How many zoos suffer from SDSRAWS? Is there a cure?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
In a photo caption thread over in the gallery one of our members commented on the installation of pacas (a South American rain forest dwelling rodent) in the Condor Ridge area of the San Diego Safari Park (a themed exhibit of animals from the Southwestern deserts of North America).

He coined the term "San Diego Stick Random Animals Wherever Syndrome" to describe that zoo's habit of breaking up some of the themes of their exhibit areas by putting species there that make no thematic sense. Arabian sand cats and Grevy's zebras showing up in the Arctic zone in Polar Bear Plunge also is an example of SDSRAWS.

It seems like this happens at other zoos as well, with Hyacinth macaws showing up in Carnivore Kingdom at the Philadelphia Zoo.

I'm curious how widespread this practice is (i.e., disruption of themed exhibit complexes with display of displaced species). Are there any examples from your local zoo or ones that you have visited?

Is this practice usually temporary, or are there examples where it is permanent and the exhibit theme no longer makes sense?

Certainly it is understandable that zoos find themselves with emergency or temporary need to house animals wherever they can find adequate space. In the case of the pacas however, it looks like they are in Condor Ridge permanently, which is very puzzling unless the Condor Ridge theme is changing away from its original theme. This does not seem likely given the current (October 2011) description on the website as I write this: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/park/exhibits/condor_ridge
 
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I'm probably being way nitpicky because there far odder missplacements such as the San Diego Zoo, but it kinda irks me a tiny bit that there's Eurasian Reindeer in Toronto Zoo's Canadian Domain. :P I realize that (correct me if I'm wrong) that reindeer and caribou are more or less the same, though. Maybe Canadian/North American caribou couldn't be obtained?
 
Takins in the African zone of Rio Grande Zoo.

White tigers and serval in the North American zone of Caldwell Zoo.

Porcupine and gray fox in Small Cat Canyon at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Hoofstock from every continent all thrown together at Fossil Rim.

Galapagos tortoises and rheas together in same exhibit at Reid Park Zoo.

Sumatran tigers in African zone of Phoenix Zoo (this is the only one on my list that is about to be remedied).
 
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay have Asian Elephants in their African-themed park. I know that there's a temperament difference between the two so maybe this is a common occurence. (?)
 
This for me underlines one of the weaknesses of arranging zoos on geographical lines. It's great in theory but can be seriously flawed in practice.
 
The main one I remember are the new world monkeys in the 'Leopards at Ussuri Falls' at Colchester Zoo.
 
the thing that annoys me is that it says on the rhino rally tour 'Welcome to a race through the African Bush' and the very 1st enclosure is asian elephants :S..
 
Cat-Man said:
the thing that annoys me is that it says on the rhino rally tour 'Welcome to a race through the African Bush' and the very 1st enclosure is asian elephants :S..
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A cynical interpretation of this is that they don't think (or care) that people can tell the difference between African and Asian elephants. Unfortunately there is probably some truth in this.
 
SDSRAWS! Ah.
The African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio (near Cedar Point) has an area with bison, elk and a TON of fallow deer.
The February 17, 2010 review of Arbuckle Wilderness in Davis, Oklahoma by jbnbsn99 mentioned-
A paddock with emu, yak, dwarf zebu, and alpaca- Australia, Asia and South America! In one paddock! :) Spotted and striped hyenas in smaller paddocks off to the side of this one.
Another paddock with dromedaries, yak, nilgai, Pere David's deer and llamas. Middle East, Mongolia, China, India and Peru all together! :) And another paddock for timber wolves. Classy :D
Another paddock with Asian yaks, European (Sicilian) donkeys, and South American llamas.
An African paddock with zebras, elands, scimitar-horned oryx, wildebeest, addax, giraffe, sable, as well as white rhinos and white tigers in separate paddocks. The shocker for jbnbsn was the kiang or onager. Yeah, Africa is part of Asia! :)
Bison and Przewalski's horses! :eek:
 
The San Antonio Zoo has an Asian elephant in the Africa area, but I think the Africa area was done recently while the elephant exhibit has been there for a long time. After the elephant bites the dust, apparently they plan on fixing up the exhibit and adding African elephants.
 
