ZCETT: Domestic help

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I haven't started a Zoochat Exhibit Think Tank thread for awhile, so I wanted to toss one out there and see where it goes.

Has anybody ever seen a zoo exhibit featuring the wild ancestors of our domesticated pets? I was wondering if this would be an interesting thematic concept for an exhibit. What species could one include in such an exhibit? These are what I came up with:
Wolves (dogs)
African wild cats (domestic cats)
Cavies (guinea pigs)

Are there wild hamsters in captivity or only the domesticated kind?
Do the wild ancestors of gold fish still exist?

Wild cockatiels and budgerigars - would these be substantially different from their wild relatives? It might be an interesting contrast if there are differences. Do any zoos have wild cockatiels and budgies?

Does this concept seem like it might hold the interest of zoo visitors and be a logical theme for a disparate collection of animals?

To put the concept in a wider concept, are there any really successful conceptually themed zoo exhibits out there that focus on something beyond taxonomy or geography? The biggest experiment in conceptual theming that I can think of, the Pleistocene-living relative concept of Elephant Odyssey at San Diego Zoo, met with rather mixed success from zoo critics.
 
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What do you mean by "wild budgies and cockatiels"? Do you mean if they have captive albeit wild-caught birds? I got a bit confused there.
 
DavidBrown said:
Wolves (dogs)
Sand cats (?) (domestic cats)
Cavies (guinea pigs)

Are there wild hamsters in captivity or only the domesticated kind?
Do the wild ancestors of gold fish still exist?

Wild cockatiels and budgerigars - would these be substantially different from their wild relatives? It might be an interesting contrast if there are differences. Do any zoos have wild cockatiels and budgies?
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why sand cats? Domestic cats are derived from African wild cats.

There are several species of hamsters. The most common pet one is the golden hamster but other wild species are/have been kept (e.g. the European hamster).

The carp that goldfish are derived from is common in eastern Asia. Wild goldfish are also common pretty much everywhere goldfish are kept, but they are not usually gold (the population reverts to brown because they evade predators more easily). The original wild carp are not gold.

Wild budgies are notably smaller than domestic breeds, even the so-called "wild type". I don't think pet cockatiels differ much in size from wild ones.
 
Junglefowl are exhibited at quite a few zoos and farm parks - ancestor of the domestic chicken.
 
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