Tbh, the asian hoofstock was there long, before they made the area african themed. and the keeping of this animals will end in that part of the zoo. They will soon move to the new asian themed area in the eastern part of the zoo. Their old encloseres will be part of the okapi and african life stock exhibits.
Who sais they didn't plan for it? You can't magically change your entire park in an instant, you need to work with what you've got and it takes time to change it. In the past decades they've already moved a lot of species around the park, and at an incredible speed I'd say.
The area was not realy much africa themed untill very recentyl. It was jsut between the african savannah and the ape house (for apes in general, not african themed). They started to create a central african themeing there not untill 2007
I just remembered a few others I've seen. Leopard Tortoise, Gopher Tortoise, Red-footed Tortoise Eastern Bongo, Rhim Gazelle Yellow-cheeked Gibbon, Geoffroy's Spider Monkey Yellow-backed Duiker, Reeves's Muntjac
The Toronto Zoo’s meerkats are kept in the African Rainforest Pavilion, something which I knew was biogeographically inaccurate when I first looked at their website at age 8. Though you could argue that it’s not a geographically-themed area anymore, the Toledo Zoo’s Tembo Trail used to be called the African Savanna, and when it first opened with the new name it solely displayed African species. However, it is now home to North American river otters, grizzly bears, yaks, Bactrian camels, reindeer, Tasmanian devils, and an Indian rhinoceros alongside African elephants, common hippopotamus, and meerkats. Detroit Zoo has ring-tailed lemurs in their Asian Forest, Japanese Macaques in their African Grasslands, and tree kangaroos in their American Grasslands. Though to be fair the geographic theming of all these areas is pretty loose.
Another rather silly placing in a geographically themed exhibit , in this case a Baird's tapir in a South American Pampas themed exhibit: Why couldn't they have just put a lowland tapir in it ? Photo credit to @GraysonDP.
That's actually quite logical in the US, as they are phasing out lowland tapir in favor of Malayan and Baird's. In Europe on the other hand, we have quite an extensive population of lowlands (100+ zoo's) and also a smaller population of Malayan. The amount of Baird's tapir here can be counted on one hand though (4 at the moment I think).
True, ideal would be having a separate Central-American area. Fact is, it’s not a matter of why they don’t have lowlands but rather why they have baird’s there. As Baird’s do need new holders, I am personally happy that they keep them in their pampa area. Similar as giraffes for which geographical accuracy is quite difficult, I think it’s more important that zoos tell why they don’t display the exact (sub)species but only a proxy-species.
Maybe , but I don't like this lumping of fauna and ancient civilizations of South America with Central America in North American zoos. When you think about it it is kind of the equivalent of having a polar bear or musk oxen in an exhibit called "Sonoran desert" or "wildlife of the Praries".
It happens all the time, I've seen Guanaco, Baird's Tapir, and Capybara mixed before for instance. It's a matter of what's available in a lot of cases, there simply is not enough space to manage populations of everything to have geographically accurate exhibits. Most times they're at least from the same continent/region at least.
Yes I know its a pragmatic decision but I just wish there was planning and forethought given in these cases.
There is, they find out what species are available and what can be successfully mixed. If it's Baird's Tapir or no tapir for a pampas exhibit, most zoos will take Baird's.
That’s not really comparable. There are tapirs living in South-America, but you can’t find bears in the Sonora desert. Besides, the tapir’s habitats are both tropical. A prairie and a Tundra aren’t even remotely comparable in therms of climate and vegetation. if you want a good comparison : keeping Masai giraffe in a South-African themed savanna, Western-lowland gorilla in a Virunga-themed area or Eurasian moose in a Canadian themed area. Each one replaces a closely related species/subspecies that isn’t available.
Personally, the wallaby and rhea mix at Wildlands in Emmen really bothers me. As well as the Humbolt penguins in their arctic region
Auckland Zoo have finally (last year) moved their pair of Siamang out of a rainforest trail and into the South East Asian precinct (which they share with Bornean orangutan). The Rainforest Trail opened in 1996 and held a series of Central and South American monkeys; while the orangutans were exhibited in the Primate Trail which included chimpanzees and lemurs. The Rainforest Trail is now solely comprised of Central and South American species, and is relabelled as South America. It does include North American alligator though.
Until very recently, the Yangtze River area of River Safari had Chinese alligators but they got moved to the main zoo and now there's a false gharial in that enclosure