Taronga Zoo's brilliant "Wild Asia" exhibit, featuring a ton of excellent species has suffered this, and while I wish for a cure I doubt there will be one any time soon. Specifically, the Malayan Tapir was replaced with Pygmy Hippo (and the area renamed "Rainforest Trail" to compensate).
 
Detroit Zoo has the fallow deer everywhere and they had two Asian elephants in the African Grasslands zone, but now one is in elephant heaven :( and the other is still at the PAWS sanctuary in Galt CA. Now there are white rhinos at the former elephant exhibit.
 
cloudedleopard said:
Detroit Zoo has the fallow deer everywhere and they had two Asian elephants in the African Grasslands zone, but now one is in elephant heaven :( and the other is still at the PAWS sanctuary in Galt CA. Now there are white rhinos at the former elephant exhibit.
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Aside from the fallow deer Detroit Zoo also has Japanese macaques in the Africa zone. Other than that though they do a decent job keeping the animals arranged geographically.
 
zooboy28 said:
Taronga Zoo's brilliant "Wild Asia" exhibit, featuring a ton of excellent species has suffered this, and while I wish for a cure I doubt there will be one any time soon. Specifically, the Malayan Tapir was replaced with Pygmy Hippo (and the area renamed "Rainforest Trail" to compensate).
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I was going to post exactly this! Although, to be fair, they have retained all of the original species except for Malayan tapir (which has moved elsewhere in the zoo).
 
Jabiru96 said:
I was going to post exactly this! Although, to be fair, they have retained all of the original species except for Malayan tapir (which has moved elsewhere in the zoo).
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This is true. Perhaps they could get a more terrestrial monkey (maybe a macaque?) to replace the hippos in time to revert it to Wild Asia. Not sure what else that exhibit space would be good for (that they could get). I guess the fishing cats will be gone soon too, and then there will be another gap that will be hard to fill with an Asian species.
 
zooboy28 said:
This is true. Perhaps they could get a more terrestrial monkey (maybe a macaque?) to replace the hippos in time to revert it to Wild Asia. Not sure what else that exhibit space would be good for (that they could get). I guess the fishing cats will be gone soon too, and then there will be another gap that will be hard to fill with an Asian species.
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Fishing cat.....maybe dhole (there are only two left, although that in turn means that they are likely to phase out in the future) or retain fishing cat through imports. Regarding pygmy hippos, no idea!
 
Jabiru96 said:
Fishing cat.....maybe dhole (there are only two left, although that in turn means that they are likely to phase out in the future) or retain fishing cat through imports. Regarding pygmy hippos, no idea!
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I don't think they want to retain the dhole either :(, and I'm not sure they'll last much longer than the cats.
 
Brookfield Zoo recently replaced it's American Alligators in The Swamp, a Temperate Wetlands of North America exhibit, with some Orinoco Crocodiles. The new species is welcome but they're definitely geographically out of place. They also moved their Red River Hogs out of their old exhibit in the African Forest and into the African Savannah. The African Lions have for years been the only African species in the Fragile Kingdom, which is primarily Asian cats now, and future plans intend to move them, but admittedly it wasn't built as a geographic exhibit. I don't think there's been any truly dramatic examples here in a while now though.

Lincoln Park Zoo briefly had some Bactrian camels in the former Elephant Exhibit in African Journey but has since moved them back to Antelope-Zebra Area. They are building a new Penguin exhibit and a new Polar Bear exhibit next to each other and the main reaction to the announcement was anger that the species would be near one another despite being from very different geographic locations.

When Milwaukee County Zoo was renovating the feline building, they had one Red Panda in the old Small Mammal House and another in the 'moat' in front of the Bactrian Camel exhibit, but both are now in the Feline building... on the same token, there are Red Pandas in LPZ's Kolver Lion House.
 
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