Mixed species exhibit ideas

Recently, I have been planning to include two aviary-type enclosures for my exhibit showcase thread; and I just wanted to make sure if each of these mixes are feasible enough to successfully work:

1. Capybara, Southern Tamandua, Red-Footed Tortoise, Black Howler Monkey*, Southern Screamer; Sunbittern, Guira Cuckoo, Roseate Spoonbill, Yellow-Rumped Cacique, Chestnut-Eared Aracari; Wattled Jacana, Comb Duck**, Ringed Teal, Blue-Crowned Conure, and Brazilian Teal.

2. Gelada, Nubian Ibex, Rock Hyrax, Hadada Ibis, Blue-Winged Goose, White-Cheeked Turaco, and Speckled Pigeon.


(*displayed on a separate island within the main structure)

(**Sardikornis sylvicola)
 
Austin the Sengi said:
2. Gelada, Nubian Ibex, Rock Hyrax, Hadada Ibis, Blue-Winged Goose, White-Cheeked Turaco, and Speckled Pigeon.
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I've seen Blue-winged geese with Gelada before, but I'm a little worried about the ibises. They might be a little too fragile to be in with curious primates. The turacos and pigeons should be fast enough to get away from them. Though, in general, I would include some spaces for the birds to go into an Ibex/Gelada-free zone (if this zone is big enough, the Ibises might be fine too)
 
Would there be any South American fish, housed in US zoos, able to be mixed with the following:
Arrau River Turtle, Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle, Matamata Turtle, Northern Caiman Lizard, and Ocellate River Stingray. I'm envisioning a 400 square foot amazon river exhibit, with the water section approximately 4-6 feet tall and then tree branches above for the caiman lizards.
 
Neil chace said:
Would there be any South American fish, housed in US zoos, able to be mixed with the following:
Arrau River Turtle, Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle, Matamata Turtle, Northern Caiman Lizard, and Ocellate River Stingray. I'm envisioning a 400 square foot amazon river exhibit, with the water section approximately 4-6 feet tall and then tree branches above for the caiman lizards.
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How would you stop the lizards from falling into the water?
 
Neil chace said:
Would there be any South American fish, housed in US zoos, able to be mixed with the following:
Arrau River Turtle, Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle, Matamata Turtle, Northern Caiman Lizard, and Ocellate River Stingray. I'm envisioning a 400 square foot amazon river exhibit, with the water section approximately 4-6 feet tall and then tree branches above for the caiman lizards.
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Silver Arowana, Black Arowana, various Pacu, Red-tailed Catfish, Ripsaw Catfish, any of the shovelnose catfish, larger plecostomus and panaques, larger cichlids such as Oscar and Green Terror, and more. Could even do juvenile Arapaima.

Will note that Matamata is usually kept in relatively shallow tanks due to their sluggish nature. They prefer to be able to breathe by rearing up on their hind legs and extending the neck, at most. They would stick to any shallow area for the most part.
 
Great Argus said:
Silver Arowana, Black Arowana, various Pacu, Red-tailed Catfish, Ripsaw Catfish, any of the shovelnose catfish, larger plecostomus and panaques, larger cichlids such as Oscar and Green Terror, and more. Could even do juvenile Arapaima.

Will note that Matamata is usually kept in relatively shallow tanks due to their sluggish nature. They prefer to be able to breathe by rearing up on their hind legs and extending the neck, at most. They would stick to any shallow area for the most part.
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Thanks, black pacu and red-tailed catfish were on my possible list of fish I was considering but didn't know how well they'd get along with the turtles. Would banded leporinus also be an option, or would they just end up an expensive enrichment feeder?
 
Neil chace said:
Thanks, black pacu and red-tailed catfish were on my possible list of fish I was considering but didn't know how well they'd get along with the turtles. Would banded leporinus also be an option, or would they just end up an expensive enrichment feeder?
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Bear in mind many of the mentioned fish species would readily eat hatchling turtles.
Large leporinus specimens would probably be ok.
 
I know I already asked a lot of Savanna questions but would it be possible to exhibit giraffes, white rhinos, mountain zebra, grants gazelle, oryx, ostriches, and pink backed pelicans in a 3-acre mixed species savanna? If not, how large a savannah would be needed to hold all these species? I know Chester Zoo has a similar exhibit only without the pelicans, gazelle, or oryx but with greater kudu instead, how large is that exhibit?
 
BenFoxster said:
I know I already asked a lot of Savanna questions but would it be possible to exhibit giraffes, white rhinos, mountain zebra, grants gazelle, oryx, ostriches, and pink backed pelicans in a 3-acre mixed species savanna? If not, how large a savannah would be needed to hold all these species? I know Chester Zoo has a similar exhibit only without the pelicans, gazelle, or oryx but with greater kudu instead, how large is that exhibit?
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The savanna exhibits have been debated many times, but I would avoid the Pelicans unless their exhibit is an actual aviary where they can fly ; they need a restricted space, protected from the hooves of the ungulates.
A surface of 3 acres looks small for so many species.
I don't know if the mix Grant Gazelle + Oryx (what species?) would work.
 
