MOG2012
Well-Known Member
Is it safe though?
Theoretical walkthroughs
- Thread starter Mr Gharial
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- walk-in exhibits
It highly depends on the design of the exhibit, the temperament of the crocs and the behaviour of the guests
Aardwolf
Well-Known Member
Frankly, I find the cost-benefit balance for having attendants at an exhibit like Apenheul to be considerably different from doing something like this.
It could *conceivably* work (I've brought visitors into crocodilian exhibits before, turning them into de facto walk throughs, but only as part of special tours), assuming you had someone watching it all times to prevent foolish behavior - probably more than one person on busy days, as you could easily find yourself in a situation where one attendant is dealing with a visitor problem elsewhere, and then another visitor or group of visitors does something stupid, and you'd want the ability to close the walk-through component as need be. Dwarf crocs aren't big, but they can have a surprising Napoleon complex and can be a bit bolder than people suspect. I think you'd either wind up in a situation where your croc is either spending all of its time hiding because it's stressed out by the guests or your attendant is constantly having to either push the croc back or close the exhibit.
If having this exhibit is extremely important to you, just to say there's a walk-through croc exhibit, you could make it work. I personally think you'd be spending a lot of money on one or more people just standing around doing nothing for an exhibit most visitors wouldn't be able to enjoy or appreciate, with uncertain impacts on animal welfare.
It could *conceivably* work (I've brought visitors into crocodilian exhibits before, turning them into de facto walk throughs, but only as part of special tours), assuming you had someone watching it all times to prevent foolish behavior - probably more than one person on busy days, as you could easily find yourself in a situation where one attendant is dealing with a visitor problem elsewhere, and then another visitor or group of visitors does something stupid, and you'd want the ability to close the walk-through component as need be. Dwarf crocs aren't big, but they can have a surprising Napoleon complex and can be a bit bolder than people suspect. I think you'd either wind up in a situation where your croc is either spending all of its time hiding because it's stressed out by the guests or your attendant is constantly having to either push the croc back or close the exhibit.
If having this exhibit is extremely important to you, just to say there's a walk-through croc exhibit, you could make it work. I personally think you'd be spending a lot of money on one or more people just standing around doing nothing for an exhibit most visitors wouldn't be able to enjoy or appreciate, with uncertain impacts on animal welfare.
Doesn't Gatorland have an alligator walkthrough?
It’s more so a boardwalk that walks over an exhibit for alligators, rather than a walkthrough.
Separately, as long as the animals are confined to areas directly above the visitors, could walkthrough exhibits for small/medium-sized arboreal carnivorans (like martens) be achievable?
They do exhibits like this quite a few times with red pandas
My proposal was more so a hypothesis if smaller, more active mustelids would be suitable candidates for a walkthrough; but at the very least, one can say there are real-life examples to support this possibility.
Also, doesn’t Singapore Night Safari have a civet walkthrough, or at the very least, used to?
Also, doesn’t Singapore Night Safari have a civet walkthrough, or at the very least, used to?
Not really, as @Austin the Sengi noted, it is a boardwalk that goes over the swamp, which is pretty common for outdoor crocodilian enclosures (especially American alligators). Here is a picture that I took last year:
Wild Adventures Theme Park in Georgia has a similar (much smaller) setup where you can walk over the gators and toss them gator chow:
Paul.Haerle
Well-Known Member
Would Australian Brushturkeys work in a walkthrough
Given the aviary is large enough, it should be fine
Sylvan Heights have them in their Australian walkthrough aviary.
Malayan tapir apparently can be monsters so certainly not. South-American are much more relaxed, but with their size and teeth that would also be a huge risk as they can be quite curious and some like to be scratched
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Yeah, not Malayan. When I worked at a zoo they were considered a dangerous animal if they escaped the enclosure.
Komodo Dragon
Well-Known Member
As to concur with others have said tapirs can be surprisingly dangerous. There was a case of a toddler going to the ER after a nasty encounter with a Brazilian tapir at the Dublin Zoo in 2013.
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
I'm taking this mix @Paul.Haerle made from a list of species I provided on the mixed-species thread, and curious as to whether this could be made into a walkthrough, almost like the Fragile Forest at Singapore but on a smaller scale.
I don't really see a reason why not. Aside from the flying foxes most if not all of those species have been successfully kept in walk-throughs and are reasonably commonly. I have seen walk-through exhibits (albeit generally larger greenhouse-type set-ups) with other fruit bat species too. You might want to make sure though visitors won't have to walk underneath the main roosts of the flying foxes.
Although Kiwi walkthroughs are possibly from a visitor perspective, it's not ideal for the Kiwi's. Seeing how they're really quite rare in non-NZ collections, I wouldn't keep them in a walkthrough habitat