Orangutan and Bird exhibits

[foz]

Have an orangutan and bird mixed exhibit ever occured? I can not find anything form doing a bit of googling so i'm asking here. what is the exhibit like?

I came up with this idea on one of my own little fantasy zoos in which I netted over a patch of woodland and had a mixed exhibit for orangutans and indonesian birds. what birds would be compatible? I understand orangutans often eat birds egg but couldn't the eggs be removed (and replaced with fake eggs) ? are there any other flaws in my plan?
i thought it would work best with ground-dwelling birds such as ducks where as the orangs will be high up in the tree (hopefully)

 

[Jurek7]

Prague, Munster and Leipzig have indoor halls with orangutans and small birds. There must be more exhibits like that.

If these birds would breed, they would have plenty of vegetation near visitors and at the background. The problem is however, lack of good nesting sites and between and within species agression among birds.

 

[gentle lemur]

If you tried to do it out of doors you would need a lot of expensive steel mesh to hold the orangs and that would only keep medium to large birds in. You could use lighter mesh to hold smaller birds too, but then you'd have to stop the orangs climbing the supports, which would defeat the object of the exercise (if I understand it correctly).
I suppose you'd need reasonably hardy and tolerant birds, perhaps fruit pigeons or laughing thrushes?

Alan

 

[foz]

Prague, Munster and Leipzig have indoor halls with orangutans and small birds. There must be more exhibits like that.

Sorry to sound like a nag I have tried but I'm unable to find which bird species are within this exhibit.

I dont want to make this a zoo-fantasy thread and am interested to hear more of these and any other exhibits that have birds and orangs mixed.

 

[Pertinax]

i thought it would work best with ground-dwelling birds such as ducks where as the orangs will be high up in the tree (hopefully)

It might work in an exhibit with watermoats or a large pool for the ducks/waterfowl to retreat onto if they need to. In captivity behaviour of Apes sometimes changes, in the case of Orangutans, not only do they spend a lot more time on the ground, but with all their 'spare' time they can develop more unnatural interests in catching or trapping other species which might share their enclosure.

However, Bristol have pinioned waterfowl living in the moat of their Gorilla island and they seem to be ignored(?) by the Gorillas, so yes, its a possibility. Maybe other zoos with Orangs on islands also have waterfowl sharing the exhibit with them.

 

[Gigit]

It might work in an exhibit with watermoats or a large pool for the ducks/waterfowl to retreat onto if they need to. In captivity behaviour of Apes sometimes changes, in the case of Orangutans, not only do they spend a lot more time on the ground, but with all their 'spare' time they can develop more unnatural interests in catching or trapping other species which might share their enclosure.

However, Bristol have pinioned waterfowl living in the moat of their Gorilla island and they seem to be ignored(?) by the Gorillas, so yes, its a possibility. Maybe other zoos with Orangs on islands also have waterfowl sharing the exhibit with them.

Paignton's gorillas and orangutans have waterfowl round and on their islands and sparrows in their dens. The ducks tend to keep their distance from the apes. The three lar gibbons share their island with more waterfowl and I once saw them eating a moorhen.

 

[Pertinax]

The three lar gibbons share their island with more waterfowl and I once saw them eating a moorhen.

Gibbons are incredibly quick, as you know. I imagine they aren't strong enough to tackle adult ducks but I'll bet they pick off any ducklings or other nestling birds they come across.

 

[Jurek7]

Hi Pertinax,

There were typical Asian songbirds you see in many zoos.

Leipzig's Pongoland has about 7 species of Asian and African birds, I remember turacos and kikuyu white-eyes. Strange, few visitors actually know there are any birds there.
In Prague I remember lots of Bali starlings and red-whiskered bulbul. In Munster I think there are red-whiskered bulbuls and 2 more species, check at the Zoolex page.