I have been wondering for some time, what species have lived in the open multi-species enclosures at SDZSP in the past that have either been phased out or live in seperate enclosures now?
So here is the AZA Ungulate Tag Mixed Species Manual from 2017. It includes a bunch of previous and current mixes of species from the zoo. As well as from other institutions. https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...974de37/1497050667464/AZA+Ungulate+TAGs+Mixed
There were pygmy hippos many years ago in one of the large Africa enclosures. I never saw them and the first time I visited was in 1991, so it has been many years. Apparently the Grevy's zebras were mixed in with other animals, but had to be isolated because of their aggressiveness.
They used to have a fairly large Saiga Antelope heard with over 100 births in their Asian Savvanah. Very impressive for such a fragile species that aren't found in any zoos in America. It worked so well because the Safari Park has a very similar climate to the steppe. They also used to have bonobos next to the open exhibits on a hill. I believe this is the same troop that now resides at the zoo. They used to have Rothschilds Giraffe but now have Reticulated Giraffe. They used to have Persian Onager and Eastern Kiang but they supposedly don't have them anymore. The safari park used to have Asian Elephants and African Elephants but now only have the African species.
Thank you for all the info! But what happened to the saiga antelope, if they were so successful at breeding why were they phased out? Since saiga antelope are so endangered I would have expected more zoos would have wanted to breed them.
I have no idea. I do have some ideas though. Saigas are difficult to manage, many zoos had them before SDZSF but from what I have seen they weren't as successful. Saigas need large spaces to roam and you can't keep very many males together but need lots of females so you need to import and export males constantly. Another problem is that they have high mortality rates, I have no idea if there is a publicly available list of all the births and deaths anywhere but I have a good feeling that it wouldn't look good. The zoo is still involved with programs that help Saiga in the wild so there is a chance they could come back but they wouldn't be on public view because they would be located on the Asian Savvanah.