Haliaeetus said:
The savanna exhibits have been debated many times, but I would avoid the Pelicans unless their exhibit is an actual aviary where they can fly ; they need a restricted space, protected from the hooves of the ungulates.
A surface of 3 acres looks small for so many species.
I don't know if the mix Grant Gazelle + Oryx (what species?) would work.
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I know Woodland Park Zoo used to hold fringe-eared oryx with Grant's Gazelle, giraffes, zebras, and ostriches, so I was hoping to (hypothetically) recreate that but add white rhinos and pelicans. I figured the pelicans would fare better than most pinioned bird species, as they would spend the majority of their time in the water (I was planning to map out a large stream acting as the exhibit's water moat barrier), and including some branches or a small hill/rocks only accessible to the pelicans, versus the usual crowned-cranes or quail that end up stranded on the land with the large ungulates. Would four acres be feasible? If that's still too small I'd settle for either removing the rhinos entirely, or perhaps making it a rotational exhibit rotating different mixings such as giraffe+zebra+ostrich, to rhino+zebra+ostrich, to zebra+antelopes, to giraffe+antelopes+ostrich, rhinos+antelopes, etc.
 
Kudu21 said:
(they also do very poorly in warm climates, which really restricts where they can be housed.
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Is that one of the reasons why the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is no longer managing the white-lipped deer?

Kudu21 said:
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.
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I understand that there is always a risk. I guess I should have only written "minimize" instead of both that and "eliminate."

Kudu21 said:
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.
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I'd prefer the deer included is from a colder climate just so that during the colder months of the year there are some species on-exhibit. Bactrian deer are another possibility, but I'd like a species that isn't recommended by the TAG. I suggested Vietnamese sika, because there aren't many other options that interest me, though Père David's deer are more compelling than Bactrian deer or any of the other species you suggested because of their conservation history.

Kudu21 said:
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.
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I was thinking of the Toledo Zoo. When I was there this summer, three slender-horned gazelles, one adult male and one adult female along with their calf, were on exhibit with an adult male, three adult female, and two young nyala. Does the temperament of male gazelles vary by individual to some extent?

Kudu21 said:
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.
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Hypothetically, are there resources within the AZA or SSPs to find individuals for new holders based on their personalities? The Visayan warty pigs and Indian rhinoceroses are the two most important species for my vision of
this enclosure.
 
been planning a few mixed enclosures that i would like to run through here:
the first is a huge aviary for budgies, cockatiels, and galahs it would have and indoor and an outdoor portion
the second is a large paddock for giant anteater and capybara, with one anteater and 4 capybara.
the last i just want to know if orangutan can be mixed with siamang or other gibbons
 
Oh yeah definitely! Many zoos mix orangutan with siamang and other gibbons if enough space and shelter is provided for them both to have time alone.
 
pichu said:
been planning a few mixed enclosures that i would like to run through here:
the first is a huge aviary for budgies, cockatiels, and galahs it would have and indoor and an outdoor portion
the second is a large paddock for giant anteater and capybara, with one anteater and 4 capybara.
the last i just want to know if orangutan can be mixed with siamang or other gibbons
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No problem for the aviary.
The mix of Capybara and Giant Anteater may work, but one have to be careful with the behaviour of the latter.
 
Would this work?
Amazon Stream:
Capybara- 1.2
Ringed Teal- 3.0
White-faced Whistling Duck- 1.3
Wattled Jacana- 1.1
Arrau River Turtle- 0.0.4
Yellow-spotted Amazon Turtle- 0.0.3
 
Aardwolf said:
Anoa don’t play nice. In Sulawesi they call them “demon cows” - and in my experience, ungulates with short, straight horns are super stabby
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Can they be exhibited with waterfowl and storks? I don't expect the latter to be possible but I'm not certain.
 
wild boar said:
Can they be exhibited with waterfowl and storks? I don't expect the latter to be possible but I'm not certain.
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Waterfowl would be more likely to be successful, though I'm increasingly in favor of leaving all waterfowl full-winged, and worry that if a zoo were to try to net over an anoa exhibit, it would end up being smaller than the anoa would otherwise receive if it were left open-topped. Storks will end poorly, I suspect - storks are occasionally trampled by animals much less assertive than anoa, and I think if the species were mixed, it wouldn't be too long before a keeper came in one day and found an anoa wearing a stork as a hat.

On a semi-related aside, 99% of the time waterfowl are mentioned as a mixed-species exhibit, and while they are often exhibited in that role, it sometimes makes me feel like folks - both online and in the real world - see them as "filler." I've seen some excellent exhibits just for waterfowl (mostly in private hands) and think there's a lot to be gained from giving them their own spaces to shine.

I sometimes think that, while mixed-species habitats are cool to see and fun to play around with, the truth is that many species are best served housed on their own in exhibits that are specifically made with their welfare and needs in mind, rather than having those needs compromised to accommodate an exhibit-mate. *Steps off the soapbox*
 
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