Mixed species exhibit ideas

BenFoxster said:
Not to be a bother, but I am wondering which and how many of the bird species from the two aviaries you mentioned could fit well into a 7500 SF aviary, assuming I exclude the Abdin, Marabou, and Yellow-billed storks in place for one of the three larger water birds previously mentioned (flamingo, saddle-billed stork, or shoebill)?
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Beekse Bergen has an aviary of roughly that size. They have 50+ flamingos and enough space for a pair of Saddlebills. The aviary would have to be much larger if you also want to house shoebills in here.

The aviary in Parc des Oiseaux is at least twice that size, but you should still be able to house 2 or 3 small waders (like ibises, hamerkop or herons), a few smaller flying birds (pigeons, turacos, etc) and the Grey parrots.

In case you want to compare sizes:
Beekse Bergen's Flamingo aviary (roughly the same size as what you suggest)
Parc Des Oiseaux's Africa in Mosaics (with the big species list I mentioned earlier)
Amersfoort's Snavelrijk (the perfect size if you want a big African wetland aviary)
Bird Paradise's Heart of Africa (the only aviary I know of to mix Shoebill storks and Saddlebill storks)
 
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ive been making up my own zoo the past few years and theese are some of the mixed species exhibits ive thought of, let me know

elderly female african & asian elephant
the 1 i said with giraffes & zebras earlier
okapi + yellow backed duiker
lowland nyala + kirks dik dik
eastern bongo + blesbok
common ostrich + kafue lechwe
ankole watusi + blue crane
somali wild ass + marabou stork
common warthog + southern ground hornbill
red river hog + eastern black and white colobus monkey
pygmy hippopotamus + de brazzas monkey
meerkat + african crested porcupine
ring tailed lemur + black and white ruffed lemur + red bellied lemur + radiated tortoise (walkthrough)

indian rhinoceros + blackbuck
water buffalo + pere david's deer
przewalski's wild horse + axis deer
javan banteng + nilgai + elds deer
lion tailed macaque + burmese mountain tortoise
sumatran orangutan + lar gibbon

common wombat + koala
western grey kangaroo + emu
short beaked echidna + zebra finch
dusky padamelon + laughing kookaburra

wisent + fallow deer + cattle egret + white stork

pronghorn + american white pelican
chacoan peccary + black-tailed prairie dog

caiman lizard + yellow spotted amazon river turtle
common squirrel monkey + galapagos giant tortoise
alpaca + lowland tapir + capybara + patagonian mara + giant anteater + greater rhea

atlantic puffin + gentoo penguin

cameroon sheep + somali sheep + pygmy goat + nubian goat + chicken + miniature dexter cow + miniature donkey + shetland pony + red necked wallaby
vietnamese pot bellied pig + black runner duck
dromedary camel + domestic turkey + indian peafowl
giant flemish rabbit + guinea pig

this took forever to do:(:(:(:(
 
Mr Gharial said:
Beekse Bergen has an aviary of roughly that size. They have 50+ flamingos and enough space for a pair of Saddlebills. The aviary would have to be much larger if you also want to house shoebills in here.

The aviary in Parc des Oiseaux is at least twice that size, but you should still be able to house 2 or 3 small waders (like ibises, hamerkop or herons), a few smaller flying birds (pigeons, turacos, etc) and the Grey parrots.

In case you want to compare sizes:
Beekse Bergen's Flamingo aviary (roughly the same size as what you suggest)
Parc Des Oiseaux's Africa in Mosaics (with the big species list I mentioned earlier)
Amersfoort's Snavelrijk (the perfect size if you want a big African wetland aviary)
Bird Paradise's Heart of Africa (the only aviary I know of to mix Shoebill storks and Saddlebill storks)
Click to expand...

Thanks again Gharial, these are amazing exhibits, would love to take inspiration from them. This is an incredible resource, thanks again!
 
