Sometimes the best design for an exhibit is fenced natural land, and still classifies as world class
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Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes
- Thread starter pachyderm pro
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RandomZooVisitorYT
Well-Known Member
I know it's not. As someone who likes the show (I know it has flaws), this is sadly commonplace as many parents assume simply because it has animation that isn't ugly. Back to zoos, my favorite put a fence around nature exhibit is probably the Kansas City Zoos Chimpanzee exhibit.
While yes, one can argue about the educational value of the following. I can’t help but confess that I do not like the practice of zoos using domesticated animals as a “filler species” for SBNO enclosures. Case in point, from my experience, the biggest offenders of this hot take are almost always the Ankole-Watusi Cattle for savanna displays.
SBNO - standing, but not occupied
SBNO - standing, but not occupied
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
While domesticated species can and do have a place in the average zoo...
You're absolutely right about this specific example. I think that it creates confusion and causes laypeople to assume that Watusi are wild animals.
My experience is very much the opposite sort of confusion, which is people seeing actual wild cattle species and going "oh, it's just a cow" and moving on, mistaking them for exotic breeds of domestics.
Question, while I do agree, where is the line drawn here? How about llamas, dromedaries, Bactrian camels, yaks, and alpacas? Are they offenders of the same caliber as watusi?
Another hot take, there is a place for these domestics in showcasing different environments. I like the idea of using certain breeds of domestics to represent the farms of a certain area, such as an African Kraal or Inca village. A good example of this comes from the children's zoo at the Sedgwick County Zoo, as they have "world farms" representing domestic animals from Africa, Asia, and the USA.
ZooApollo
Well-Known Member
I don't mind for profit zoos and theme park zoos (Disney, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, etc) because they usually have a lot more money to spare for the animals. Do they always? No. But sometimes can contribute to a lot of beneficial research, a good example of this is Disney's bottlenose dolphins, which they do not have anymore, but when they did, they conducted a lot of studies on them that were made possible by the just about unlimited funds of the Walt Disney Company. Also, these companies usually have a lot more money to donate to in-situ conservation.
What about Domestic Reindeer?Yes
~Thylo
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
I think the yak and dromedary are fine, given there are wild populations out there. I also excuse the Bactrian camel because I have an odd soft spot for them.
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
Wild Dromedaries don't exist, as the Dromedary camel is a domesticated species. Dromedaries that live freely without human assistance are feral animals.
Van Beal
Well-Known Member
Ah. Was unaware of that. Always thought there were wild individuals somewhere. Learn something new everyday, I guess.
@MonkeyBat, regarding Bactrian Camels, Reindeer, and Yaks, their presence is justified due to the lack of availability for their wild counterparts.
As for the other camelids, it’s not like I downright despise their presence (which I don’t). It’s just I would prefer them having a more limited presence in zoos / safari parks. If that’s not enough, then at the very least, use them just for children’s zoos and/or farm-oriented sectors as you’ve mentioned before.
Yep. With Reindeer, Alpaca, Bactrian Camel, and Yaks (not to mention Musk Ox and Highland Cattle at a nearby facility), I've often thought that the Alaska Zoo should lean in on a exhibit complex showcasing High Altitude/High Latitude domestics. Add some Fjord Horses (easy to acquire here) or Icelandic Ponies...some sheep breeds from Iceland, Scotland, or Faroe Islands. It would be interesting to me...not so sure about your average zoo-goer, but children seem to enjoy "farm" animals.
A LOT of studies around captive hippos were done at Disney
Except you can actually get wild counterparts
I mean, yes. There can be an educational value using them as a proxy for wild reindeer/caribou taxa, however it all comes down to how that information is portrayed to the visitor. I would say the similar goes for Domestic Yak as well. As far as the camels, I see no excuse for using Alpacas or Llamas when we have a struggling Guanaco population that desperately needs more holders. Domestic Bactrian Camels are an interesting one, as they could be used as a proxy for the critically endangered Wild Bactrian Camel, however zoos here tend to just claim the domestics are the same as their wild counterparts in my experience (same goes for Domestic Water Buffalo vs Wild Water Buffalo). Dromedary Camels represent an interesting case, where the species they were domesticated from has gone extinct and feral camels have more or less taken over that ecological niche.
There are also no wild populations of Domestic Yak, there are wild populations of Wild Yak. These are two different animals.
Not really in the US, sadly. At least not very easily. There are import restrictions surrounding deer on two levels (CWD and the USDA import ban on ruminants), Federal and individual state CWD laws which have been the death of captive deer programs in the US, availability issues with very few US zoos ever having kept Caribou, and finally climatic where most zoos in the US are not in a climate suitable for them.
~Thylo
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
How??? Feral Dromedaries live in Australia, which has never had an indigenous population of Camelids.
Seriously? I was clearly talking about the populations across the Middle East and North Africa.
~Thylo
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
I wasn't aware that such populations existed, can I have a citation for that?