Chlidonias

emu

photo taken about 1988. This is an enclosure just near the entrance, which still has emus in it today
photo taken about 1988. This is an enclosure just near the entrance, which still has emus in it today
 
This exhibit has actually held the zoos Collared Peccaries, now 3.0, for at least the last 4 years. Its quite an unusual exhibit, with a dry moat, and the ground level only just at eye-height. Does anyone know what species it was built for?
 
you are quite right. I was last there in 2008 and the peccaries were in there then. I have no idea why I said the emus were still kept there!

When this photo was taken the peccaries were over by the Arctic wolves and European badger if memory serves me correctly. And that (I think) would be around about the top of what is now the African savannah.
 
Well that would match what the 1986? map in the gallery shows. Any ideas what this enclosure was built for though, surely not emus?
 
no idea sorry. It certainly doesn't look like it was originally designed for emus though.
 
zooboy28 said:
Any ideas what this enclosure was built for though, surely not emus?
I have just found out that this enclosure was originally designed for camels! Believe it or not! Its certainly not a species I would have picked when guessing.
 
I have just found out that this enclosure was originally designed for camels! Believe it or not! Its certainly not a species I would have picked when guessing.

How bizarre!

It would be tiny for camels, and where would the shelter have been? And why would you want to look at a camels feet? Very weird.

Any idea when it was built? And did it actually ever hold camels?
 
apparently it was built in the 1960s, designed by someone from San Diego Zoo (hence the concrete rockwork). I will have to assume it did hold camels since it was specifically designed for them, but the small size of the enclosure did make me wonder how they fitted into it! I guess it was only one or two animals, possibly used for rides around the zoo since it was the 60s.
 

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