Iβve noticed that some zoos put these animals together in the same enclosure, as youβve probably seen from the video where the mandrill slaps the hippo. Why do zoos put these animals together?
Edit: After doing some research I found that zoos do this because:
- They both live in the African tropical rainforest. (although their ranges in the wild do not seem to overlap)
- Pygmy hippos and Mandrills have been successfully put in the same enclosure as other monkey species, zebras, duikers, and other antelope species. More specifically, there are two successful cases of mandrills being put in an enclosure with Pygmy hippos and one successful case involving the closely related drill. However, male Mandrills may show aggression to Pygmy hippos.
- Mixed species exhibits are popular in the US.
Further reading for Pygmy hippo and/or Mandrill mixed exhibits:
https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/BPG-2020/2020-EAZA-Best-Practice-Guidelines-Pygmy-hippo-approved.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230325063_Pygmy_HippopotamusMandriII_exhibit_at_Melbourne_Zoo
http://zoolex.org/gallery/show/428/
https://hbo-kennisbank.nl/resolve/vanhall_larenstein/eyJoIjogImU3Y2IwNzRkYTNhZmQ0ZDUyODdmYmExN2RjMjA3YzhhYmM4NjVlOWExNDdlMThhNzFmZjJmODlmMzNhNjMwZDEiLCAidSI6ICJodHRwczovL3d3dy5ncmVlbmkubmwvd2Vib3BhYy9NZXRhRGF0YUVkaXREb3dubG9hZC5jc3A_ZmlsZT0yOjEyMzIwMDoxIn0=
https://ibream.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Flacke_PhD-Thesis_18-Oct-2016.pdf
https://www.dpz.eu/fileadmin/content/Bibliothek/Downloads/Primate_Report/Primate%20Report%2064%20%282002%29.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-vbFA-s1vs
Its crazy how cute their babies are...I hope Frontier captured their cuteness.
