They don't do good with cattle.
Mixed species exhibit ideas
- Thread starter LowlandGorilla4
- Start date
They don't do good with cattle.
Bearing in mind of course that any fish involved are occasionally eaten from time to time - it works but you don't want to put anything valuable with them.
Beavers have been mixed with waterfowl many times before, and also I recall somewhere mixed them with Budgies.
Thanks, the cranes with beavers is the one I'm most curious about.
The cranes will eat any small Passerines they can catch
I’ve worked with Scarlet Macaws in a large planted aviary that also held Spectacled Parrotlet, Ultramarine Grosbeak, Brazilian Tanager, Red-cowled Cardinal, Black-necked Stilt, Cinnamon Teal and Ringed Teal. The parrotlets and both duck species reared young, eggs from the stilts were incubator hatched, the Passerines and macaws were non-breeding. Blue-throated Conures were targeted by the macaws and had to be removed.
Springbok
Well-Known Member
Where was this place you speak of?
All I will say is that it was a U.K. zoo, and the exhibit still flourishes
Springbok
Well-Known Member
Oh,so do I have to guess?All I will say is that it was a U.K. zoo, and the exhibit still flourishes
Would housing lowland anoa, Visayan warty pigs, Indian rhinoceroses, white-lipped deer, and goitered gazelles be possible?
Preferably, all of them would be kept in breeding herds, although I expect males would have to be separated. I'm particularly weary of the pigs and to a lesser extent the cows. Two public enclosures that can be opened up to make a single space are an 1+1/4 acres total. One of them has a fairly deep pool, which I'm thinking could be a problem.
numbers:
1.3 Visayan warty pigs
1.3 goitered gazelles
1.1 Indian rhinoceroses
1.3 white-lipped deer
1.1 lowland anoas
Preferably, all of them would be kept in breeding herds, although I expect males would have to be separated. I'm particularly weary of the pigs and to a lesser extent the cows. Two public enclosures that can be opened up to make a single space are an 1+1/4 acres total. One of them has a fairly deep pool, which I'm thinking could be a problem.
numbers:
1.3 Visayan warty pigs
1.3 goitered gazelles
1.1 Indian rhinoceroses
1.3 white-lipped deer
1.1 lowland anoas
That mix in that small of an enclosure is just asking for trouble. The only non-aggressive animals on that list are the female gazelles
@Aardwolf is correct — anoa are notoriously aggressive and have been known to attack other animals, people, and even members of their own species. Greater one-horned rhinoceroses are well known grumps as well, especially while breeding. Pigs are always dicey in mixed species exhibits, no matter the species. White-lipped deer are probably one of the most aggressive species of deer (they also do very poorly in warm climates, which really restricts where they can be housed. They’re very prone to overheating). Male gazelles are famous for trying to fight above their weight class. It would be utter chaos.I'd imagine the pigs and rhinos would have a lot of competition for mud wallows as well.That mix in that small of an enclosure is just asking for trouble. The only non-aggressive animals on that list are the female gazelles
And the white-lipped deer, and the anoa. All of those species would make ready use of any wallows or shallow pools.
The way you worded that is mildly hilarious.
I definitely should have known that but I can't say I'm surprised. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure anoa are fairly prolific among dealers which is strange to me now knowing that they can be so violent.
I have some understanding of that, especially after the incident at The Wilds with a male domestic Bactrian camel, but I'm also aware of a few places that keep them in smaller enclosures with other species, like Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the Buffalo Zoo. Are there ways that facilities eliminate or minimize the chances for possible incidents involving Indian rhinoceroses?
They wouldn't necessarily be a problem though, right? Especially if precautions are taken to avoid issues, I would guess that they could live in a group like this.
I had absolutely no idea about this. Would Vietnamese sika be better for for this enclosure?
I know of several zoos that have had little issue with this because they are easily able to escape from any larger animals that they antagonize. Would this not apply here or is that false?
Interestingly to me is that I considered the deer and the rhinoceroses might have altercations about this, a different pairing that what you both thought of.
Buffalo Zoo hasn't mixed their rhinos for at least a few years now. I don't know if the mix fell apart or if axis deer left the collection for some other reason, but for a few years that whole area has been solely rhinos. I would love it if they got a species of deer back for that exhibit, however.
They are more common in the private sector than in zoos, yes; however, I think you’ll find that how dangerous an animal is does not generally deter private individuals from owning them… In private hands, they are still generally housed solo or in pairs — not generally in mixed-species enclosures. I think you’ll also find that management practices in private facilities are vastly different than in established and accredited zoos and that practices in “dealing” with aggression in private facilities would not be deemed acceptable or appropriate in said zoos.
You are never going to eliminate risk in a mixed-species habitat. There’s always going to be some level of risk of something going wrong — not just in this specific scenario but in mixed-species habitats in general. Faculties just have to weigh the risks and do what they can to mitigate them, but in some instances, the risks just aren’t worth taking. Youcoyld reduce the risk by providing enough space (The Wilds, SDZSP), enough exclusion areas, managing single-sex groups of one or multiple species (I believe Omaha has a single-sex herd of Pere David’s with their rhinos), etc., but they’re never guaranteed to work. Sometimes it can rely solely on the personalities of individual animals — some animals are just more tolerant than others.
I personally would not think it would be worth it. Suid mixes go wrong more often than they go right — it seems the most successful ones are where they’re using completely different parts of the habitat, like with primates. They seem to consistently pick fights they can’t win with larger hoofstock and try to make snacks of anything smaller than them.
I do not think a taxon as endangered/generally rare as the Vietnamese sika would be worth risking in such a mix. Calmer more common species, such as barasingha, brow-antlered deer, or Pere David’s would work better — although males may still be a problem. Male deer are notoriously aggressive in rut. Many facilities will de-antler males to prevent them from killing each other/other animals during rut.
It’s a more prevalent problem than meets the eye. I think often times what’s viewed as “successful” from the outside is not always the full story of what’s happening behind-the-scenes. Male gazelles are very often separated out from mixed-species habitats or are rotated with other males because of this inclination — the Speke’s gazelle SSP will not even allow breeding males in mixed-species habitats because so many have been lost. Male gazelles not only pick fights they cannot win, but they also don’t usually back down from them either… When the SDZSP had both Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles and impala in their massive East Africa habitat, they still had to rotate the males because of the fights they’d pick with each other.