What Zoo Animals will you keep in a ''Micro zoo''?

Neither my thing; unless we should behave-act from conservation point of view.

 

What do you think would be the largest predator you could keep? I think smaller bears and big cats like Jaguars, Cougars, and leopards would be good. And for herbivores, the largest would be something like a Indian rhino in terms of weight and body size

 

I would definitely won't keep lions (and I can't find any obvious difference between Asian lion and African lions). I am in doubt about tiger. Jaguars are very exotic and attractive, also leopards (African, Asians) and would keep them as bigest predator. From bears, maybe sloth bear?
If I could provide huge spacious zoo enclosures for elephants (complex multi-part, at least 15,000 m2), I would love to keep African bush elephant herd and breeding bulls, but they are out of any possibility for a small, micro zoo. From rhinos, I feel greatest attraction to black rhino, and it's different diet from white and Indian rhino (browse).

 

Gorillas would be an obvious no-no, but maybe bonobo? They are smaller... And all other primates could definitely be kept, like mantled Guerzas and for South America there would be tamarins and howler monkeys, spider monkeys, droucoli

 

Well for bears you seem to forget bears like Asiatic blacks, sun bears, and spectacled bears

 

No I have not forgotten them; Sun bears are actually hard to keep and breed successfully in zoos in general. Any new (wild) imports can be just waste of threatened animal. Spectacled bears are awesome (for some reason their face remind me on face of tree kangaroo or sloth ), but also sloth bears. Asiatic black bear - interesting but not as much as sloth bear or spectacled bear.

 

Antelope would be a problem... A lot of the popular ones are large... Maybe the biggest would be bongo or marshbuck... It's not as much of a problem with South America... They have tapirs and deer, and if you've ever been to a zoo with naturalistic enclosures, tapirs don't need much except a pool and obvious care requirements. It's also a struggle to think about what space you'd need for off-show exhibits.

 

Not exhibits per se, but holding areas and warm dens if your exhibits are outdoors

 

Asia is one of the easiest choices during micro zoo building because not all animals are huge and they still have smaller versions of abc speceis

 

I have only saw outdoor and indoor enclosure for Malyan tapirs and the pair Malayan tapirs in Tierpark Hellabrunn (in Munich Germany), but enclosure was not spectacular like with a lot of trees and presenting tropical forest floor habitat.

 

Yes but if climate don't allows keeping animals outdoor much of the time, the indoor places should really be as much as, or even more important (bigger, more complex) than outdoor enclosures. And some medium (intermedium enclosure) to be found between outdoor and indoor enclosure would be so nice and inventive, like with removable roof for allowing direct sun light (and UV) to enter the otherwise indoor enclosure, yet keeping from unfavourable weather conditions when it is in place; the lateral impermeable boundaries of the indoor/outdoor enclosure would keep from noice or disturbance from visitors, unfavourable weather conditions like wind, or even from horizontal spread of infectious agent and horizontal entry of vermins (eg. rodents), in the enclosure.

 

Actually, they can be imported from their native range, just not from the wild:
http://www.zoochat.com/61/coming-soon-125975/ (Posts 9 and 10). Here's an article about that particular import to the Edinburgh Zoo: Sun bears arrive at Edinburgh Zoo - BBC News

True, the breeding is substandard (especially in America, not sure about the situation in Europe) but that's because no serious efforts were made (talking only about America now, as again, I don't know about Europe) until most of the population was too old to breed. I believe both Columbus and San Diego have bred them, but I don't think the birth at Columbus was successful. I don't know if San Diego is trying to breed anymore- the new male wasn't attracted to the female and was in a separate exhibit altogether when I visited. In this thread on post #10 there was supposedly a sun bear cub in this little zoo in Maryland, which has a quite terrible sun bear exhibit.

Interestingly, while the bear TAG recommends phasing out sun bears, some zoos have made investments with new exhibits for them within the last few years. Two in particular are the Saint Louis Zoo and Virginia Zoo.

Exhibit progression at STL Zoo:
Original exhibit: http://www.zoochat.com/602/saint-louis-zoo-2010-first-part-191317/ and http://www.zoochat.com/602/saint-louis-zoo-2010-second-part-191318/
Transition exhibit: http://www.zoochat.com/602/red-panda-exhibit-377897/
New exhibit: http://www.zoochat.com/602/rivers-edge-sun-bear-forest-new-377954/ and http://www.zoochat.com/602/rivers-edge-sun-bear-forest-new-377953/

Virginia Zoo exhibit: http://www.zoochat.com/1052/trail-tiger-sun-bear-exhibit-286664/
The species was new to the zoo, the individuals came from the Woodland Park Zoo. The exhibit pictured was built for binturongs.

Interestingly, the Virginia Zoo relatively recently built another exhibit for a phase-out bear species: http://www.zoochat.com/1052/asiatic-black-bear-exhibit-233390/
The individuals are on loan from the Metro Richmond Zoo.

Granted, all of these could easily convert to a species that is recommended for management, such as sloth bears (or revert back to binturongs in the VA Zoo's case for the first bear exhibit).

To summarize: in my opinion, it wouldn't be impossible to keep sun bears around in the AZA. It'd just need a bit of work and an import or two, from Europe or from the aforementioned rescue center. Sorry if I overloaded your thread a bit with the links!

Edit: on the topic of sun bears, I found this bench hilarious: http://www.zoochat.com/61/sun-bear-tongue-bench-159827/

 

I've decided to base my micro zoo off of the West African / Congo Rainforest, so tommoriw ill start to write it down

 

Thank you jayjds2 for extensive explanation about situation in the US;
In Europe too, sun bears (wich are of Malayan subspecies, and think that those in the US are mainly from Bornean subspecies) are not in big number: In 2008 there were 53 individuals (http://eaza.portal.isis.org/activities/cp/yearbook20072008/30_Bear_TAG.pdf ), and now there are 22 holders of so named nominate subspecies (H. m. malayanus), but it is not a phasing out species as there is EEP for the species, and with new enclosures built for the species (data till 2008).

 

No problem! I enjoy the topic.

In the US I believe we have an almost equal amount of both subspecies. From what I've seen on this website, the same amount of founders was imported for each (can't remember if it was 10 each or 20 each, though I think 20). The population is now slightly skewed towards Bornean because those have bred. I don't know how many bears we have total.

Also, I should mention that while I did argue that sun bears could stay around with some work, I highly doubt they will. Sloth bears are the focus right now and those aren't in the best of positions right now, either.

 

Why aren't they in the best position right now? Out of N.A. Zoos, they seem to have more success than other species. At least, over the last few years. Followed by Andean Bear, with those two having the best successful repro' rates. Polar Bear, have had limited, but seems there are more nuisance/orphaned N.A. Bears rehomed than those birthed.

 

It appears sloth bears are in a better position than I thought. I just glanced through the Bear TAG and a lot more births have occurred than I was aware of. Still, they aren't breeding as much as they need to be.

 

I suppose you're right. Much like any other species, they need collections to take them on, whether breeding or not. It's sad how TAGs and such need to plea for help, in such a collective. It would also be nice if Zoos when building new complexes, added more holding areas inside and out. Rather than spending it elsewhere on the amenitized visitors.

 

So I finalized my plans for the zoo, and have the measurements and such down. Turns out you can fit a good amount in 9 Acres!

 

I think if you had such a small site, though, that getting gibbons past a planning commission would be very hard work.