Making African Sections More Unique

Also I don't know how common is the African river theme in US is but I wished more zoos did that. I want more showcase on buffalos, elephants, crocodiles, and of course, hippos on these kind of river like habitats and also display them in a sense of river like valley.

Also just a thought, imagine a zoo creating a river crossing for wildebeest herd. And nile crocodile exhibit was put adjescant next to it. This is the kind of predator-prey combination that I feel like zoos should try to experiment more on.
 
Emanuel Theodorus said:
Also I don't know how common is the African river theme in US is but I wished more zoos did that. I want more showcase on buffalos, elephants, crocodiles, and of course, hippos on these kind of river like habitats and also display them in a sense of river like valley.

Also just a thought, imagine a zoo creating a river crossing for wildebeest herd. And nile crocodile exhibit was put adjescant next to it. This is the kind of predator-prey combination that I feel like zoos should try to experiment more on.
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That would be awesome. A complex with all of the African giants together would be as well but hippos, black rhinos, and elephants don't seem to play nice.
 
elefante said:
That would be awesome. A complex with all of the African giants together would be as well but hippos, black rhinos, and elephants don't seem to play nice.
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Some zoos have done white rhino and elephant together, you could pretty easily throw in some other hoofstock that are also commonly kept with elephant (impala, waterbuck, etc.). Hippo could be kept in an adjacent enclosure that would look like it were together if designed properly; but there have been zoos with hippo mixed with other animals such as ostrich and zebra.

I am not aware of anyone doing it with all the megafauna in one big habitat, however. So, it could be done...but it seems there would be a reason that it has not. It could simply be that managing such creatures together would be difficult for keeper staff and potentially dangerous for the mix, when such a danger is not necessary.
 
SwampDonkey said:
It could simply be that managing such creatures together would be difficult for keeper staff and potentially dangerous for the mix, when such a danger is not necessary.
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This is the main reason. You'd also need a massive exhibit to allow enough space between the different species as necessary. Elephants, hippos, and rhinos are certainly not above being pushy with each other, and in the confines of captivity this can be problematic. It would also be very difficult to house other species with said trio - it is already a challenge to house hoofstock successfully with elephant or hippos solo, having both to deal with would be tricky indeed.
 
tigris115 said:
Given how elephants have, on record, killed rhinos in the wild, and with how malicious hippos are, keeping any of the big 3 together is a terrible idea
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Hippos are the main "concern" in regards to aggressiveness, rhino and elephants have been kept successfully in multiple places and the other animals in combo have been kept together. I have read the following combos (only noting these animals, but several places have also don zebra/giraffe/ostrich along with the mega's).

White rhino - Elephant
White rhino - Elephant - Common hippo
Common Hippo - White rhino
Water buffalo - elephant
Cape buffalo - white rhino -zebra

All that said, it just is not a necessary thing to accomplish. A well designed zoo can provide enough space and still make it appear the animals are together. Some combo animals are great, but there is just no reason to make a risky situation when it is not necessary.
 
tigris115 said:
Honestly, I'd just use some clever hidden fencing if you wanted them to appear together. ESPECIALLY if you wanna eventually breed your stock as once babies get involved, species aggression can get quite nasty, especially with nature's titans.
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Elephant mother with an aggressive rhino... that's not a recipe you'd really want to look for the outcome.
 
I have an idea: Hyena House

Featuring:
Spotted hyena
Striped hyena
Brown hyena
Aardwolf

emphasising their unique place in the ecosystem (predator, scavenger, garbage collector) and then have some other animals that also play that role such as crocodiles etc

you could even link it into a recycling campaign
 
Grant Rhino said:
I have an idea: Hyena House

Featuring:
Spotted hyena
Striped hyena
Brown hyena
Aardwolf

emphasising their unique place in the ecosystem (predator, scavenger, garbage collector) and then have some other animals that also play that role such as crocodiles etc

you could even link it into a recycling campaign
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That's a really cool idea! Any zoo with all four species would be truly blessed. An African dog house, with fennec and bat-eared foxes, wild dogs and even black-backed jackals could also be quite interesting.
 
elefante said:
A little cats section could really complement a big cat section.
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Perhaps an overall 'African cat' complex would be interesting - Berlin Zoo has a very nice cat complex of its own, with 4 of the 5 big cats [all but snow leopards - kept at the Tierpark - which, funny enough, also has all but one of the big cats, in this case jaguar, which is at the Zoo] and several smaller species [incl. Rusty-spotted Cat held in the Nocturnal basement], though this is rather 'general' geographically-speaking.
P.S. some experts now believe that aardwolves should be split into two species !
 
dillotest0 said:
Perhaps an overall 'African cat' complex would be interesting - Berlin Zoo has a very nice cat complex of its own, with 4 of the 5 big cats [all but snow leopards - kept at the Tierpark - which, funny enough, also has all but one of the big cats, in this case jaguar, which is at the Zoo] and several smaller species [incl. Rusty-spotted Cat held in the Nocturnal basement], though this is rather 'general' geographically-speaking.
P.S. some experts now believe that aardwolves should be split into two species !
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This would be nice. Or a predator exhibit.
 
Ah, an idea that comes to my mind: I think so far most of the giraffe exhibits I've seen have tried to exhibit them in a grand way, like trying to make them look like the tallest land animal with all of the open field and eye to eye feeding level.

I would love to see a heavily forested areas for giraffe exhibit, to showcase the camouflage that they have. And not just tall trees, but also tall bushes, fallen branches, and tall grasses to really help them hide out. It would be an interesting sight to see the world's tallest animal hidden in plain sight.

Also, I totally would love to see Egyptian mythology themed area, filled with animals that represents the deities, such as Nile Crocodile for Sobek, Black Backed Jackal for Anubis, and Lanner Falcon for Horus. A carving similiar to the pleistocene animals of California in Elephant Odyssey would help the visitors tell what deity they are supposed to represent.
 
Emanuel Theodorus said:
like trying to make them look like the tallest land animal with all of the open field and eye to eye feeding level.
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Zoos don't need to "try" to make giraffes look like the tallest land animal. They ARE the tallest land animal, regardless of how zoos exhibit them. I can understand the desire for some more foliage in giraffe exhibits, but this is a problem for two reasons: 1. Giraffes will eat it. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but something that needs to be considered in the planning process.
2. Giraffes are large, flighty, potentially fractious animals. Generally speaking, adding too many obstacles and tripping hazards to a giraffe exhibit is likely to do far more harm than good. A few trees here and there are fine, but it wouldn't make sense to go overboard.

And reason number one giraffes aren't exhibited in "heavily forested areas": giraffes don't live in heavily forested areas of the world, but in the African Savanna. Their exhibits usually recognize this and are designed so that the giraffes can behave like they would in the wild.
 
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