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free range animals

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by boof, 23 Mar 2006.

  1. boof

    boof Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    When I was in Singapore zoo last year I noticed they had a lot of animals moving around not in enclosures. Mainly marmosets, tamarins, leaf monkeys and lemurs. I have also seen a T.V show about Auckland zoo. They had cotton top tamarins that where free range. Is it true that Adelaide tried this aswell? Does anyone know of other zoos that does this? I know most zoos have birds free range (peafowl, guineafowl etc) Does any one know of any other free range animals?
     
  2. ZYBen

    ZYBen Well-Known Member

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    Adelaide had teh tamarins free range but they were caged after many people complained about them stealing there food, then they left for alma park zoo
     
  3. boof

    boof Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Did one get eaten by a tassie devil?
     
  4. ZYBen

    ZYBen Well-Known Member

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    Yep, a female, tahts same tassie has also eaten possums, the bintutrong has also killed some possums
     
  5. Nigel

    Nigel Well-Known Member

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    Wellington

    Hey Boof , ask Jay what his website title is , and check out the Wellington Zoo chapter in it . The photos are mine , but the script is Jays .

    Although not exactly free range , Aucklands elephants often get taken for walks around the zoo during open hous on public paths , and Wellingtons cheetah cubs likewise . Both of the above animals are with keepers , but elephants at least are big enough to override keepers instructions .

    To see a couple of elephants come ambling down the path towards you is something to behold !!

    Many Australian wildlife parks have free range emus , kangaroos , wallabies etc
     
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  6. Zoo_Boy

    Zoo_Boy Well-Known Member

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    whts jays website
     
  7. Zooish

    Zooish Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Singapore zoo's gonna have free-range orang utans soon. Several mature trees connected by artificial vines and rope nets, ringed with hot wire around the trunk, will serve as natural climbing frames for juvenile apes.

    Free-ranging can't work in every zoo because of the behaviour of visitors. Asians generally are more reserved so Singapore takes advantage of that. If all visitors were able to show restraint, then many more animals could possibly be free-ranged.
     
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  8. ZYBen

    ZYBen Well-Known Member

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    so it will be sorta like the orang line at tje National zoo (in America) where the orangs can go all around the zoo
     
  9. jay

    jay Well-Known Member 20+ year member

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    if you're interested my website is
    www.angelfire.com/ab5/ozzoos
    I haven't updated it in over a year (lost interest) but you might find it interesting.
    Jai
     
  10. boof

    boof Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    When my wife and I were at Singapore zoo (and Singapore in general) we did comment to each other that every body appeared a little more relaxed and less stressed. People spent more time at each exihibit and there was no noise. The crowds at my home zoo (taronga) seem to be always in a hurry to get to the next enclosure. Taronga is in my opinion a very noisy place. Maybe one day we might get to the stage were free range is an option. We do have walk thru enclosures,I guess thats a start.
     
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  11. Zooish

    Zooish Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    not quite the whole zoo, its more of a managed free range, where the keepers will still keep watch on the orangs. The free-range area covers about 1/3 of a soccer pitch, with several large trees about 15 to 20m high. Its meant as a sort of 'playground' for the juvenile orangs.

    ANother problem with free-ranging is theft. There were instances of visitors trying to steal animals, the most recent case being an attempted theft of a parrot from a free flight aviary.
     
  12. patrick

    patrick Well-Known Member

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    having animals free-range always opens up certain possibilities of danger doesn't it? the dreamworld/australia zoo practice of walking tigers around with special paying visitors is in my eyes an accident waiting to happen.

    then there is, as mentioned the possiblities of theft and greater opportunities for animals to injure themselves or come accross a fatal accident (like a tasmanian devil or an eagle!).

    i believe perth introduced free-range squirrels to their zoo - and thus much of perth as well!

    i think a great way around the problem is to have large walk-through aviaries for visitors for small mammals as well. like the woolami exhibit at taronga. a system like that would work great for marmosets, tamarins and squirrel monkeys.
     
  13. Zooish

    Zooish Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Yeah, walk-thrus are great but again the success of such displays depends very much on visitor behaviour.

    We have lots of walk-thrus in Singapore, but it always pains me to see irresponsible visitors pushing their luck. Recently we opened a kangaroo walk-thru and during a feeding session this guy kept teasing the kangaroo by holding the food high beyond the roos' reach. i ticked him off, but he wasn't the least bit remorseful. At that point i really wished that the roo would give him a good kick in the groin.

    Biggest problems with walk-thrus/free-ranging:
    1.Indiscriminate feeding
    2.Theft
    3.Plain stupid behaviour like teasing/antagonizing the animals
    4.Disease transmission (zoonoses)

    As for free-range animals being preyed upon, it seems we don't have a big issue with it. We have wild pythons (retics, big enuf to kill and eat one of our wing-clipped Aussie pelicans), moniter lizards and birds of prey living in and around the zoo, but we've never lost any marmosets or tamarins to them. For some reason, our monkeys are more savvy i guess and avoid predation on their own. We do put out snake traps around their nest boxes as an added precaution.
     
  14. boof

    boof Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I agree with you Patrick. I would like to see a south american exbihit built in the same style as the wollemi walk thru.
     
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  15. MARK

    MARK Well-Known Member

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    yes i agree, but it would need Jaguars and giant otters, yes
     
  16. patrick

    patrick Well-Known Member

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    well maybe not the giant otters and jaguars in the actual walk thru. i don't think i would want to be near either of those without bars between me.

    as well as a wider range of bird species, woolemi-like walk through exhibit ideas could include...

    SOUTH AMERICA
    Squirrel Monkey, Tamarins, Marmosets, Sloth, Agouti, maybe very big (unstealable) iguana?

    SOUTHEAST ASIA
    Prevost's squirrel, Tree shrews (but might be a danger to small birds), Mouse Deer, crested porcupines (maybe too dangerous with visitors?)

    and the same could work great for a night exhibit with new guinea exhidnas cuscus, bandicoots and flying fox.

    ah too many ideas...
     
  17. MARK

    MARK Well-Known Member

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    what i meant was (in a very friendly way) any south american exhibit would be lacking somewhat without Jaguars, Giant otters would be a great extra as well, maybe they could be behind glass like the Jaguars in Singapore zoo.
     
  18. ZYBen

    ZYBen Well-Known Member

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    or is the jaguars were lower down than the walk way, like a pit almost, but not a pit, you get what i mean
     
  19. Nigel

    Nigel Well-Known Member

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    animal theft preventive measures

    I understand that the free range animals at Wellington zoo have a small transmitter ( like a collar ) that alerts the zoo ;
    1 Where the animal is located at any given time
    2 Approx location and alarm if the animal is outside the zoo parametres for whatever reason .