Mixed species enclosures and other changes for Burgers Zoo

ok so then I just ave 1 question: does that mean your building a new section or are you just fixing up a different one

 

Could you keep multiple species of deer and Eurasian bisons together, if you add some sort of barrier that prevents the bisons from getting to the deer? They already have a similiar barrier in the safari, so the rhino's can't get to the giraffe's. So for example metal poles that have large enough gaps between one another for the deers to pass through but not for the bisons, this way creating a safe area for the deer if conflict arises.

 

This could work but the problem is if the deer would ever use it because if the Bison are always chasing them then they most likely wouldn't want to be in the exhibit with them and would only stay on one side of the barrier

 

I'm creating a night building, Aardvarks are nocturnal and they're rarely actually seen in their enclosure. Blue duikers will move into the old aardvark exhibit

 

I'm going to visit the zoo again next tuesday, I'll look into the safari seperation, haven't noticed it before. I currenlty seperated them into different enclosures. There was supposed to be a bridge over the entire enclosure, they could walk underneath from one side to the other. I currently have it set up so that there's a fence underneath that you can't actually see. To give the illusion that they are actually together.

I do have a similar thing for the chamois and the alpine marmot in the mountain region though. The marmots have a walkthrough section on one side, and a shared enclosure on the other side of a rock wall. Tunnels connect the enclosures that only the marmots can go through

 

Ok so that fits in with most of your mixes but what about the European animals like the eels and bison. Would that also be a new European area

 

I've got a map design you could take a look at, it's not too detailed but it should answer your question

 

Thank you that clears up all of my questions on the expansion

 

I have a question about a mixed enclosure for an aquarium concept I'm working on. Would a mixed enclosure with king penguins, adelie penguins and ringed seals work? Or would it be better to keep the penguins and seals separate?

 

I've seen multiple reports that seals will sometimes **** penguins, so I don't think that's a good idea. I'll see if I can find any info of mixed species enclosures with seals though, maybe something else will work.

Also, ringed seals are from the North pole (Greenland) while king and adelie penguins are from the south pole (Antarctica), so that's a bad idea either way.

https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/EAZA-EAAM-PinnipedGuidelines-approved.pdf (Page 53 - 54)
Apearently they're best suited with other true seals

 

What Garhial said almost all pinnipeds could turn agrresive towards the penguins so keeping them together is probably a bad idea. I know of one aquarium that had to put a wall between their penguin and Sea Lion viewing out of fears the Sea Lions would only focus on the penguins and stress out the penguins.

 

Ah okay then, I'll keep them separate. I wasn't aware that ringed seals were from the North Pole, the exhibit is focused on Antarctic species. Are there any similar seals found in Antarctica?

 

Woudn't the black and rufous elephant shrew be the perfect animal for the old aardvark exhibit ? They would need less space than the duikers (the old exhibit was barely big enough for the aardvarks in my opinion to begin with) And would be a far more intersting species than "another antilope" which left the zoo not long ago.

 

Not any kept in captivity. But like said before, it would be a bad idea. Penguins realy don't benefit from this mixing. They show stressrelated behavior (like avoiding water for example)

 

Any species of seal would be pretty bad for the penguins so I would suggest another species sea bird if you want to add diversity to the exhibit

 

Good point, but it's only 28 cm long, and that's at the max size! I think they'd be even less visible than the aardvark already was.

 

Maybe a western tree hyrax could work? If an aviary net is built over it.

 

It would kinda ruin the idea of the Burgers Bush as a free fligh aviary.

 

That's a good point, but how else could we prevent escapes?

 

I looked at your map. Why did you keept the elephant enclosure? It is a terrible exhibit, and will be replaced after the last elephant dies anyways too. It would be perfect for some medium/large herbivores.