The perils of zoogeographic displays. It won't matter an iota to the Pink Pigeons or to the keepers, but this sort of thing makes a lot of expensive signage look faintly ridiculous.
The perils of zoogeographic displays. It won't matter an iota to the Pink Pigeons or to the keepers, but this sort of thing makes a lot of expensive signage look faintly ridiculous.
The perils indeed! Here is a funny excerpt from my 2012 review of Palm Beach Zoo (also in Florida):
Geographical Consistency – The Florida Reptile House contains several species that do not live anywhere near Florida; the Florida Wetlands deer exhibit inexplicably has an African crowned crane in it; a giant anteater is also in the Florida zone; and Australian black swans are yet another animal in the Florida area. Also, are scarlet ibis actually ever found as far north as Florida? With the jeweled lacerta lizard being located in Spain I feel compelled to point out that the zoo’s Florida zone has animals from Australia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Why not toss in a couple of penguins from Antarctica? Such sloppy geographical mixing will bypass the brains of many tourists but it bothers the heck out of a great number of ZooChatters even more so than it bothers me. In different sections of the zoo it is the same story, with black swans in with South American animals in the Tropics of the Americas zone; Asian demoiselle cranes are placed in with Australian rock wallabies; and the list is endless as the entire left-hand side of the zoo is a hodgepodge zone of Australian, Asian and South American animals with a few African ones thrown in for good measure.
The perils indeed! Here is a funny excerpt from my 2012 review of Palm Beach Zoo (also in Florida):
Geographical Consistency – The Florida Reptile House contains several species that do not live anywhere near Florida; the Florida Wetlands deer exhibit inexplicably has an African crowned crane in it; a giant anteater is also in the Florida zone; and Australian black swans are yet another animal in the Florida area. Also, are scarlet ibis actually ever found as far north as Florida? With the jeweled lacerta lizard being located in Spain I feel compelled to point out that the zoo’s Florida zone has animals from Australia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Why not toss in a couple of penguins from Antarctica? Such sloppy geographical mixing will bypass the brains of many tourists but it bothers the heck out of a great number of ZooChatters even more so than it bothers me. In different sections of the zoo it is the same story, with black swans in with South American animals in the Tropics of the Americas zone; Asian demoiselle cranes are placed in with Australian rock wallabies; and the list is endless as the entire left-hand side of the zoo is a hodgepodge zone of Australian, Asian and South American animals with a few African ones thrown in for good measure.
Wow, there is getting it wrong and then there's this - I don't mind non-geographical exhibits [sometimes they are more advantageous], but I do prefer them on a personal level.
Also, I don't mind the odd exception to the rule, as said it can be simply temporary rehousing of a species, or sometimes it could be little other choice [Rodrigues flying fox in Madagascar exhibits]. Also, for a Florida display I've had in mind in the past I've included Burmese pythons for education purposes about invasive species [I don't know if that breaks zoo-geography in a technical sense, since they are found there ]
