Multiple Species Enclosures

N

Nigel

Well-Known Member
I am very interested in zoos that house different species of animals in the same enclosure (wherever practical ) I think it gives the opportunity to watch the animals as they may appear in their homelands in the wild . Quite apart from the fact that one large enclosure is more economical than two or three
At Auckland zoo they have zebras , giraffes and ostriches all sharing the same large enclosure . And they also have a springboks living with white rhinos -- it looks very incongruous because the springboks look so fragile compared to the rhino , but they are not bothered by the rhino .

No doubt the better Australian zoos do likewise ?
 
Last edited:
I too am really interested in mixed species exhibits, there are a few in Australia, mostly hoofstock and kangaroos though.

Melbourne Zoo houses rothschild's giraffe, zebra, ostrich and guineafowl in it's savannah exhibit, but Werribee open Range Zoo houses these species together also PLUS white rhino, eland and waterbuck.

Melbourne's New Guinea exhibit also features echidna's and goodfellow's tree kangaroo's together. more echidnas can be found wandering around in the koala enclosure.

for many years agouti could be found scurrying around the floor of the spider monkey enclosure on the arboreal boardwalk for primates.

Melbourne tried a similar combination again more recently when it transformed its historic old cocky aviary into the "amazon aviary" where various species of macaw and conure shared an exhibit with squirrel monkeys and agouti. unfortunately the agouti departed after destroying all the foliage and the monkeys were also later removed. (i think they were bullied by the macaws).
i think they should have taken out the macaws and put in more small birds instead. it was much more interesting when there was more than just parrots in there.

The mandrill/pygmy hippo exhibit is designed to appear as if the animals share the habitat (though are actually separated by a waterfall).

Taronga has a south american mixed small primate island for tamarins and squirrel monkeys and i think adelaide has a mixed dusky langur/malayan tapir exhibit. taronga is planning on opening a new malayan tapir exhibit featuring otters in the same enclosure!

i'de love to see a zoo develop a mixed great ape enclosure like some of the ones overseas for gorillas and colobus or orangutan and gibbon. they are really cool.
 
Hello
I'm still around
My favourite multiple species exhibit is Werribees savannah
Adelaide has an excellent Amazon with agoutis, squirrel monkeys, caracouros (badly spely, they are a very interesting bird) and macaws in a very lush rainforest. So dense that they can be hard to see, which is good.
 
its currasow's.....

just thought i might help ya out a bit jason - the birds are called razor-billed CURRASOW's and a saw them in the flesh when i was in the amazon.
they are pretty big eh?

actually there are only 3 female birds of this species in australia - 2 at adelaide and another at taronga. a year or so ago i emailed the bird department at adelaide (knowing they were famous for their avicultural devision) and asked them about these animals. apparently the zoo's of the region have put in an application to import a range of new species and bloodlines for existing exotic birdstock.

they were;

greater flamingo - i think australia wants some too!
african grey crowned crane - which has died out in australian zoos
himalayan monal - some in NZ and private collections
palawan peacock pheasant - gorgeous new species from the philippines
andean condor - tarongas breeding "pair" are siblings
white-rumped shama thrush - pretty SE asian softbill.
razor-billed currasow - obviously we need some males!
white-cheeked touraco - one of a family of singing african rainforest birds.

these species should go nicely into our regions exotic bird collections. exotic parrots, finches (and to some extent) pigeons/doves are already well represented in australasia. what we need are more softbill species like those being imported - a good selection i think.

now all we need are some toucans and hornbills!
 
Last edited:
Thanks Patrick
I would love to see all those birds and see the Taronga zoo stop breeding form its brother/sister Condors. It makes me wonder though if by doing so they are acknowldeing it will be a while if ever that they can bring in condors.