Olek said:
ive been making up my own zoo the past few years and theese are some of the mixed species exhibits ive thought of, let me know
Click to expand...
I'll take a look

Olek said:
elderly female african & asian elephant
okapi + yellow backed duiker
lowland nyala + kirks dik dik
common ostrich + kafue lechwe
ankole watusi + blue crane
somali wild ass + marabou stork
red river hog + eastern black and white colobus monkey
pygmy hippopotamus + de brazzas monkey
meerkat + african crested porcupine
ring tailed lemur + black and white ruffed lemur + red bellied lemur + radiated tortoise
Indian rhinoceros + blackbuck
water buffalo + pere david's deer
przewalski's wild horse + axis deer
javan banteng + nilgai + elds deer
sumatran orangutan + lar gibbon
common wombat + koala
western grey kangaroo + emu
short beaked echidna + zebra finch
dusky padamelon + laughing kookaburra
pronghorn + american white pelican
chacoan peccary + black-tailed prairie dog
caiman lizard + yellow spotted amazon river turtle
common squirrel monkey + galapagos giant tortoise
alpaca + lowland tapir + capybara + patagonian mara + giant anteater + greater rhea
cameroon sheep + somali sheep + pygmy goat + nubian goat + chicken + miniature dexter cow + miniature donkey + shetland pony + red necked wallaby
vietnamese pot bellied pig + black runner duck
giant flemish rabbit + guinea pig
- atlantic puffin + gentoo penguin
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All of these should be fine


Olek said:
common warthog + southern ground hornbill
lion tailed macaque + burmese mountain tortoise
dromedary camel + domestic turkey + indian peafowl
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These ones won't work, I think.
- Warthogs would probably be too aggressive for the Hornbills
- Lion-tailed macaques are crafty and omnivorous, so they might try to harm the tortoises. Chances of that happening are very small, but it might still be too risky to mix them
- Camels would definitely form a trampling risk to the birds

Olek said:
- wisent + fallow deer + cattle egret + white stork
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The mix would be fine, I suppose. But you would need it in an aviary because you definitely don't want the Cattle egrets wing-clipped or pinioned in this scenario. I think it would be better to leave out the birds.
 
Olek said:
no one mentioned anything about giraffes trampling guineafowls


but camels could trample turkeys??
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The savanna you suggest would require a very big enclosure, and you can only have a limited amount of Giraffes. 10 giraffes on a 1500+ square meter enclosure with guineafowl would give the guineafowl plenty of space to get away.

A Dromedary/Turkey/Peafowl habitat sounds very much like a petting zoo situation, which usually have smaller enclosures. A 400 square meter habitat with 6 camels and multiple turkeys and peafowl would not give said birds a lot of space to avoid the Dromedaries.

Also: Guineafowl are fast, plains-dwelling species that are used to inhabiting the same space as hoofstock, while Peafowl and Turkeys are forest-dwelling species that are not used to hoofstock apart from deer
 
Mr Gharial said:
The savanna you suggest would require a very big enclosure, and you can only have a limited amount of Giraffes. 10 giraffes on a 1500+ square meter enclosure with guineafowl would give the guineafowl plenty of space to get away.

A Dromedary/Turkey/Peafowl habitat sounds very much like a petting zoo situation, which usually have smaller enclosures. A 400 square meter habitat with 6 camels and multiple turkeys and peafowl would not give said birds a lot of space to avoid the Dromedaries.

Also: Guineafowl are fast, plains-dwelling species that are used to inhabiting the same space as hoofstock, while Peafowl and Turkeys are forest-dwelling species that are not used to hoofstock apart from deer
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i was planning for there to be an area where the peafowl and turkey can get away from the camels. just a small private space
 
since your zoo is not really sticking to naturally occurring pairings you might want to switch the Galapagos tortoises and Burmese Mtn tortoise as the Galapagos "probably" would fare better than the Burmese with the lion tails.
 
There used to be a insane mixed species exhibit in Taman Safari Bogor with a group of common impala and nilgai, as well as several emus and an southern cassowary. Indonesian zoos are not known for being transparent so there's no known report of incident publicly. As of now, only the impalas and nilgai stayed.

