Birds in mixed species exibits

D

Dom

Well-Known Member
OK, so we are all familiar with large scale African savannah exibits, and i know that some zoos keep birds in these large savannah exibits..

How succesful are they?

Do the birds have to be grounded, or are the exibits netted?

And, can someone tell me which zoos do this?

Thanks!
 
Sorry, i didn't make myself clear in my origional post,

what i meant was......how succesful are birds when mixed with mammals on large exibits...

I know of one place that keeps vultures with hoofstock in a large savannah style exibit.
 
At Dallas we have several exhibits with birds and hoofstock.

Bush Exhibit
Birds - Lappet Faced Vulture, East African Gray Crowned Crane, Southern Ground Hornbill, Marabou Stork
Mammals - Greater Kudu, Impala, Thomson's Gazelle

Gerenuk and West African Crowned Crane in another part

River
Birds - White Pelicans, White Breasted Cormorants, Goliath Heron, Blue Crane, White Stork, several duck species (formerly also Hadada Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Abdim's Stork, African Spoonbills, Yellow Billed Stork)
Mammals - Waterbuck

Others that have been together in the past are Nubian Ibex, Egyptian Vulture, and White Backed Vulture in the Mountain. All are quite successful. I think some kind of Guinea Fowl will be included in the upcoming Savanna exhibit (as well as ostrich)
 
There doesn't seem to be much of a problem with the more "placid" ratites (meaning ostrich, emu and rhea, not cassowary!) as they seem to be placed in mixed species exhibits quite commonly.

from seeing in person:

Ostrich: sitatunga and various other african hoofstock
Emu: red necked wallaby,
Rhea: Vicuna, Guanaco, Alpaca, Cameroon Sheep,

Then the Clore Pavilion at London had Sun Bitterns in the main biome area with the sloths and callitrichids (not sure if that's still current with the redevelopment that is occurring).

Obviously none of those contributes to your query about flight prevention as 3 species are flightless and the other was indoors.

I believe some collections keep Guinea Fowl in African savannahs, however I don't think I have seen this for myself yet.
 
I think its is fairly common to keep larger species such as storks, cranes, rhea's, ostrich etc

Newquay keep ostrich, guinea fowl and crowned crane in their african savannaha but i dont know about the flight preventions.
 
Calgary zoo keeps Crowned cranes, Hooded vultures and Marabou storks as well as helmeted guinea fowl. The firs three are all pinioned and i believe the guineas are a domestic breed unable to fly. They also keep american white pelicans and wild turkeys with a group of mule deer.
 
several bird species including marabou storks, crowned cranes and vultures are kept within our mixed savanna's in Toronto Zoo's African Savannah. I think the only large issue we've ever had was when a crowned crane was severely maimed by one of our young zebras
 
Hello,

This topic was already discussed in several threads.

Generally, birds often get trampled or attacked. For example, EEP found that 10% Marabous of Europe died this way. Also breeding success is extremely rare in any birds but waterfowl, which can escape on the water moat.

EEP recommends providing such mixed exhibits with safety network of resting places inaccessible for ungulates.

I personally prefer that no stork or other wading bird, flamingo, bird of prey or ground hornbill would be pinioned. Seeing pinioned vulture or ibis is particulary cruel for me.

I can justify keeping only these groups: waterfowl, pelicans, gamebirds (peacocks, pheasants, guineafowl, turkeys), cranes and rails (coots, swamphen). Waterfowl and cranes naturally become flightless during their moult and perhaps thats why they cope well, and gamebirds and rails run fast and normally fly only to escape predators.
 
I guess I'll revitalize this thread! I was wondering how well vultures mix with smaller animals. I'm designing a 1.45 acre meshed habitat that will house Barbary Sheep, Dorcas Gazelle, Egyptian Vulture, and Lappet-faced Vultures. I'm quite certain the little "Pharoah's chickens" will do no harm, but Lappet-faced Vultures are a different story - especially with the gazelles. Does anyone know of how the combination works at Dallas? Zoo Nordhorn mixes Griffon Vultures with Ibex, and it seems to work well - calves are even kept on exhibit; and female Alpine Ibex are similar to Dorcas Gazelles in size. Any thoughts?

Thanks!
-TV
 
At Zoo Parc Overloon - the Netherlands pinioned Dalmatic pelicans and pinioned demoiselle cranes are kept in a large walk-through asia-enclosure with deer and blackbuck and the palicans are breeding succesfull in this enclosure. ( also some waterfowl is kept inhere ).
 
At Brookfield zoo, there's an enclosure with a single ostrich female with multiple water bucks and red river hogs (Not sure if they switched with warthogs yet).
 
At Birmingham (and I would assume Dallas but I don't know if they do ostrich) the Ostrich Guineafowl Marabou Stork and Ground Hornbills are being "trained" to be one of the first species that integrate with the Bull Elephants on a regular basis. Eventually they plan that Elephant, Hippo, White Rhino, Zebra, Giraffe, Red River Hog, Grants Gazelle, Warthog and other hoofstock with rotate in with the Ostrich/Guineafowl/Storks/Hornbills on the main flex pen. Now several other species are kept in new aviaries in the exhibit proper they will remain in their exhibits (right beside giraffe) and will not move into the main exhibit (these include several weavers, turacos, startlings, and red billed hornbill. While not being directly "on exhibit" with the large mammals these birds still lend to the realism of the exhibit by being able to hear them. To hear african songbirds while feeding giraffes or watching Elephants is so much cooler than piped in music.
 
In the Rainforest Building at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo there's a mixed exhibit with greater Malay chevrotain and Bali Myna.
 
In Ocean Park, Hong Kong, I have seen large birds like arracis and sun conures mixed in a small walk-through aviary with a Kinkajou, and in Vancouver Aquarium, river turtles, iguanas, and sloths (I think) mixed in with Scarlet Ibises, various parrots, and what I think were Emerald Toucanets.
 
At John Ball Zoo we have a mixed species exhibit where guinea fowl, egyptian geese and southern ground horbill are mixed in with bongo.
 
Milwaukee County Zoo keeps:
- Thomson's gazelle, Impala and African Spurred Tortoise with Cinereous Vulture and Southern Ground Hornbills.
- Bongo and Yellow Backed Duiker will be with Kenya Crested Guineafowl
- Chevrotain is in the aviary with smaller birds (can't remember which birds)
- Bairds's Tapir, Alpaca and South American Yellow Footed Tortoise with Greater Rhea
- Impala, Plains Zebra with Ostrich and African Crowned Crane
- Plains Zebra, Waterbuck, Greater Kudu with Marabou stork
 
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