The ins and outs of mixed-species habitats

Hi everyone, it’s AJ again, one of the members of the Hoofstock Animal Care Team here at Zoo Atlanta! For today’s Keeper Stories,  I wanted to talk to you all about one of my favorite habitats at the Zoo, our mixed-species African Savanna habitat. This habitat is home to two giraffes, Calvin and Lennard; two zebras, Wembe and Imara;  and our queen of the savanna (or so I like to call her), ostrich Purple. Many zoos offer mixed-species habitats for guests to better understand how animals of like regions interact with each other, but managing these habitats is no easy feat. I wanted to briefly describe some of the considerations the Hoofstock Team takes with our African Savanna.

Space. The amount of space a zoo has for a habitat is a deciding factor in whether or not it can house multiple species. Is there enough room for each individual animal to move about freely and naturally? Are there areas for different species to self-separate from other species if they need their own space?  Is the space conducive for natural interaction between the animals? These are all questions that should be considered. Thankfully, Zoo Atlanta’s African Savanna is the perfect size for the animals that call that habitat theirs.

Feeding. Zoo Atlanta takes the health of each animal as a top priority, and a big part of well-rounded health is a proper and balanced diet designed for each species to get the nutrients they need. This can be challenging, however, with mixed-species habitats if each species gets a different diet, as is the case with our giraffes and zebras. The zebras are fed grass hay on the ground in various areas around the habitat, as they are grazers, meaning they eat vegetation from the ground. Giraffes, though, are browsers, which means they eat vegetation growing higher up, like leaves on the trees. So, we have multiple “booms,” cables on a pulley system, that we can hang the giraffes’ browse from and lift it high enough to mimic how giraffes naturally eat. They are also offered alfalfa hay, which has a different nutritional value than the grass hay that the zebras get, so we installed hay feeders along the berm of the savanna habitat to allow the giraffes to have access to alfalfa while the zebras do not. It is important that each animal sticks to their daily feeding plan, and that has to be taken into consideration with mixed-species habitats.

Introductions and monitoring behavior. The first step to having multiple species in the same space is to do multi-day, controlled introductions between each species, so the habitat must be visually accessible from all areas by the care team. For example, when Imara, the Zoo’s female zebra, arrived at Zoo Atlanta, and after her quarantine period, the Hoofstock Team began slow introductions between the zebras and Purple the ostrich on habitat, and they had time to acclimate in that space before we introduced the giraffes to the zebras, and finally all three species together. It’s also important to be able to consistently monitor behavior between animals even after these introductory periods. Zoo Atlanta has had great success with co-habitation of mixed species, but these are still wild animals, and if an issue were to arise, we can easily monitor the habitat and interactions between all individual animals.

As you can see, a lot of consideration goes into mixed-species habitats, but Zoo Atlanta took the time to design and implement all of these aspects into the African Savanna. The Hoofstock Team takes great pride in being able to show you a little piece of the savanna!

AJ T.
Keeper II, Hoofstock