Reptile mixed exhibits

Is Toronto’s mata-mata in that exhibit as well? I remember it being signed as being in the enclosure.

 

It passed away on 2021

 

Presently at Chester:
- Western Gaboon Viper (Bitis rhinoceros) + fruit beetles (Mecynorhina ugandensis)

-Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) + tokay geckos (Gekko gecko)

-Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii) + southeastern girdled lizard (Zonosaurus maximus)+ Henkel's leaftailed gecko (Uroplatus henkeli)

-Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii) + southeastern girdled lizard (Zonosaurus maximus) +giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis) + Cuvier's Madagascar swift (Oplurus cuvieri)

-Green crested lizard (Bronchocela cristatella) + Fea's flying frog (Zhangixalus feae)

-Sunda gharial (Tomistoma schlegelli) + painted batagur (Batagur borneoensis) + various small fish

-Hispaniolan giant galliwasp (Caribicus warreni) + mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax)

-Western girdled lizard (Zonosaurus laticaudatus)+ Cuvier's Madagascar swift (Oplurus cuvieri)

-gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) + whitespotted reed frog (Heterixalus alboguttatus) + golden mantella (Mantella aurantiaca)

-Amazon basin emerald tree boa (Corallus batesii) + dyeing poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius 'azureus') + imitator dart frog (Ranitomeya imitator)

-casqueheaded iguana (Laemanctus longipes) + golden poison dart frog (Phyllobates terribilis)

-emerald tree skink (Lamprolepis smaragdina) + cinnamon frog (Nyctixalus pictus) + Bornean rock frog (Staurois parvus) + vampire crab (Geosesarma hagen)

-free-roaming sun skinks (Eutropis multifasciata) and emerald tree skinks (Lamprolepis smaragdina) in Monsoon Forest, including access to the Tomistoma mix mentioned above

-free-roaming Jamaican anoles (Anolis grahami) in the butterfly house, along with Trinidad stream frogs (Mannophryne trinitatis)

 

Ah okay. So it was still on exhibit last time I went (I was last there 2020). Glad I saw it before it’s unfortunate passing.

 

Chester is my local zoo and honestly I haven't actually seen some of these. I always forget the beetles are in with the gaboon vipers and I'm yet to see the tokay geckos or the free-romaning skinks in Monsoon Forest. How up to date is this list by the way? I visited last weekend and don't recall some of these, could be a case of them being unlabelled however but that seems out of the ordinary for Chester.

 

I was racking my brain for all the examples of mixed exhibits including reptiles, all of these mixes are present currently but I may have missed off a couple. Which ones do you not recall seeing?

The skinks in Monsoon Forest just require a lot of luck, though one Eutropis can be seen often through the first Sunda gharial viewing window. A tip for the tokays; look to the large piece of cork bark on the far right hand side of the exhibit.

 

The second mix you listed for Parson's chameleon is one I don't recall, I know the first is in the Tropical Realm but where is the other one? Also I'm sure the golden poison dart frogs were exhibited on their own when I last visited. The others were all there.

Thanks for the advice regarding the skinks and gecko's! I'll make sure to look for next time!

 

The second mix is also in tropical realm, in the former large tuatara exhibit.

Prior to the Laemanctus longipes, the golden poison frogs were mixed with Laemanctus serratus.

 

I recently learned some kind of monitor lizard was briefly kept at Tropic World when the exhibit first opened in the 1980s, but it does not seem they lasted long there - and yes, this was remarked as part of the mixed exhibit with primates and then pachyderms. Have lizards ever been kept alongside mammals in a mix besides this?

Crocodilians were briefly considered at the conceptual stage. I assume those can't be mixed with mammals safely at all?

 

I forgot about the the mix in the former tuatara exhibit! Probably because I hardly see anything in there

 

Some of the mixes in Singapore Zoo include:

• Indian gharial and Burmese roofed turtle
• Chinese alligator and spotted pond turtle
• African spurred tortoise and rhinoceros iguana
• Aldabra giant tortoise and African spurred tortoise
• Caiman lizard, green iguana, mata mata, plumed basilisk, red-footed tortoise, yellow-spotted Amazon turtle with some fish
• Bell's forest dragon, emerald tree monitor, Roti Island snake-necked turtle and Solomon Islands monkey-tailed skink
• Blue speckled tree monitor, New Caledonian giant gecko and yellow-margined box turtle
• Crocodile monitor and painted terrapin
• Chinese three-striped box turtle, common green magpie and mountain peacock-pheasant
• Leopard tortoise and wattled starling

 

Taronga Zoo Sydney has two mixed-species terrariums in it's reptile house, one with Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake and Corn Snake, and the other with River Cooter and Boa Constrictor

 

The River Cooter/Boa Constrictor mix is also connected to an Elongated Tortoise exhibit, which the boas can also access. Before the snakes moved in, there were Philippine Sailfin Lizards which could access both sides. There have been Red Claw Yabbies in here as well in the past.

