I've always thought we needed African Wild Dogs. I always thought there was more than enough room opposit the twiga zoomobile station. But then again I always thought the ostriches should be housed with anything else and that their exhibit was a waste of space as well. Pair the ostriches off with a hoofed animal and free that space up for a species that needs that space... As I believe arcticwolf has suggested before make that into a bigger better lion exhibit. But a new speices can go there too.
I think our best shot at the wild dogs is when the olive baboons are gone. They are a AZA phase out species so Im guessing we have them on phase out too. Their exhibit is large. Its got high walls so a predator could be added. The only problem I could see with the exhibit being convereted to the dogs would be their barn. Is it easily convereted to holding a dangerous animal? Possibly considering the baboons could be dangerous themselves with those huge teeth. But a bigger animal? Maybe not. Though the zoo might just go back to hamadryas baboons, or switch to guinea baboons or gelada. Or a remote chance of Mandrills coming back (they do live in both the rainforest and the woodland parts of the savannah). If I cant have the wild dogs I would like to go back to having Mandrills. They are the coolest looking of the monkeys.
Ok clearly Im redesigning the zoo again. I'll stop and just aim to get the wild dogs in the giraffe exhibit. Good enough for me.
I highly doubt that wild dogs would live in the old giraffe exhibit because the plans actually say a new hoofstock species. Even though I would also love to see African wild dogs at the zoo, I don't see them coming anytime in the near future.
I know but I can dream cant I? Clearly I like dreaming big.
I know it will be a hoofstock animal... probably something we will all shake our heads at for such a big exhibit. And I dont really think it will be a mixed exhibit... I dont even really think they will mix the giraffes with anything. Our dear zoo hates mixed species exhibits with a few exceptions. But what wonderful exhibits they could have if only they embraced them as fully as possible.
We have a huge "new" giraffe enclosure that could easily house giraffes and several other species. By mixing in lets just say 3 species... zebras, ostriches and marabou storks, the exhibit becomes more interesting and 2 other enclosures become free for other species that might not get along so well or just need more housing space. At least if there were 4 or 5 species in an exhibit the odds of at least one of them doing something interesting increases.
