Yes, I suppose you are right there but still a domestic donkey so could be used to highlight invasive species in Australia (though very unlikely a zoo would).
I've also seen American Flamingos, an Amur Leopard, and Panamanian Golden Frogs amidst an African-themed area at the same zoo.
First one that springs to mind would be bindi Island at Australia zoo its a miss-mash of just this and that that does not together!
So nobody guessed so let me tell you. The world-acclaimed San Diego zoo put this mish-mash exhibits\ together. Some other exhibits nearby would be Indian Rhino, Masia Giraffe, and Caribbean Flamingo. No there is no direct theme here as the area is just labeled Urban Jungle.
I personally really like this one! Another good one in the Netherlands is the Bush at Burgers' Zoo. It's geographically for some a mess. Since it doesn't do traditional geo-theming and instead themes around ''tropical rainforest''. However, within the plants you actually can find a form of theming. African plants are together, Asian plants and South-American as well. You also find that the larger inhabitants are somewhat in the same area together with species of that place. It's just the birds that kinda ignore this. Though personally I really like it this way.
American flamingo was once considered conspecific with the greater flamingo, but this was eventually rejected due to lack of evidence. As for the Amur leopard I believe the Bronx Zoo keeps theirs in Jungle World (Southeast Asia and some Australia themed).
On the topic of flamingos, Memphis Zoo has Chilean flamingos in with the lesser flamingos in Zambezi River Hippo Camp, though the Chileans were at the zoo prior to the construction of the new exhibit and are being phased out of the collection.
The leopards is only a problem if you focus on the subspecies instead of the species. I also don't think that's any more wrong or correct then a subspecies hybrid like with many songbirds. The flamingos and Panaminian golden frogs are kinda weird, at least if it's a really African-themed area (so not an area that just happens to have a high concentration of African animals).
Still donkeys as a species are invasive in Australia, the fact that it's just another slightly different morphological form doesn't mean it can't represent the Australian ones in my opinion.
The exhibit is called African Journey, so it is supposed to be African-themed. I think the flamingos are meant to be in place of an African species, but it still kind of bothers me. And for the frogs, the zoo doesn't have any Central/South American themed area, so they probably just put them in a random spot.
I guess each to their own, it definitely fullfills the function of maintaining the animals whilst also dealing with the pest control issue. Personally I just don't like it though.
Let me reiterate, there are still grants zebras in this exhibit. Just across there are Greater one horned rhinos and in another exhibit there are Caribbean flamingos. There is no theme for the whole area it’s just where San Diego puts popular animals that have no other place in the zoo.
True. I don't like it either, but on the other hand they aren't really pretending for it to be geographical.
Yes but they have other animals like gazelles or giraffes in the area that could have the zebras. The donkeys could go to the nearby elephant oddessy with the pronghorns and camels.
Something to consider here, sometimes the species chosen is due to certain factors. For example Chilean Flamingos are cold hardy, others less so. So sometimes they are used as a stand-in in colder climates. We see this a lot with Amur Leopard and Siberian Tiger as well. The mixed up geographic concept is very common and unlikely to go away anytime soon. It must be remembered that zoos have a limited number of species available, and various factors play in to what a zoo can and cannot have. I like a good geographically themed exhibit, but I also don't criticize the zoo for having a few off-location species in the mix.
In Zoo leipzig they keep armadillos in their Asia section and Siberian musk deer (along with other Asian deer species) in their African region. Burgers zoo keeps west african fiddler crabs in their Central American mangrove region