Desert house

I saw this exhibit featured in your recent topic, and was immediately fascinated by the concept, and I'd love to know more. Are all of the species mentioned in the description free-roaming in this room? Rock thrushes, elephant shrews and a few of those reptiles feed primarily on insects, do they not eat dung beetles, or are there enough dung beetles in the enclosure for it not to matter if some get predated? How do they prevent the geckos etc. from escaping the enclosure?

Yes all species are free-roaming and the only thing to prevent them from escaping is a double set of doors and a watchful eye of the volunteers. The Ornate mastigures had to be removed because the male tried to escape regularly. The have been replaced by Oman mastigures and since my visit Pristurus geckoes have been introduced to the house as well.

The current Dung beetles are a bit to big for the other inhabitants (and they are nocturnal too). They only have very few dung beetles at the moment, more like 10-20 than the planned 1000. But it is very hard to get Dung beetles from Morocco currently as many local populations have crashed....

It is a wonderful little house and it takes quite some patience to see most of the inhabitants, but especially when you are the only visitor there is lots going on.

Thanks for the reply, this definitely seems like an amazing exhibit with a few very nice species!

@Vision For Zoochatters it certainly is and the best thing that could happen to this former Hippo house. I am just worried that most normal visitors are less impressed. The house is quite small, so fills up quickly and the more people the less is there to see...

I am curious which other species they will bring in and whether they succeed in importing new Marbled polecats for the adjacent outdoor enclosure. Nurnberg is already my favourite German collection together with Cologne and if they can only realize half of their current masterplan, that spot will remain secure for many years to come