Tropical birds in glass greenhouses

C

ChosenOne

Member
Just throwing this question out there... Is it viable and/or advisable to keep tropical birds from the Amazon and such inside sizable, adequately planted glass greenhouses in temperate climates? Are there any zoos that do this? What possible cons could there be to this method?
 
Why not ? Walsrodes tropical house is a greenhouse and their results are well-known. Less known is that ( one of ? ) the first tropical greenhouse/birdhouse was build by Wassenaar Zoo ( now closed ) and had many first-breeding-results and many tropical birds have thrived in this hall !
 
It's not unusual in northern countries. For example the tropical house at the Cotswold Wildlife Park is a converted greenhouse, I believe it was originally used for a grape vine in the walled kitchen garden of Bradwell Manor. It still has a large glazed roof and houses a range of tropical birds including crowned pigeons, roulroul partridges, bleeding heart doves and speckled mousebirds, plus Rodrigues fruit bats and sloths.
In high summer, these exhibits need ventilation and some shading on the glass to prevent overheating.

Alan
 
At Gettorf Zoo ( Germany ) a large part of the tropical birds is also housed in a greenhouse and at the time I worked there the birds did realy well ( Hornbills, turacos, parrots, passerines, pigeons and doves and so on ) !
 
Thank you for replying and citing successful examples, everyone.

On a related note, do sloths work well in mixed exhibits with birds such as toucans or Amazon parrots? Has it been tried before or do any zoos currently feature such a combination?
 
All of these things are commonly done (The National Aquarium in Baltimore - USA comes to mind). Some aviculturists do not like these free flight aviaries because it is more challenging to monitor individual bird's health and breeding. But there are dozens of planted mixed species exhibits especially in Northern Europe and North America... sloths included
 
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