Mixed species exhibits

[Sun Wukong]

These are just examples that popped into my mind without searching; there are surely others around.
1. Zoos with penguins & other species: Budapest (seals), Rheine (walk-through aviary with Inca Terns); Augsburg, Tierpark Berlin and other European zoos: Steamer Ducks; in the past combinations of penguins with King Cormorant and Sheathbill

2. River Hippos: Basel (among others zebras; mentioned unfortunate zebra stallion accident), Berlin (Sitatunga)

3. Elephants: Paris (warthogs), Safari Beekse Bergen (Hamadyras Baboons), Hamburg (Blackbuck); several smaller species (f.e. porcupines) in dry moats of elephant exhibits

4. Examples of that are plentyful; among them: Poznan, Berlin, Erfurt, Omaha, Frankfurt, Bronx & Cincinnati Zoo. Wouldn't try that with bats & Douricouli-danger of the monkeys eating the bats

And about zoogeographically correct exhibits: if You are really nerdy and nitpicking, You will usually find out that a lot of mixed species exhibits actually combine species that would never meet each other in the wild. If the combination works out fine and the zoogeographic difference isn't too obvious (like the yet rather well-working combination of American Black Bears and, among others, Bactrian camels in Safaripark Hodenhagen), I wouldn't be too angry about that.

 

[CZJimmy]

Yes, we could make an extra album on the gallery, showing all the pictures, Sim could you make another album for us called mixed species at Chester

I've already asked MARK about setting up a chester gallery and my photo of Chester's asian plains is in the gallery.

 

[Sand Cat]

Hippos in a mixed species exhibit?
I wondered if anywhere kept Nile Hippopotamus with anything like pelicans, or lechwe, reedbuck, waterbuck and the likes. I think that could make a good exhibit.

Longleat have two female hippos in their Half Mile Lake, which they share with Californian Sealions. It is surprisingly succesful and has worked for many years - quite often the sealions even sit on the hippos!!! They also have some pelicans on the lake, but I think they're kept in a seperate fenced-off area.

Also worth mentioning is that red foxes used to live with the bears at Dartmoor Wildlife Park - anyone know if this is still the case? I think the foxes may have been free to leave as well, so perhaps not strictly a mixed species exhibit, I find it interesting though.

 

[NZ Jeremy]

Zoos that house penguins with other species?
I know about Bristols and that Chester used to keep theirs with black-necked swans. Does anywhere keep humboldt's with Mara? I think there's a zoo in the US, which keeps its penguins in a big walkthrough aviary, but at the minute I can't remember its name.

Auckland keeps their Little Blue Penguins in their Shore Birds Aviary...

 

[James27]

Longleat have two female hippos in their Half Mile Lake, which they share with Californian Sealions. It is surprisingly succesful and has worked for many years - quite often the sealions even sit on the hippos!!! They also have some pelicans on the lake, but I think they're kept in a seperate fenced-off area.

Also worth mentioning is that red foxes used to live with the bears at Dartmoor Wildlife Park - anyone know if this is still the case? I think the foxes may have been free to leave as well, so perhaps not strictly a mixed species exhibit, I find it interesting though.

Yeah, I don't understand how the whole hippo-sealion thing works either :S
And you beat me to it about Dartmoor zoo! The foxes are not in there anymore, but I can remember seeing them for sure, and I think some of them may have been white.

 

[ZooMania]

Yeah, i think i remember seeing a white fox in there.

Chester used to mix mandrills and porcupines a few years back aswell.

 

[Jurek7]

I really like mixed species enclosures, I think they make an exhibit a lot more interesting

Agreed!

However, like Pygathrix suggests its not enough for the animals just to be able to survive side-by-side, but actually be happy.

Agreed! Bird people know that birds breed better in small single-species aviaries than big free-flight halls - reason is disturbance.

In open exhibit, the danger is the same. In particular, flightless birds often get killed/trampled by ungulates. Marabou EEP coordinator found that about 1/6 marabous in European zoos were killed by other exhibit mates.

