Does anyone knows about mixed exhibits of Gelada. i know about barbary sheeps but i wonder if there is other species. thanks
Neither species in the mixed exhibit at Edinburgh have produced young the gelada group is fairly new, but the zoo are saying that a few females MAY be pregnant.
Ethiopian Highlands at Bronx mixes Gelada with Nubian Ibex. I'm sure how thats worked out but I have heard there arent any major problems.
Zurich is keeping them with nubian ibex and blue winged goose together and Dresden has two male geladas in a big aviary together with some vultures and marabou storks...
Thanks. i actually visited Dresden myself, inclouding behind the scenes so i saw the 2 lovely males they have. i realy love the mixture and i was shocked to see birds which such a big primate. but the manager told me it works great.
There are also rock hyraxes at the exhibit and I've never heard of any problems on any fronts with aggression.
Stuttgart- together with Barbary Sheep and Rock Hyrax Brno-two males together with Barbary Sheep Rheine-with Barbary Sheep The only negative thing I heard about the mix with Barbary Sheep is that some of the young Gelada males misuse the sheep now and then for interspecific sexual intercourse...
Howletts UK. One pair Geladas share a large enclosure(but seperate night quarters) with a larger group of b/w Colobus.
Just as a point of interest I would like to mention two very old mixed exhibits with Geladas: 1. Gelada Baboons, Celebes Black Macaques, Capybaras, Northern Elephant Seal (only one female), California Sealions. There was a big pool with two islands, Geladas on one and the Macaques on the other. 2. In the other case a group of Geladas were exhibited together with two female Chimpanzee at Los Angeles Zoo in the early 1980s, which was working well for several years.
@Orycteropus: Which zoo had the island setting? And wasn't the chimp-gelada-mix mentioned in "Wild Mammals in Captivity: Principles and Techniques" by Kleiman/Allen/Thompson and described as quite stressful for the geladas?
@ Sun Wukong: unfortunately I don’t know exactly where the mentioned mixed exhibit had been created. About he Gelada & Chimpanzee coexistence: originally this mixing had been created to solve behavioural problems within the Gelada troop. There had been no reproduction inside the Gelada group since this mix was developed, and it was thought that stress might be suppressing breeding activity … but after this it was proved that the male Gelada infertile. (You can read the details in the abovementioned book). According to an other source the species lived together for several years, but after the death of two juveniles, the Geladas stopped breeding, and the species were separated.