I also thinking of a mixed species exhibit idea with Komodo dragons and birds, especially passerines and even parrots. This mix has been attempted before in Batu Secret Zoo, where a pair of hill myna was housed alongside an adult Komodo dragon, I'm not aware of the current result. I was thinking of a mix with passerines and parrots that are specifically native to the Lesser Sunda Islands (So no random exotic birds) like some species of myna/starling and yellow-crested cockatoo. Fishes and turtles are also in my mind but I think the dragons wouldn't think twice to eat them, birds that are mostly flew and perched high above in the exhibit most likely wouldn't be able to be reached by the dragons if they're fast enough. Of course, the height of the exhibit and it not being open-topped are also to consider, so please take the Komodo dragon exhibit in Taman Safari Bogor as a reference.
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Rizz Carlton said:
I also thinking of a mixed species exhibit idea with Komodo dragons and birds, especially passerines and even parrots.
(...)
Fishes and turtles are also in my mind but I think the dragons wouldn't think twice to eat them
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The trick to reptilian predator x prey mixes is to have animals that are too small to be prey to the reptiles. A large Crocodile or Komodo dragon would never go after a small finch or gecko, so mixing these is fine. Birds like Scaly-breasted munia, Zebra finch, Java sparrow or Red-whiskered bulbul are all safe around large reptiles.

You can also have birds that never land on the ground, since these will never be in the dragon's reach. Like Pied imperial-pigeons, Asian fairy-bluebird or Blue-crowned hanging parrot. Birds like Bleeding-heart, Quails or any kind of water-dwelling bird would not be safe.

For turtles the opposite is true, the turtles would have to be too large to be seen as the reptile's prey. Komodo dragons regularly eat animals larger than them, like water buffaloes, so I'm not sure if any size turtle would be safe with them.

For fish, it just means having fish species where it wouldn't be so bad if you lost some, like smaller rasboras, barbs or loaches that can breed in the water. Smaller fish have a smaller chance of being eaten, just like with the birds
 
Mr Gharial said:
For turtles the opposite is true, the turtles would have to be too large to be seen as the reptile's prey. Komodo dragons regularly eat animals larger than them, like water buffaloes, so I'm not sure if any size turtle would be safe with them.
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Doesn't Prague keep turtles with Komodos?
 
First post in the speculative zoo design forums, and i have some mixed exhibits ideas that i've been thinking for a while, those are:

Giant otters and Amazonian manatee in a lake habitat.

Crab-eating fox and south american tapir in a tropical habitat with a sand beach.

Aye-aye and malagasy giant rat in a nocturnal house set up, with each species having an exclusive shelter for each other.

Giant panda and takin, with tha habitat having two levels: a lower part for the pandas and a higher part for the takins.

A mix between giraffes, african buffalos and secretary birds (fully able to fly) in a massive habitat. I know that secretary birds sometimes feed on baby antelopes, but I assume they wouldn't try something against a buffalo or giraffe calf. And also that the buffalos and giraffes probably woudn't bother the birds either.

So, could those work?
 
my guess is the otters would harass the Hell out of the manatees.
I'm not sure the ayes and rats would work either
pretty sure the panda /takin would not work. unless there was an actual barrier between them
the last one would work but pretty damn costly unless the roof of the structure is just netting
 
Utahraptor said:
First post in the speculative zoo design forums, and i have some mixed exhibits ideas that i've been thinking for a while, those are:

Giant otters and Amazonian manatee in a lake habitat.

Crab-eating fox and south american tapir in a tropical habitat with a sand beach.

Aye-aye and malagasy giant rat in a nocturnal house set up, with each species having an exclusive shelter for each other.

Giant panda and takin, with tha habitat having two levels: a lower part for the pandas and a higher part for the takins.

A mix between giraffes, african buffalos and secretary birds (fully able to fly) in a massive habitat. I know that secretary birds sometimes feed on baby antelopes, but I assume they wouldn't try something against a buffalo or giraffe calf. And also that the buffalos and giraffes probably woudn't bother the birds either.

So, could those work?
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Giant otters would absolutely harm or harass the manatees

Fox and tapir should be fine, although you would need some spots for the foxes to get away from the tapirs

Aye-Aye/Malagasy giant rat should be fine, as Amersfoort mixes Malagasy giant rats with Slow lorises and Galagos

Giant pandas really can't be mixed, they're too aggressive

As Daktari said, building an aviary with the space to house giraffes and buffaloes would have to be incredibly big and very expensive, and it would just end up still being a trampling risk to the Secretary birds
 
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