Toco Toucan Cohabitation?

Curatordylan

Curatordylan

Member
Hey zookeepers,

Does anybody have experience with toco toucans that have been held with other species of birds?
I’ve been planning a new exhibits for our south American collection. With a medium/ Big aviary that has toco toucans, I know in Europe they are mostly kept on its own but I’ve seen a couple of American zoos that they cohabitate.

For now we’ve suggested southern screamers but we don’t know what’s possible. I also got a list of animals from my team.
-Trumpeter spp, 1,1,
-Blue crowned Motmot 1,1,
-Yellow rumped cacique 1,1,
-Green oropendola 1,1,
-Scarlet macaw (Single sex)
-Blue & Yellow macaw (single sex)
-Military macaw 1,1,
 
Curatordylan said:
Hey zookeepers,

Does anybody have experience with toco toucans that have been held with other species of birds?
I’ve been planning a new exhibits for our south American collection. With a medium/ Big aviary that has toco toucans, I know in Europe they are mostly kept on its own but I’ve seen a couple of American zoos that they cohabitate.

For now we’ve suggested southern screamers but we don’t know what’s possible. I also got a list of animals from my team.
-Trumpeter spp, 1,1,
-Blue crowned Motmot 1,1,
-Yellow rumped cacique 1,1,
-Green oropendola 1,1,
-Scarlet macaw (Single sex)
-Blue & Yellow macaw (single sex)
-Military macaw 1,1,
Click to expand...

Not a zookeeper myself, but I've seen more than once Toco toucans being mixed with Hyacinth macaws in some zoos. It is an interesting mix, because not only are they both famous and very representative South American birds, but also due to the relationship those two species have in the wild (Toco toucans are responsible for most of the seed dispersal of the tree that Hyacinth macaws almost exclusively nests, so they are basically dependant of them). Just gotta pay attention for the toucans not to eat the macaw's eggs, if any interest on breeding the latter arise.
 
That’s a very interesting mix we do have a breeding pair of hyacinths I myself found it to risky but it is a mix that I will think about for sure as indeed or hyacinths and toucans are our main birds of South America
 
Curatordylan said:
Hey zookeepers,

Does anybody have experience with toco toucans that have been held with other species of birds?
I’ve been planning a new exhibits for our south American collection. With a medium/ Big aviary that has toco toucans, I know in Europe they are mostly kept on its own but I’ve seen a couple of American zoos that they cohabitate.
Click to expand...

Not a keeper, but I have definitely seen Toco toucans cohabiting with other macaws and monkeys in Faunia. I haven't visited the park in several years however, so it might have changed since.
 
Curatordylan said:
Hey zookeepers,

Does anybody have experience with toco toucans that have been held with other species of birds?
I’ve been planning a new exhibits for our south American collection. With a medium/ Big aviary that has toco toucans, I know in Europe they are mostly kept on its own but I’ve seen a couple of American zoos that they cohabitate.

For now we’ve suggested southern screamers but we don’t know what’s possible. I also got a list of animals from my team.
-Trumpeter spp, 1,1,
-Blue crowned Motmot 1,1,
-Yellow rumped cacique 1,1,
-Green oropendola 1,1,
-Scarlet macaw (Single sex)
-Blue & Yellow macaw (single sex)
-Military macaw 1,1,
Click to expand...

De Orchideeënhoeve / Pantropica has Toco toucans free-roaming in one of their tropical halls along with various other free-roamers:
- Toco toucan
- Ringed teal
- Victoria crowned pigeon
- Violet turaco
- Crested wood partridge
- Collared hill partridge
- Common marmoset
- Red-bellied tamarin
- Red-eared slider
 
Curatordylan said:
That’s a very interesting mix we do have a breeding pair of hyacinths I myself found it to risky but it is a mix that I will think about for sure as indeed or hyacinths and toucans are our main birds of South America
Click to expand...
That's nice to know! But if this mix does ends up working, you and/or your team will need to be way more careful with the macaw's eggs, since those toucans will love to eat them (if I recall correctly, they're the biggest predator to Hyacinth's eggs and even chicks), so I would recomend keeping them in a separate/backstage holding area during the egg's nursery
 
At Dallas World Aquarium, they have Toco Toucans cohabitating with Pale-Mandibled Aracari, Collared Aracari, Montezuma Oropendola, Northern Helmeted Curassow, Boat-Billed Heron, Roseate Spoonbill, and maybe a few others.

San Diego Zoo houses Toco Toucans with Crested Oropendola, Blue-Crowned Motmot, Inca Tern, Black-Spotted Barbet, White-Faced Whistling Duck, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Blue-Headed Macaw, Sunbittern, and Ringed Teal.
 
Curatordylan said:
Hey zookeepers,

Does anybody have experience with toco toucans that have been held with other species of birds?
I’ve been planning a new exhibits for our south American collection. With a medium/ Big aviary that has toco toucans, I know in Europe they are mostly kept on its own but I’ve seen a couple of American zoos that they cohabitate.

For now we’ve suggested southern screamers but we don’t know what’s possible. I also got a list of animals from my team.
-Trumpeter spp, 1,1,
-Blue crowned Motmot 1,1,
-Yellow rumped cacique 1,1,
-Green oropendola 1,1,
-Scarlet macaw (Single sex)
-Blue & Yellow macaw (single sex)
-Military macaw 1,1,
Click to expand...
Toco Toucans usually work with big ground birds like currasows, trumpeters, tinamous, chachalacas, guans or turkeys like in Walsrode, Artis or Wilhelma. So they would work with Southern Screamers or trumpeters, but mixing them with other tree-living birds like motmots, caciques, oropendolas and macaws would be very risky, as Toco Toucans can be very agressive. The Toco Toucans would stress Green Oropendolas, Blue-crowned Motmots and Yellow-rumped Caciques and could fight with macaws, as they're very agressive too. There are some single animals that aren't so agressive but these toucans are exceptions.
 
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