Animal combinations (for realistic mixed exhibits)

[NachoB]

Hello there!

So i know there a lot of players in here that know a lot about zoo stuff so i thought maybe they can give some insights about realistic animal combinations for the game.

My first question is, how well would okapis fare in a mixed exhibit with bongos and red river hogs? I want to make one for the game, and i know in real life okapis are quite shy so i was wondering if this is realistic at all. Have okapis been mixed in real zoos with any animals?

 

[Cynogale bennettii II]

In terms of okapi, they have been mixed with other species - on one of the lodges at Disney's Animal Kingdom, they live with red river hog, nyala, impala, Thomson's gazelle, waterbuck, steenbok, ankole cattle, Egyptian and spur-winged geese, grey crowned, blue and wattled cranes, Ruppell's vultures and ground hornbills. Only a single female okapi lives in this mix.

Okapi have been mixed more often with smaller animals. Small antelope like duikers and dik-diks work fine, okapi seem perfectly tolerant of birds and at least one zoo in France keeps them in with owl-faced guenons.

I would, however, be rather cautious of mixing okapi with anything larger than a duiker - at another zoo in the USA, a male okapi was killed by a male nyala.

 

[SalamAnders]

You could take some inspiration from Blijdorp's (Rotterdam) okapi enclosure. Make the outdoor mesh-covered enclosure a little bigger with a small lake and then you could house flamingoes with them, in lack of other birds. I imagine that would work in real life. Antwerpen's aviary with African buffalos might also be useful for inspiration here.