The other birds are interesting. I really want to see flocks of flamingos.
Jason
 
condors and monals...

yeah i think they bred those sibling condors (named connie and bruce!) out of desperation - there had pretty much been a toatal ban on bringing in birds since they imported the original pair. interestingly one of those originals is the elderly animal still held at adelaide zoo...

as much as i bag taronga its new condor-minium was a much better exhibit than the old condor aviary - albeit stupidly placed in what is now being developed into an asian rainforest!!!

however the most gorgeous bird of those being imported is easily the himalayan monal (Lophophorus impeyanus) - absolutely stunning colours.
i believe that these birds are held in some private collections here in australia and auckland and wellington have them.

and just to get back on the topic of this particular thread (mixed species exhibits), i'de love to see monals displayed with some other species of the himalayas already kept in australian aviaries.

this could include:

Nepalese Kalij Pheasant
Pekin Robin
Silver-eared Mesia
Derbyan Parakeet
Slaty-headed Parakeet
Himalayan Greenfinch

and just about any other asiatic parrot or finch, so many are at least partially distributed in the himalayas.


an avicultural display of this sort would really compliment our regions existing selection of brown bears, himalayan tahrs, snow leopards, red pandas and others.

i suspect something based around the himalayas will be eventually be constructed around the bears/big cat section of melbourne zoo. apparently this area is earmarked for a temperate coniferous/decidous zone.
 
Last edited:
Wellington zoo birds

himalayan impeyan pheasant

I am not sure if this is the same bird that you were referring to on this thread , but it is the only Himalayan bird of any description at Wellington Zoo .
 
himalayan monal

a search of birds at Auckland zoo ( on their website ) failed to find any close results .... not saying that they dont have them , but i cant find it .
 
Auckland Zoo birds

I can confirm that the birds that patrick was referring to , are displayed at Auckland Zoo ( regardless of the website )
 
more birds

the himalayan or impeyan monal pheasant is definately kept by at least one private individual in australia as it is listed on the exotic bird register on the DEH website (department of environment and heritage). glad to know they are breeding in NZ - you would think they would be very well suited to climate there.

another bird i forgot to mention that apparently being imported by ARAZPA is the victoria crowned pigeon of new guinea. it's a very large blue ground-dwelling pigeon sporting spectacular head plumes. just two males of this species are currently held at taronga zoo.
 
Nigel, would you know if the ARAZPA are importing any new Parrot species in the furture, I also was wondering if any zoo in Austraila exibits Palm Cockatoo's or even has a breeding program for them.

Mark :)
 
more parrots?

i might be able to help you there MARK.

i believe adelaide zoo has palm cockatoo's, and being a native species, i'm sure quite a few private individuals and smaller zoo's do as well.

for reasons i don't understand, the australian governments "no bird import" policy gets overturned quite often - almsot always to allow for commercial import of parrot species, or to allow pet "companion" parrots of newly immigrated people. the list of exotic parrots in australia is a long one, with extensive representations from south asia, indonesia, south america and africa. i would rather see the zoo's focus on a selection of exotic softbills that are seriously lacking from our collections at this time ther are enough exotic finches, parrots and to some extent, doves for the time being.

i do know an application was placed by an individual who wanted to import two species of fijian shinning parrot for a conservation breeding program. don't know if it was successful or not.
 
Mixed species

A number of years ago at Belle Vue zoo, Manchester, they had a hippo enclosure that housed various african wildfowl as well as flamingo's. That was until a new hippo called Hercules moved in and started esting them!
Recently a number of zoos have reintroduced mixed species in the UK. I have seen a number of mixed bird enclosures that have included storks and vultures. A parrot enclosure with agouti and various monkey/antelope exhibits.
Windsor Safari Park before it closed had baboons in with egyptian vultures, which were allowed to be free range, and so were not feather clipped.
 
