looks like a nice little greenhouse. I do have to ask why they label it an "Asian jungle" though when there is such a worldly mix of bird species kept here (I'll be charitable enough not to be too hard on the plant mix because most people wouldn't even notice the discrepancies there). Seeing the zoo also has a "rainforest" with another random mix of birds, why couldn't they have this one truly "Asian"?
Well at first this Bird Complex was just to show off birds but know it is used for breeding purposes. Denver has breed almost every bird that lives in this complex besides the two elderly Macaws, Kea, and Micronesian King Fisher. I'm very sorry for not labeling this right. It is not called the Asian Jungle but Something I will have to check on when I go again. If a exhibit is about breeding than why have the need to categorize birds by a specific location. I really don't think that a Broadbill will only breed if there is another species from the same continent.
I wasn't suggesting you labelled the photo wrong, because you also posted a sign from the zoo itself saying "Asian Jungle". I just think it's sloppy of zoos to create "habitats" (eg, an Asian jungle) but then not actually hold to the theme. You are quite correct that it doesn't matter to the birds at all, or indeed most of the visiting public.
I wasn't suggesting you labelled the photo wrong, because you also posted a sign from the zoo itself saying "Asian Jungle". I just think it's sloppy of zoos to create "habitats" (eg, an Asian jungle) but then not actually hold to the theme. You are quite correct that it doesn't matter to the birds at all, or indeed most of the visiting public.
Or do most bird curators/keepers, who are far more concerned with maintaining viable populations of an ever-decreasing diversity of species in zoos, now that international trade in wild-caught or even privately-reared birds is largely a thing of the past. It's a shame that many zoogeographically-accurate exhibits have been--in my mind--degraded by indiscriminate mixing and matching, but the sad truth is there just aren't the animals available to maintain highly-specific exhibit concepts (although "Asian Jungle" does provide a fair amount of leeway). Don't forget, this "habitat theme" was created in the 1970s when zoos pretty much just ordered up replacement birds from a wide range of sources.
