Outdoor Kangaroo and Brush-Turkey exhibit at Basel Zoo 30/08/09

The outside paddock. Very unusual a) to see a Brush-Turkey at all in Europe and b) to see it running round a huge paddock.

Do the brush turkets have any oppurtunity to build their amazing nest mounds? It would make a fantastic aducational peace.

I've seen it happen elsewhere and it's pretty fascinating. No reason they couldn't here.

Maguari said:

I've seen it happen elsewhere and it's pretty fascinating. No reason they couldn't here.

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I read in another photo you uploaded that the whole house is about strange reproduction so it makes sense to. Also I read that the male and female are kept seperate...Do you know why?

And on a side note: It would be cool if they could have platypus or echidnas in this house to represent the monotremes.

PAT said:

I read in another photo you uploaded that the whole house is about strange reproduction so it makes sense to. Also I read that the male and female are kept seperate...Do you know why?

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No idea, I'm afraid.

PAT said:

And on a side note: It would be cool if they could have platypus or echidnas in this house to represent the monotremes.

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It very much would. Unfortunately, the number of echidnas in Europe can be counted on your fingers, and the number of platypus can be counted on no fingers at all!

I figured echidnas and platypus are as good as non existant over there (and pretty much the rest of the world) and I'll make a promise now that if I ever have a spare echidna I'll send it over to Basel because I am in love with this idea.

And on another side note: Are emus common in Switzerland because the males hatch the eggs and that is pretty cool. Also gastric brooding frogs and seahorses (although seahorses aren't exclusivly Australian).


And on another another side note: I had a really hard time thinking of any Australian placental mammals and the best I could come up with is bats and dingos.

I've only done three Swiss zoos so can't really comment but in Europe as a whole Emus are common in zoos. There aren't any placentals in the exhibit (for the reasons you mention!) but I guess as every other mammal exhibit in the zoo is placentals that's probably fair play!

And I'll hold you to that echidna promise!

PAT said:

And on another another side note: I had a really hard time thinking of any Australian placental mammals and the best I could come up with is bats and dingos.

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There are quite a lot of Australian rodents. Here in Europe, a couple of collections hold Beaver Rats (Hydromys chrysogaster) which would be a nice addition to Basle's 'Australia House'.

Blackduiker

Kangaroo and Brush Turkey. Now that's a unique combination for any zoo of Australian wildlife.

MikeG said:

There are quite a lot of Australian rodents. Here in Europe, a couple of collections hold Beaver Rats (Hydromys chrysogaster) which would be a nice addition to Basle's 'Australia House'.

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Beaver Rats?

That's interesting, I've never heard that name for them. In Australia they're known as Water Rats