Other mixed exhibits in Taronga's reptile house include Centralian Python with Central Netted Dragon (formerly also mixed with Night Skink), Olive Python with Murray River Turtle, and a mix of Cunningham Skink, Eastern Blue-tongue and Land Mullet. They previously had Frilled Lizard with Eastern Blue-tongue, Philippine Sailfin Lizard with Saw-shelled Turtle, Eastern Snake-necked Turtle with Murray River Turtle, Australian Scrub Python with Boyd's Forest Dragon, Green Tree Python with White-lipped Tree Frog, and Freshwater Crocodile with Northern Snake-necked Turtle.

Outside of the reptile house, Taronga has a mix of Murray River Turtle with Platypus and Smooth Yabby, and an Eastern Water Dragon in the Wetlands Aviary with Koi and several bird species. The Blue Mountains Bushwalk aviary has Eastern Blue-tongue, Cunningham Skink and Eastern Water Dragon with a large number of bird species as well as Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies. There is also an exhibit in BMB which the birds and water dragons can access that is home to a mix of Murray River Turtle and Eastern Snake-necked Turtle with Platypus, Smooth Yabby and Red Claw Yabby.

 

Ah, I didn't realise the Elongated Tortoise exhibit was connected too!

Ah yeah, I did see these, just forgot about them while making the post. I couldn't find any of the skinks in the mixed skink enclosure, unfortunate as Land Mullet would have been a new species for me.

This seems to be a pretty common mix in my experience (with a variety of tree frog species, not just White-lipped). I've heard the reason it works so well is that Green Tree Pythons are specialists on warm-blooded prey, so they simply do not perceive frogs as food.

 

The reason this mix was discontinued at Taronga was not due to the snake eating the frogs, but rather the frogs trying to swallow the python! Admittedly, it was quite a small individual.

 

The Melbourne Museum has a very large walkthrough exhibit with a cave and a river as well as an astonishing number of species including a Snake-necked turtle, Cunningham's skink, Eastern Blue-tongued skink (separated in a mesh terrarium), Satin Bowerbird, Eastern Whiptail, Red-Browed Finches, Eastern Rosellas, Tawny Frogmouth and many other bird species.

 

Marwell recently opened a new exhibit that features the following sharing an enclosure:

Rock hyrax
Egyptian spiny tailed lizard
Rough scaled plated lizard
Starred agama
Green toad

 

Fort Worth has a few mixed exhibits in MOLA

• Gharial, Fly River Turtles, Painted Terrapins mixed with a variety of southeast asian fish
• Northern Caiman Lizard, Plumed Basilisk, Savannah Side-Necked Turtle, Mata-Mata mixed with Tiger Stingray, Silver Arowana, Black Pacu, Red-Tailed Catfish, Ripsaw Catfish, Tiger Shovelnose Catfish, Redhook Metynnis, and other fish
• West African Dwarf Crocodile and Nile Softshell Turtle mixed with a variety of african fish.

Zoo Miami has one that comes to mind

• Mix of Green Iguana, Central American Wood Turtle, Red-Footed Tortoise with White-Faced Saki, Keel-Billed Toucan, Blue-Crowned Motmot, White-Winged Dove, Yellow-Rumped Cacique, Golden Conure, Grey-Necked Woodrail, Inca Jay, Guira Cuckoo, Golden Lion Tamarin

Generally tortoises and turtles can be found in mixed exhibits in some regularity, quite a few savannah exhibits have African Spur-Thighed Tortoises mixed with hoofstock and Crowned cranes. I have also seen Radiated tortoises exhibited with lemurs. Snakes so far I have only seen exhibited with dart frogs as far as mixed species goes.

 

Snakes and turtles together is not that uncommon here in Europe, and green tree boa’s are commonly kept together with green tree frogs or related species. Snakes with small lizards like gecko’s or anoles is also done sometimes.

 

I haven't seen much interaction between the species.

At first the hyrax seemed to sit on a large rock at the back of the exhibit a lot but more recently they have been a lot more active utiliisng the whole enclosure. I don't know if that was just settling in or initially being wary of their fellow inhabitants.

The lizards seem to keep themselves to themselves. Each species seems to have a preferred area in different parts of the enclosure. I don't know if that is because they are avoiding each other or just that they happen to like different features.