You can see easily sometimes: weaker species all the time avoids stronger species, going around in circles. I seen it e.g. in otters vs. langurs in Bronx Zoo and corsac fox vs. syrian brown bears in Heidelberg.

I also found it quite annoying that Bristol Zoo, amongst others, mixes species that have no overlapping range in the wild.

Here I have different opinion. I would mix animals from different continents if it lets bigger populations of endangered species and better use of space.

Keep same-area species only if it is part of truly naturalistic exhibit, with backdrop and other elements. Otherwise it has no point. My negative example is old Edinburgh, which had scimitar oryx (deserts of North Africa) and lechwe (swamps of South Africa) in meadow with houses in the background. Good conservation, but not African plains at all.

Zoos that house penguins with other species?

Bronx has penguins in large aviary with inca terns, oystercatchers, cormorants, gulls and other waterbirds.

Lots of zoos have waterfowl. Berlin Zoo has cold house with king and rockhopper penguins, crested ducks and I think silver teals.

Hippos in a mixed species exhibit?

Berlin zoo has nyala (not sitatunga AFAIK), marabou and assorted ducks. Not a good mix, mainly because area is ridiculuosly small.

Elephants in mixed species exhibits?

Heidelberg has axis deer and blackbuck, which have separate escape area.
Dresden has charming tropical hall with elephants and glossy starlings and mousebirds.

Nocturnal mixed species enclosures?

Lots of examples. Frankfurt has (or had) aardvark with aardwolf and tawny frogmouth; later aardvark with white-faced scops owl; and bushbaby with springhaas; and aye-aye with giant jumping rat; and hairy armadillo with night monkey and sloth in too small exhibit.

Kerzers in Switzerland has "Nocturnorama", or big night hall with various mixes of South American mammals. Night monkey, paca, coendou, mountain paca, pacarana, kinkajou, sloths etc in various mixes. And bats flying free, even over (separate) ocelot exhibit and (again separate) dwarf caiman pool.

My best picks:

Basel:
Puff adder and harvest mouse . This, surprisingly, works well. Puff adder have open, sandy area with some rocks, while mice have part with thick reeds and branches, which they climb, and it is possibly too thick/ sharp for adder to climb on. And mice have safe sleeping site.

Zurich:
Lemurs, tenrecs, various birds, geckos , cameleons and frogs together in huge Masoala hall.

Black rhinos and African birds, including oxpeckers, in rhino house.

Bern:
Persian leopard with rock doves in huge closed area - doves were expected to be slowly eaten as a sort of behavioral enrichment.

Dresden:
Two male gelada baboon with golden eagles and several vulture species.

European lynx and brown bear in some huge (ca. 1 ha) enclosure in some small German zoo.

Leipzig:
sloth bear with rhesus monkey. Not good, because 20+ monkeys clearly dominated and chased the poor bear.

Rhenen:
common seals and cormorants in huge walk-thru aviary.

I would also love to see more mixes (imaginary) e.g:
Asian elephants, asian rhino, gaur, deer, cranes in large area;
Gorillas with sitatunga, bongo, monkeys and pygmy hippo in ca 1ha paddock;
Various monkeys with ungulates (e.g. antelope, hippo) in open moated paddock with both climbing and grassy area;
wing-clipped monal pheasants and mountain goats;
red pandas with takins or mountain goats;
lions with rock hyrax, latter on high rocks actually above lions;
large birds (e.g. hornbills) in indoor rhino, elephant or hippo house;
gharial with free-flying birds, e.g. hornbill;
ground squirrels or meerkats with rhinos;
souslik with gazelle/przewalski horse;
sloth bears with gibbons;
seals with arctic fox;
kulan, yak, wild goats and sheep together;
... I wonder if anybody seen any of them?

 

[boof]

the Bronx has red river hogs with mandrills and be drazzi guenons. they also have gelada baboons with ibex and rock hyrax. Both are great. i would like to see more mixed exibhits at Taronga. the Wollemi at Taronga is good I wish they had more like it.

 

[NZ Jeremy]

Zurich:
Lemurs, tenrecs, various birds, geckos , cameleons and frogs together in huge Masoala hall.

