusively AZA locked; Meerkat is also mostly so because of their status as a hazardous invasive species.
River Otter can work, they aren't the particular cheapest due to water and diet but several small facilities have them as one of their keystone species.
Zebras can work if there's decent space and they're fairly available. Rhino are tough to contain, eat a lot, and are expensive to obtain - not a good candidate.
High species density means higher expense - though both options can work.
Personally for starting from ground up, I'd suggest species like ducks (Mandarins, Wood, and other common species), tortoises, fallow deer, porcupines, ostrich/emu, serval/caracal, camels, pheasants, wallabies, and the like. For more ambitious setups you could go black bear, generic leopard/tiger, Lion, or mountain lion.
The reality of starting from the ground up is you're generally working with the fairly common set of species - the basic and readily available; many of the big name species are stuck inside AZA/EAZA accreditation and/or are expensive to maintain properly.
I am working on a project that relates specifically to giraffe species/subspecies.
Would there be any differences in exhibit or husbandry for multiple giraffe species? Would there be any differences in exhibit design? Unique behaviors or quirks?
If there are no inherent differences to note, and if I were required to house multiple species/subspecies (Reticulated, Baringo/Rothchild, Masai, West African, Angolan and Thorncroft are options) what could I do to make their enclosure unique? Do some of them prefer more lush and wooded areas or more arid and desert areas?
Would there be any differences in exhibit or husbandry for multiple giraffe species? Would there be any differences in exhibit design? Unique behaviors or quirks?
If there are no inherent differences to note, and if I were required to house multiple species/subspecies (Reticulated, Baringo/Rothchild, Masai, West African, Angolan and Thorncroft are options) what could I do to make their enclosure unique? Do some of them prefer more lush and wooded areas or more arid and desert areas?
As far as I'm aware there's no real differences between them from the husbandry standpoint - Masai and Baringo/Retic hybrids are housed together at several facilities in the US. There are a couple of husbandry manuals available online from the mid-2000's, EAZA's being the best quality I think: EAZA Husbandry and Management Guidelines Giraffa camelopardalis http://www.zoocentral.dk/uploads/4/9/7/5/49755431/eaza-husbandry-guidelines-2006.pdf
Bearing in mind that they will hybridize - keeping mixed species herds requires monitoring. Usually a mixed group has one subspecies that isn't breeding.
I think there are some habitat differences/preferences, but carrying them out would be tricky as giraffes have a long reach.
Sphenisciologist
Well-Known Member
Ah, okay. I was mostly considering the smaller and popular species often contained in a majority of NA zoos despite the size. Wasn’t aware that meerkats and red pandas are almost entirely AZA locked, though.
I was aware about the rhinos, I was just thinking in comparison to other ungulate species and depending on the size of a facility and the budget, they could potentially be an option — though not the best animal to start off with, I see more clearly now
.
There's been more and more Red Pandas showing up outside the AZA recently - Timbavati Wildlife Park for example. But they are still ridiculously expensive and would not be suitable for a zoo at start up.
Meerkats are still AZA-locked in the US, although they are a very common species in the private trade in Europe (so if the zoo was located there, it would be an easy and inexpensive species to start with there).
Meerkats are still AZA-locked in the US, although they are a very common species in the private trade in Europe (so if the zoo was located there, it would be an easy and inexpensive species to start with there).
Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
Meerkats aren't entirely confined to AZA - I've seen them at Catoctin, for one example