Mixed species exhibits

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
rumour has it one of the Gorillas at Melbourne leaves the enclosure every night and goes for walks downtown...lets himself back in in the morning...;)
 
patrick said:
his memory is excellent, the other day he couldn't find his ball and after exhausting every possible place it might be he ran
outside and looked down into the drain in the gutter outside my mothers house and barked for someone to lift the grill. because years ago it rolled down there .

he hates baths and hates having his haircut or ears cleaned. if the words are spoken .... and i mean hides in amazingly random places he never usually hides.
Click to expand...

We know dogs have an incredibly strongly developed sense of smell. Maybe their 'memory' is in fact some sort of scent map which helps them identify places where they lose toys etc i.e. 'here, here & here I've smelt my toy in the past so I will check them again now'. Similarly when my dog appears to 'remember' the place where she passes dogs barking at her, maybe its the scents which suddenly become familiar at that place, rather than the place itself?

I had a little dog who would do exactly the same if nothing was said but he just saw the shampoo bottle....
 
back to the original idea of this thread after watching the chimp at Taronga today and noticing how loud and agressive they can be even to members of their own families i was woundering of any zoo has even placed chimps in a mixed species situation and if so how sucessfull was this move?
 
Chimps are one of the 2 primates know to hunt(there may be more, jo?), so i doubt it, I think taronga once had the exhibit divided and peccaries of one side, but the chimps ate em!
 
If you believe that stuff about the peccaries I've got a nice Harbour Bridge I can sell you! (Although I think that a short-term trial was held of housing jackals in the chimp enclosure. Dunno how successful it was, but the jackals are not there now.)
 
Jurek7 said:
Just shows how much zoos changed during the last 20-odd years. It was one of first trials/experiments of indoor rainforest halls.

What animals are in Asian part of Tropic World?
Click to expand...

The last time I was there the orangutans and gibbons were on the big concrete "island" of sorts that is elevated above the remainder (when this was first done there, mixing the 2 species was still quite unusual), and there were also gibbons ( white-cheeked ) in the main exhibit area with small clawed otters living down below. On previous visits I had seen silver leaf monkeys in the main area instead of the gibbons, and when it opened there were Tonkean macaques.
It might be worth noting that some of the species tossed around for the main exhibit area were proboscis monkeys or crab eating macaques , hence the artificial mangroves and large pool. Over the years, There have been improvements to the graphics , more birds added ( Bali mynahs among them on my last visit )and an exhibit for tree shrews was added in the foyer to Asia, but I always felt like it was the most lacking of the 3 continents represented from the minute it opened. Yet, Even with all of the fake rockwork and trees the mixed species groupings in South America and Africa were really dynamic at the time they opened.
All that concrete isn't great, that's for sure, but at least it's usable space for the animals. So many zoos now build these expensive exhibits with lush grassy tree filled sections that make us feel better for the animals, but use hot wires, fences, mesh or moats to block the animals from actually using any of that space to protect the plants.

Someone asked about other South American animals besides the 6 mammal species in the big main group, I know they had two-toed sloths and golden lion tamarins on an elevated island near the visitor walkway, dusky titis on a separate island ( I don't know if these are still in the collection ), and cotton top tamarins free ranging. Birds that I remember seeing over the years include bellbirds and king vultures ( which were quite impressive in that massive space ).

I know when Tropic World opened it was considered the largest building in the zoo work at around 100,000 square feet, and I believe that stood until Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo build the Lied Jungle in 1992 with 123,000 square feet.

Eric in Portland, Oregon
 
At the Toronto Zoo, White-headed Vultures, Marabou Storks and Ground Hornbills share their exhibit with the Greater Kudu and three female Impala. They also keep their Agouti in with one of the marmosets, and their sloths in another marmoset exhibit. White Handed Gibbons used to share their exhibit with the Malayan Tapirs.
 
Can anyone tell me if they have ever seen an exhibit [anywhere in the world] successfully housing Small-clawed Otters and Red Pandas?

Thanks in advance.
 
Ara said:
If you believe that stuff about the peccaries I've got a nice Harbour Bridge I can sell you! (Although I think that a short-term trial was held of housing jackals in the chimp enclosure. Dunno how successful it was, but the jackals are not there now.)
Click to expand...

I dont remeber who on the forum told me, maybe Patrick?
 
it was zooboy. i clearly remember it.
back in the days when debates were being made about how taronga got all the money all the time etc....and the days before zoopro. who is sort of missing in action atm.
 
glyn said:
....and the days before zoopro. who is sort of missing in action atm.
Click to expand...

maybe he's gotten bored of answering "why can't we import kudu?", listening to "we should be maintaining clouded leopards" and hearing me slag off every zoo that so much as mentions the word elephant!!
 
patrick said:
maybe he's gotten bored of answering "why can't we import kudu?", listening to "we should be maintaining clouded leopards" and hearing me slag off every zoo that so much as mentions the word elephant!!
Click to expand...

Well, two out of three isn't bad, Patrick ;)

I'm still here, regularly watching and listening. I'll post when I feel I need to :)
 
ha ha!

for what its worth i have been attempting to tone down my anti-urban-elephant behavior.
my psychiatrist says its just deflected emotions about my childhood and my ex-girlfriend....;)
 
Busch Gardens Africa's new attraction, 'Jungala' will have a mixed exhibit including gibbons, flying foxes and gharials.

Should be an interesting mix...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top