The zoo may have updated since this was posted, but I did not notice most of these birds in the ring-tailed lemur exhibit. Most of them had a section in Africa and the lemurs where in the Primate & Ape section.
Any weird mixed... The silliest was the European zoo that tried Lions & Alexandrine Parrakeets, which quickly morphed into Lions & a pile of green feathers. [Lions eat stuff].
I really don't like safari parks with randomly mixed animals. I think it undermines educational messages. I'd also like to see a more nuanced approach to the display of South American species; I don't like it when they are all stuck in together regardless of habitat or distribution.
In the 1970's the Milwaukee County Zoo exhibited Brazilian Tapirs with Humbolt Penguins.Other than both being from South America they certainly don't live together Team Tapir223
Thats a pretty intriguing combo. Do you know of any issues with the mix? There was an exhibit somewhere that had African Penguins that appeared to share the same enclosure as Giraffe, don't think they actually shared the same space, but I think that sounds like a great display (and naturalistic too!).
Thanks! And do you know if the penguins and giraffes actually shared the same space, or just appeared to?
In Shanghai, the main zoo and the aquarium often have strange mixes, due to just plain lack of knowledge or lack of caring. For example, mixing Chinese Sturgeon with Red-tailed Catfish, Malawie Chiclids with goldfish and for some reason, a giant Pleco with a even bigger albino Chinese Softshell Turtle in a massive tank with pretty much nothing else. I think I remember the zoo at one point mixing African Painted Dogs with Grey Wolves...apparently, that didn't go so well as they were later separated, with the wolves keeping their exhibit, and the painted dogs getting an exact duplicate, despite their varying requirements for habitat (you would think even the most amateur designer can tell grassland from tundra, but no, not here). They also mixed one of the last Swinhoe's Softshell Turtles with Chinese Alligators. The alligators were fed fish, so it wasn't too much of a risk, but putting one of the earth's last Swinhoe's turtles in a tank with alligators isn't a risk I'm willing to take. They also allowed (or just didn't care) for visitors to throw coins at the turtle, and I saw some pale marks on the shell where people had thrown heavier things. And this, reminding all of you, is one of the last of it's kind, an animal that should be under heavy protection. In America, you don't let people throw beer bottles at Whooping Cranes. Then there's also the thing where they throw live ducks and chickens into the reptile tank (I say tank here because often its a giant area filled with trees and bushes and vegetation about the size of an average living room, maybe a bit more, with around 10 large reptiles in it), because many children TOTALLY need to see the blood and gore of a little duck getting torn to pieces by a Chinese Alligator, or going down the digestive tract of a python. Totally.
At the Oliemeulen you can find a small group of Ring-tailed lemurs together with 2 Turkey vultures - photo can be found in the Oliemeulen gallery - the Netherlands.
Many of these mixes no longer exist, and I havent actually seen them except in photos, and some of them I have not seen, but just simply heard of, and some of them are not weird geographically, but some of the species mentioned happen to be quite rare, here they are San Diego Zoo: Red brocket, Reeves muntjac, Zebra duiker, and Wattled crane Red goral and Himalayan goral Cuviers gazelle, Reeves muntjac, and Common warthog Dalls sheep, Rocky mountain bighorn sheep, and Rocky mountain goat Guatemalan black howler monkey and Owl faced monkey Nilgiri langur and Schmidts spot nosed guenon Vicuna, Alpaca, Llama, and Guanaco Phoenix Zoo: Asian elephant and Blackbuck Los Angeles Zoo: Japanese serow and Reeves muntjac Andean condor and Crab eating fox King vulture and Southern pudu Patagonian cavy and Mountain tapir Florida Aquarium: Nutria, Spadefish, and other Marine fish Caldwell Zoo: Stuhmann's geunon and Black backed jackal Surabaya Zoo: Bawean deer and Proboscis monkey Apenheul Primate Park: Springbok and Western lowland gorilla Berlin Zoo: Nilgai and Four horned antelope Marineland of the Pacific (Closed): Northern right whale dolphin, Dalls porpoise, and a few other species
The African penguins live in the moat of the giraffe exhibit. The giraffes don't go in the moat. http://www.omahazoo.com/exhibits/other/giraffe-complex/
Thanks for the information DavidBrown. I was at a small wildlife park the other day that had a number of unnatural species groupings in its bird aviaries, the most unusual had various native birds of prey (goshawks, hawks, black-breasted buzzards) housed with various pheasants (silver, peafowl), which I thought was a bit risky, and probably stressful for the fowl. The aviaries were fairly small, but there was some cover for the ground birds. What does everyone else think of this sort of combination?
In addition to the risk of direct conflict, I would worry about the proximity of pheasants to raptors' food and droppings, and the attendant disease risk. At least three public collections here in the UK have kept owls with pheasants in the past, which means nobody gets a good night's sleep. Common sense is the first basic requisite when keeping animals. Will they eat each other/fight/make each other ill/keep each other awake?
Not the most successful mixed exhibit ever - jackals were protected by electric fencing while chimps were out, until the fencing failed... Even attempted Patas monkeys at one stage, but I think they time-shared with the chimps.
While reading through the book Duikers of Africa by Vivian J. Wilson, I discovered a photo of another odd mixed exhibit, this exhibit was at the zoo in Monrovia, Liberia a long time ago, the species that were in that enclosure included West african bushbuck, Jentinks duiker, Zebra duiker, Bay duiker, Blue duiker, and Yellow backed duiker Yes they were ALL in ONE paddock!!!
I was surprised this past week to see Melbourne Zoo had large Boa Constrictors with Green Iguanas! I will add photos to the gallery soon, but they were lying close together, so the snakes were obviously kept well fed! My first thought when seeing them was this thread!
