Walkthroughs and free-roamers

What animals have you seen / do you know of that can interact freely with the guests of the park?

This includes walkthrough enclosures, free-roaming animals in domes / greenhouses, and free-roamers in the zoo itself

We have the obvious peafowl that often roam freely in parks. And the common lemur walkthrough. But what are some interesting ones that you didn't expect?

 

I remember that once at south lakes safari zoo, in one of the houses there was an anaconda exhibit with no barriers that meant the visitors could touch the snake, or the snake could touch the visitors. The first time I visited I was so surprised that I thought it wasn’t a real snake

 

That's a very interesting one indeed!

 

Walkthrough aviaries are also extremely common, with all kinds of birds. I've also seen walkthroughs with kangaroos, penguins, flamingos, tortoises, goats, and fruit bats.

 

Tortoises? Really? That's one I've never seen before. Where did you see that one?

 

It's relatively common to see Redfoots mixed in walkthrough aviaries. Surprised you haven't heard of this before.

 

Birds of all kinds, the biggest one I've seen in a walkthrough is an Emu.
When it comes to mammals, the one I enjoyed the most was Hamlyn's monkeys but there are also Barbary macaques and many others that can be exhibited in such exhibits.

 

Free-roaming:

• Guineafowl
• Chickens
• Geese
• Ducks

Walkthroughs:

• Lots of different kinds of birds
• Tortoises
• Duikers
• Kangaroos
• Water dragons
• Tamarins
• Sloths
• Turtles
• Frogs

 

In Jihlava, a few cotton-tops tamarins are allowed to free-roam around their enclosure, they don't go very far but they appeared to be free to leave.

 

Plzen used to have free-roaming tamarins too. But they lost some after stupid visitors fed them cotton candy so the zoo discontinued it.

 

you talk about free roaming birds, but ignore peafowl ?

 

I thought that one was assumed, since they're so common.

 

I already gave peafowl as a common example

 

I’ve heard of a few walk-through enclosures for Deer & Llamas, one zoo even had free-roaming deer.

 

Which one?

 

Not sure if this is the one he was thinking of, but Tamar Otter Park has free-roaming deer. This is alongside free-roaming chickens and peacocks.

 

Whipsnade has both free-ranging Chinese water deer and Reeves' muntjac.

In addition to the deer, there are also free-ranging Bennett's wallaby and mara.

 

Butterflies are another common walkthrough exhibit animal.

 

Jersey Zoo has had various Callitrichids free range over the years, all trained to return to their sheds at night. Wonderful to see Pied and Golden Lion Tamarins in the same tree as wild Red Squirrels.

 

There were free range Peafowl and Red Junglefowl for many years. The latter are long gone, but there may be one Peacock left.
The Tropical Bird Gardens at Rode had various pheasants at full winged liberty. Sacred Ibis were tried, but didn’t stay well. Carolina Wood Ducks were also free flying