Hi there, in my spare time I have a fantasy zoo that I have on my computer. I always try to keep it as realistic as possible for British zoos but I just have one question. Could Japanese Serow (which I believe were once at Edinburgh Zoo?) be kept with Muntjac Deer? Possibly not the most accurate in terms of geography but I was just wondering before I make any changes! Hope this is not too strange of a question!
It's a rare combination but it's been done before. Los Angeles once had Japanese serows and Reeves's muntjac in the same enclosure but apparently that was a long time ago - at another point it was apparently water deer mixed in instead of muntjac. An AZA document on ungulate mixed species exhibits lists the combination as successful on the basis of Los Angeles's mixing, at any rate: https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...late+TAGs+Mixed-Species+Manual+2017.final.pdf It looks like there are also at least a couple of Southeast Asian zoos that either recently or currently keep other species of serow and muntjac together.
Oh great thank you so much! That looks a really interesting document, I look forward to reading it properly. Thanks also for letting me indulge in my (admittedly sad) hobbie!
I do spend a lot of time thinking up zoos! Are there any more documents like that for European zoo's or other species? It was so interesting. Ive been thinking about writing up a walkthrough my fantasy zoo and then post it on here but im not sure anyone would find it interesting!
I'm sure some people would. People post them here fairly often and there's a whole category for them after all. There are likely similar documents on mixing species for Europe but I'm not sure I'd know where to find them. Digging around on Google turned up the one I shared so maybe the same could work for others.
Where did you come across the AZA document? I'm really enjoying reading it and would like to keep an eye out for a new edition!
Seems like it came from an AZA site focused on their Ungulate TAGs: Mixed Species Resources I'd assume there are at least a few similar documents on related sites but I'm not certain. This is a great site in general though, the ungulate profiles are also worth checking out.
