Hi ,can anyone help me answer ,what animals are suitable for walkthrough enclosures ,apart from small monkeys and lemurs. Many thanks Jacob
Most species of wallabies, patagonian cavies and all species of agoutis spring in mind. Also Barbary macaques are kept at several zoos in walk-through enclosures. I guess you didn't mean bird walkthrough aviaries because then al lot more species can be mentioned.
thanks for the reply , i was thinking less of monkeys and marsupials and more of hoofed animals ... Thanks
No hoofstock can be considered entirely safe, even domestics. I've seen sloths & fruit bats in walk through settings.
No animals could really be considered entirely safe. Deer can be done, though you may get trampled if they expect you to feed them. Along with birds, there are also a few reptiles that I've seen in such a setting.
Kangaroos are fine, but older males may need removing. Mansfield had mostly females in this group and they were a little pushy when you had food for them, but the kids handled them fine. Fallow deer would be the same except very quiet males may need to be excluded during the rut.
Kantjils have been succesfully placed in several zoos in tropical ( bird ) walkthrough halls/enclosures.
Well, goats are ungulates and countless zoos have walk-through exhibits with those, but I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for. Deer are also kept in quite a few places in walk-through enclosures. Few in actual zoos; more in animal park for semi-wild animals that aren't much more than forest/grassland with a fence around. However, typically these enclosures have to be closed for a period during breeding where males (stags) become aggressive. Smaller duikers (blue and allies) have been placed freely in rainforest halls. I seriously doubt adult males of true antelopes, wild goat species or wild cattle can be housed safely in a walk-through exhibit.
Tapirs can be aggressive and have historically killed keepers (this wasn't nice either). Definitely not suitable for walk-through exhibit. Please consider following the link in post #5 of this thread.
orangs aren't free roaming in Singapore. However, they do have a special program where you can 'meet' them and have your photo taken with one (one of the few things I dislike about Singapore, but that's another discussion).
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I would think fallow deer and possibly sika deer would be good candidates for a walk-through enclosure. I have also seen wallabies and emus in a walk-through. Probably the most interesting I ever saw was wombats, bettongs, and fruit bats in a nocturnal exhibit in Brookfield years ago.
Walk-through pen with Dybowski deer used to be successfully run in Zlin zoo. It was closed down only when the zoo needed space for its new ethiopian area ca 5 years ago. Both Bratislava and Prague used to have a free roaming markhor herd on zoo grounds for years. It was not a result of a plan, rather of run-down fence of their enclosures. I don´t think they ever caused any problems with the visitors. Alpacas and vikunja are placed in walk-though petting pen in Olomouc. But there are no adult males. I´ve never heard of any tapir walk-through. But I´ve heard that the first Prague´s Malay tapir female (sometime in the 1960es?) castrated a male keeper when she was sent on a short breeding loan to a foreign zoo, by bitting off ... you know which parts. Since then the species is considered dangerous here. Tamanduas could be a good species for a walk-through pen maybe? Orangs and gibbons are off limits for any real walk-through exhibit, even hand-reared ones cause too many heavy injuries.
has been done at a few places. In London in a rainforest hall with a few other species (sloth, small primates, a few birds) and on occasion even walked onto the human walkway http://www.zoochat.com/43/tamandua-red-tities-104397/ http://www.zoochat.com/43/southern-tamandua-222482/