mixed species exhibits

hey guys-over here in the uk i have been to see some wonderful zoos and aquariums and encountered a number of unusual mixed species exhibits.
some of them are amazing just for the species they contain-we dont have them in australia.
in london zoo 'bear mountain' built on the site of the zoos heritage lised hagenback style panorama has been remodelled to hold endangered sloth bears, muntjac, lar gibbons and hanumann langurs. this exhibit is amazing-with the interaction between the primate species and the bears in particular. the other benefit is that when one species in inactive-others may not be. this is one of the big advantages of mixed species exhibits-there is always something happening.
london also has a mixed species peguin pool, rhea and giant anteater and also a number of mixed species aviaries. they have also got golden lion tamains, silvery marmosets and pigmy marmosets in together.
edinburgh zoo has just developed an amazing african rainforest exhibit-it has bongo, red river hogs, pygmy hippos (incoporating their old zoo habitat) and guenon.
woburn safari park has a number of mixed exhibits. firstly there are american grizzly bears in with canadian timber wolves. there are also mixed lemur species, a savannah display (as you would expect from a safari park) and a nicely done primate park with grevys zebra, patas monkey, colobus monkey and babary macaque. i think its worth pointing out at this stage that although mixed species exhbits have alot to offer-their significance as a portrayal of a natural eco-system-with aniamls interacting as they would in the wild-is lost when you are displaying animals together from different parts of a continent.
by far the best example i can think of when it comes to a mixed species ecosystem themed habitat is taronga's creatures of the wollemi. superb stuff
 
mixed exhibits

At Auckland zoo they have designed the African plaions exhibit that the springboks can go between the white rhinos enclosure , and the zebra/giraffe'ostrich enclosure , as they are compatible with all those animals
But the rhino are unable to enter the girraffes , or the zebra cannot pay the rhinos a visit in its own enclosure ....
 
regarding palm cockatoos

back in oz i actually had part of the palm cockatoo studbook which dated back to the 1980s. from what i can remember, these birds were bred by edward hallstrom when he directed taronga zoo. these birds were part of an import of birds from png before the quarantine ban was imposed. these birds i think are passed away now, and in any case were of a seperate sub-species to the ones that were also held by the now closed pearl coast zoo and adelaide. i think the numbers were so critically low at this point that they tried breeding the birds-i think pearl coast succeded. BUT, once, again, from memory, and as the case is with so many exotic bird species in australia, the few remaining birds are incompatible, old and related. the future for this species is bleak, in captivity at least. the australian sub-species is vlerable, and in the future zoos may apply to obtain some of these birds from the wild. fortunatley, from a conservation perspective, this png sub-species are fairly well established overseas in zoos and private collections. what a shame though, that such a beautful bird isnt more commonplace in all our zoos. its also to interesting t consider that the australian macaw population, of registered birds in the 1980s, was similarly dire and was only revived when a syndicate of private aviculturists imported new bloodlines in the 1990s. sorr if some of the info is abit vague
 
victoria crowned pigeons

taronga last bred the victoria crowned pigeon in the late 1980's/early 1990's and the population then had already declined to the point where i believe only taronga and adelaide held them. the 2 males at taronga are those birds. kiwi share a similarly tragic tale, having been part of taronga's breeding programs up until the VERY late 1990's when the last birds succumbed to a salmonella type of infection. one of the birds that died was a young chick.
happily, nicobar pigeon and new guinea ground doves are both present in our zoos and well established, although when it comes to shocking brilliance, the victorian crowned pigeon takes the cake.
when i was doing some keeper work at taronga a few years back i found it was really interesting that both the nicobar pigeon and victoria crowned pigeon enjoy eating whole unshelled pean nuts. i also remember the crowned pigeon having an unnatural fixation on one of the lady keepers.
 
Chinese monals are very beautiful birds but are only kept at San Diego, Sclater's monal are not kept outside of China and Bulwer's pheasant is only kept in San Diego zoo and some asian bird parks.

One mixed exhibit that went very wrong was the otter, bear,coati exhibit at jersey. The male bear killed the male otter. One of the keepers at Chester was watching while it happened. He said it was disgusting.

In regard to the currasows, They are all rare in captivity. The blue billed only numbers around 50 in the wild and only 2 zoos outside columbia keep it. The red billed currassow is the species kept at Chester and is the one I am most familiar with. Antwerp has a very large collection of Currosows.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
one mixed exhibit that went very wrong was the otter, bear,coati exhibit at jersey. The male bear killed the male otter. One of the keepers at Chester was watching while it happened. He said it was disgusting.

That's interesting. I saw this exhibit a few years ago and it seemed to be working well. When the two bears were in their den feeding, the otters were running about almost under their feet and the bears took no notice of them at all. Possibly they're not exhibited together now?
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top