How come the birds don't eat the reptiles, frogs..?

Some of your mix ideas are great...

 

[Ituri]

Phoenix used to have blackbucks and elephants together. Until they got a new elephant that I hear liked squishing blackbuck.

 

[snowleopard]

The wildlife refuge on top of Grouse Mountain in Vancouver used to have two grizzly bears in with 4-5 wolves, until after two weeks one of the bears killed a wolf after squabbling over food. The Greater Vancouver Zoo has wolves in with american black bears, and that has worked out for years now.

Zurich's Masoala rainforest is one of the better examples of mixed-species exhibits.

 

[Ituri]

San Diego has or has had the following that I can remember.

forest buffalo, de brazza's guenon, African clawless otter

Allen's swamp monkey, Schmidt's spot-nosed guenon, spot-necked otter

Francois' langur. small-clawed otter, and vietnamese giant flying-squirrel

Javan banteng and wild boar

damara zebra, beisa oryx, Soemmerring's gazelle

pygmy hippopotamus, wolf's guenon, blue duiker

mandrill and lesser spot-nosed guenon


Others I've seen

Phoenix Zoo once had meerkats an aardwolf and crested porcupines

 

[Jurek7]

How come the birds don't eat the reptiles, frogs..?

I have no idea. I asked a keeper once. He said that adult reptiles can hide and keepers collect all eggs/broods and return adults. He said that several keepers daily spend time following many animals in the hall - pretty amazing, because it is 1 ha area with big trees, so about as easy as tracking a lizard in real forest.

I, however, suspect that some reptiles are eaten.

 

[Newzooboy]

A nice thread......

Vienna has Egyptian Bats in indoor Hippo House, although hard to see.....

D

 

[Writhedhornbill]

Zurich has lots of bird species in it's Rhino house. There are turacos and starling and such. There are also Pygmy hippos that use this house, and outside they share their exhibit with Marabou storks and various waterfowl.

 

[kiang]

Edinburgh has Grevys zebra, Lesser kudu and Lowland nyala in its African plains, would love to see the warthog moved up here along with another antelope species like impala and a group of ostrich.
When mixed exhibits are done well there is nothing to beat seeing a community of animals interacting with each other, but i have to say some of the poorer mixed exhibits in Britain any way are at 2 of our safari parks, which will remain nameless, but one of the has an East Africa area with llama! and another has a breeding group of southern white rhino sharing its paddock with Pere Davids deer and yak!
I don't think it would be too difficult to place these animals into zoologically geographically correct drive thru's, i would love to see more antelope species coming into our safari parks such as impala, springbok, greater kudu, blesbok and nyala.

 

[ZooMania]

Longleat are bad as are Knowsley.

Take an example at knowsley
Rhino, Cape Buffalo, Congo Buffalo, Ostrich, Bison, Llama and Camels
Pere David Deer, Falloe Deer, Rhea and African Buffalo

and at longleat
Llama, camel, giraffe, zebra, ostrich

 

[Newzooboy]

I am also a big fan of mixed exhibits if done well but also of species being kept in natural sized groups.

Marwell does this very well with very large groups of oryx, grevy's zebra (mixed); addra gazelle, giraffe, congo buffalo (mixed but not all at all times); sable, roan, etc.

Also new Asian exhibit mixes Siamang, Lowland Anoa & short-clawed otter so far successfully.

 

[Sun Wukong]

@Newzooboy: the last bit about the anoas sounds very interesting; only the second time (LA Zoo, anoas & babirusa) I have heard of anoas in a mixed species exhibits. You don't have any photos of this particular exhibit, do You?

 

[Newzooboy]

@Newzooboy: the last bit about the anoas sounds very interesting; only the second time (LA Zoo, anoas & babirusa) I have heard of anoas in a mixed species exhibits. You don't have any photos of this particular exhibit, do You?

Hi Sun

Should be able to sort this out but havn't been since the exhibit has been open so my only existing photos are of it under construction. Will get over there in a week or two though and will take some pics and post.